By Ottawa Citizen, June 24, 2016
Ottawa Public Health has issued a do-not-drink advisory for residents of the Lynnwood mobile home park in Edwards, southeast of Ottawa. City of Ottawa water services are not impacted by the advisory, public health says.
Residents within the park are advised to use an alternative water source for all consumption purposes. Boiling tap water will not suffice while the do-not-drink advisory is in effect, public health says.
By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, June 23, 2016
Ottawa’s newest summer festival will be opening up Clarence Street to pedestrians and unlimited patios come July.
“Clarence is the place to be for patios and we wanted to do a festival,” said Lee Wagner, owner of the Steak & Sushi restaurant on the street.
Lee said the group approached the City of Ottawa and the ByWard Market BIA to get permission to close off the street from Dalhousie Street to Parent Avenue for four different weekends in July.
Lee said the plan has been in the works for about a year and a half, but the the concept echoes the advice of urban planning guru Janette Sadik-Khan, who visited the market in April.
By Lucy Scholey, Ottawa Metro News, June 23, 2016
More small restaurants and grocery stores may pop up in urban neighbourhoods, now that the City of Ottawa is overhauling a decades-old parking bylaw.
On Tuesday, the planning committee will debate amendments to a 1960s-era bylaw that requires minimum parking spaces for most developments in the inner urban core.
That current bylaw discourages people from leaving their cars at home and taking transit, a staff report on the new bylaw suggests, which doesn’t make sense if the city is pouring billions of dollars into light rail transit.
By CBC News Ottawa, June 23, 2016
Residents of a mobile home park in the southeast Ottawa village of Edwards are being told not to drink their tap water due to high levels of arsenic.
Ottawa Public Health issued a do not drink advisory for Lynnwood Gardens on Wednesday.
By CBC News Ottawa, June 23, 2016
People in the community of Perth, Ont., are being asked to voluntarily reduce their water use as drought in the Rideau Valley watershed could become "moderately severe" by Sunday.
Flows in the Rideau River are at about 15 per cent of their normal level for this time of year, the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority said in a statement issued Thursday.
By The Editor, Ottawa Citizen, June 22, 2016
City staff propose that Para Transpo expand its services beyond clients with physical disabilities to include those who struggle with mental and developmental issues. This seems public-spirited, but can it be made to work?
Two questions need answering: Can our accessible-transit infrastructure handle extra passengers? And, are there additional safety issues inherent in this expansion?
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, June 23, 2016
The city isn’t guaranteeing that the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Avenue will reopen before North American leaders descend on Ottawa next week for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Closed for more than two weeks after a massive sinkhole opened up on Rideau Street, just to the east of the intersection, the area has been abuzz with round-the-clock activity as workers repair damaged infrastructure and utilities, and finish filling in the five-metre-deep hole. Service has been restored to all affected businesses.
By Aidan Cox, Ottawa Sun, June 21, 2016
A sonar device sounds almost too high-tech to accompany the bells and mirrors usually mounted on a bike’s handle bars.
Ottawa police, however, were using them on their bicycles Thursday to educate drivers about a recently enacted law designed to protect cyclists sharing the road with cars.
“Right now (the sonar device) is set to one metre. When a vehicle passes within that distance, an alarm will go off and Const. (Garth) Faubert will know that they’ve breached that distance,” said Const. Craig Barlow.
By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, June 22, 2016
Ottawa city staff are recommending that Para Transpo service be extended to people with non-physical disabilities for the first time in the 36-year history of the accessible transit service.
It's perhaps the most significant recommendation on a list of proposed changes resulting from a year-long review of who should be eligible to ride Para Transpo, and how riders should book their trips.
By CBC News Ottawa, June 22, 2016
A business in Smiths Falls, Ont., that uses a high-pressure caustic solution to dissolve human remains — and then discharges that fluid into the town's sewer system — is the latest initiative by companies and consumers to find a more environmentally friendly way to handle the bodies of the deceased.
It brings your body back to its natural state," owner Dale Hilton told CBC News. "It's the same way as being buried in the ground, but instead of taking 15, 20 years to disintegrate, it does it in a quicker process. And it's all environmentally friendly."
By Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen, June 21, 2016
There is a pall over the small mall, the evidence growing, east to west.On Monday evening, a modest crowd gathered at the Best Western on Carling Avenue for an open house on the future of Westgate Shopping Centre.
It is, for argument’s sake, the canary in the mine. Opened in 1955, it is the city’s oldest mall and now has 45 stores — but no big “anchor,” like a grocery chain or department store (though the giant Shoppers Drug Mart comes close.)
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, June 22, 2016
OC Transpo will introduce a new fare table built for Ottawa’s LRT era at the beginning of 2017, council decided Wednesday.
It means customers who buy regular adult monthly passes will see a base $6.50 increase, while those who usually buy monthly express passes will see a decrease.
Transpo is ending routes labelled “express.”