Concert set up is almost complete.  Public safety is a primary concern, so there are sidewalk closures on North Park, between Cornwallis and Cogswell, as well as the sidewalk on Cogswell Street, running alongside the south side of the Common from North Park to the Central Common crosswalk.

To ease this inconvenience to pedestrians, HRM and Power Promotions have worked to ensure the sidewalk on North Park beside the Common will reopen during the week between the two summer Common concerts – July 27 to the morning of August 3.  This allows a break for pedestrians but ensures that safety measures around set-up traffic will continue to be in place when necessary.  The sidewalk section closure on the Cogswell side of the Common will remain closed through to and including August 10 because of safety concerns regarding the concert wiring through to and around the power box in that area.

To help ease traffic to and from the area before and during the concert, Metro Transit will extend Saturday service on the Alderney Ferry to accommodate concert-goers as follows: 6:30 am – 12:45 am* (every 30 minutes)  Service frequency will be adjusted as needed to meet passenger demand.

Metro Transit will have extra buses on standby to accommodate concert goers on regular conventional bus routes near the Halifax Common.  Bus Routes in proximity to Halifax Common include: 6 Quinpool        7 Robie         18 Universities        80 Sackville

For detailed route maps and schedules, refer to a Riders’ Guide, contact the Call Centre at 490-4000 or visit  www.halifax.ca/metrotransit.

The Country Rockfest 2010 follows quickly on the heels of this weekend’s concert on August 6 and 7.  For more information relating to these major events on the Halifax Common for 2010 go to: www.halifax.ca/EventsOnTheCommon/.

Testing is being conducted to determine if the water is safe for swimming due to the overflow of screened wastewater into the harbour as a result of the heavy rain. Beaches will reopen as soon as the tests indicate that the water is safe for swimming. This temporary closure of the beaches is a precautionary measure that will take place whenever there is a heavy rainfall that increases the flow in the collection system to more than four times the normal wet weather flow.

For up-to-date information on beach conditions, please call the HRM Beach Line at 490-5458 or check the beach page at www.halifax.ca.

For up to date information on beach conditions, please call the HRM Beach Line at 490-5458 or check the HRM website at www.halifax.ca/recreation/beaches.html.

Ticket # 4081808 – Winner of the BUB Bike – Donated by Halifax Cycle Gallery
Ticket #4081456 – Winner of the Gift Certificate to Halifax Cycle Gallery

In a Pay it Forward move, the raffle was generated by the winners of the Bike Rack Design Competition – Momentum Design Team of WHW Architects.  The group turned their prize – a BUB Bike – over to be raffled off to raise funds for sustainable transportation initiatives in HRM.

The raffle raised $500 which will go to the Ecology Action Centre for  projects around sustainable transportation.

HRM thanks all who participated by donating prizes, purchasing tickets, and raising money to help raise awareness for the benefits of cycling in the region.

The Otter Lake Facilities and the HRM Recycling Plant will be closed on Canada Day, Thursday, July 1st, but will be open regular operating hours on Saturday, July 3rd.

The HRM’s residential Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Depot will be closed Saturday, July 3rd, but will be open on Saturday, July 10th from 9 am to 4 pm.

For more information, please visit us online at www.halifax.ca/wrms or call 490-4000.

HRM apologizes in advance for any inconvenience these delays may cause.

HRM wants to thank residents who took part in the first Give Away event and did their part during Environment Week 2010 to find new homes for items that could be reused.  Participants are reminded that items not reclaimed by treasure hunters must be taken in and properly put out during garbage day.  It is a By-Law violation to leave items on the curb after the event unless they can be picked up for garbage the next day.

You can consider donating unwanted items to local charitable groups who recycle such items for fundraising efforts or groups such as the HRM Freecycle Network.  If you feel the items should go in the garbage, wait for the regular collection day and put out at the curb at that time.

For more details on the program or places that might accept your leftover items, visit the HRM website at www.halifax.ca/curbsidegiveaway.

Mayor Kelly introduced the resolution during today’s meeting here of the Big City Mayors´ Caucus (BCMC). In thanking the other mayors for their support, he expressed optimism that both senior governments would share the anticipated financial burden equally with municipalities. “History shows that this country works best when all three levels o government cooperate for the common good,” said Mayor Kelly. “We have enjoyed much goodwill and cooperation lately and I have every confidence this partnership will continue, enabling us to reach a fair solution to the onerous financial burden represented by the new wastewater strategy.”

Mayor Kelly noted that, without a cost-shared funding plan, the new wastewater standards will add more than 10 per cent to Canada’s $123-billion municipal infrastructure deficit and increase water and wastewater charges for hundreds of thousands of households and small businesses, most still recovering from the recession. In HRM alone, the extra cost could run as high as $2 billion.

The new, more stringent wastewater treatment standards were agreed to earlier this year by Ottawa and the provinces. The new regulations also set standards for combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows, which would mean extensive work to bring older parts of Halifax and Dartmouth into compliance.

The support for Mayor Kelly’s call for a continued inter-governmental financial partnership reflected the mood of the delegates attending the Big City Mayors´ Caucus.

According to Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr, chair of the caucus, as the federal government gets closer to ending its two-year Economic Action Plan, it needs a new partnership with municipalities to prevent growing national challenges from turning back recent gains in cities and derailing the country’s long-term economic recovery.

“Ten months from now Ottawa is going to turn off the stimulus taps,” said Mayor Zehr, ”but it needs to expand that underlying partnership so we can solve problems that crisscross political boundaries and affect Canadians living in every single part of the country.”

Mayor Zehr said recent federal investments, including the gas tax transfer, the GST rebate and the Building Canada Fund, are helping municipalities repair some of the damage done to cities by decades of offloading and underinvestment. The stimulus plan delivered a one-time boost to those investments, and more importantly, brought all governments together to fight the recession. “We applaud the government for protecting core investments in our communities from budget cuts, but beyond that Ottawa has gone quiet on its relationship with cities,” said Zehr. “That needs to change.”

Despite recent gains, municipalities are still forced to rely on a broken 19th century property tax system to meet 21st century challenges  – and those challenges are growing.

“Traffic congestion is choking our largest cities, damaging our economy and environment, and hurting the Canadian-brand in the global competition to attract green jobs and investment” said Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay.

“For more and more Canadians, cities are the new social safety net, helping them get to and from work, and find affordable housing, childcare and after school programs” said Toronto Mayor David Miller. “It shouldn’t take an economic crisis to get governments working together to meet these challenges, and we can’t afford to waste any more time working apart.”

The mayors called on all federal parties, and all provincial and territorial governments, to work with municipalities to set clear and measurable policy objectives in areas of shared jurisdiction, beginning at the January, 2011, National Infrastructure Summit in Regina; and to protect and expand investments in these areas as governments reduce their budget deficits.

HRM apologizes in advance for any inconvenience this delay may cause.