Twin Brooks Committees

COMMUNITY gARDEN CLUB

garden clubThe Garden Committee was well-received at the Twin Brooks barbecue, and enjoyed a continual throng of visitors.  Garden members shared seeds, vegetables, and even plants from their own gardens with other enthusiastic gardeners, as well as information about the upcoming garden.  The community garden is moving forward with the support of some dedicated and committed volunteers who believe in the great potential it has to offer our community, as a place to grow pesticide-free vegetables and flowers, and also to promote community spirit and build friendships with our neighbours.  

We are very excited about our progress thus far!  We are now not far away from officially securing our proposed lot of land, at which point construction can begin.  In this final stage come the exciting tasks of tailoring the final garden design to the space, choosing materials for pathways and borders, and selecting a variety of shrubs, berry bushes, or trees to make the garden a beautiful place to relax and gather, as well as a place to grow things.

We are seeking other volunteers to help with this stage, especially as spring draws near.  If you are interested in helping out, or if you just want a plot of garden to grow your own plants, stay tuned for updates and contact Joyce at 780-988-6262 (joybm41@yahoo.com). 

District and Nature Park Committee

District ParkThis unique park is located at 119 St and Twin Brooks Way abutting Blackmud Creek. This park is recognizable by its many natural hills covered in prairie grasses. It was conceived as a passive nature park. It has retained its natural look as much as possible. Its design facilitates a back to nature experience while providing paths to explore the many hills, trees, bushes, and flowers. and easy access to Blackmud Creek. Access to the Pointe provides an opportunity for a deeper nature experience, reflection, and enjoyment of Whitemud Creek from 4 observation benches. It encourages families to be creative in their natural enjoyment of the park. Biking, kites, sleds, dog walking, tag, hide and seek, jogging, nature appreciation, etc are frequent activities.

This purpose of this committee is to liaise with the City on future development of this park. The primary emphasis has been to keep it as passive and natural as possible. To this end it has none of the usual playground equipment found in most other parks. The very outdated signs will soon be replaced. Discussions on safety are ongoing with the City, Police and Park Rangers.  Several new trees have recently been planted.

South LRT Extension Committee

SLRTThe South LRT Extension refers to the extension of the SLRT from Century Place to the Park and Ride Station at 127 Street and Ellerslie Road.

The route approved by city council involves tunneling under 23rd avenue, then proceeding south along the west side of 111th street, crossing 19th avenue, crossing Black Mud Ravine over an LRT bridge, continuing on the west side of 111th street, crossing 12th avenue and 9th avenue, then veering south west through the TUC and crossing over the Anthony Henday via a new LRT overpass enroute to the Ellerslie LRT station. Preliminary engineering is in progress but construction funding has not been secured yet.

Based primarily on demographics and cost there is no station proposed for Twin Brooks at this time by the project team. However, a preferred location has been identified near the Esso in case future demographics make a Twin Brooks Station feasible.

The SLRT project team is currently focusing on the aesthetics and landscaping of the SLRT Extension. A Stakeholder Information Panel, composed of residents from the communities most affected, has been actively considering preferred finishings for the SLRT Extension. This includes aesthetics and landscaping along the west side of 111th street, the LRT bridge, the new Anthony Henday overpass, and the Ellerslie Park and Ride Station . There is a large selection of attractive finishings to choose from including plant and animal themes, and urban, natural, and wetland themes. This includes sidewalks, lighting, noise walls, bushes, trees,  emergency phones, security cameras etc.. The SIP is advisory to the project team.

Detailed information can be found at: http://www.edmonton.ca/transportation/SLRT_SIPPresentation.pdf

Karan Nikhanj, Committee Member

Hidden Brook Park

Click to view a larger version of this image. Hidden Brook Park at 111 Street is part of the Partners in Parks program through the City of Edmonton.  There are no funds allocated by the city for this park; it is completely community funded.  If no one were to take care of this park, the city would cover all the beds with mulch, and not bother with any of the planters or any upkeep other than trimming the trees when required. 

So many people in Twin Brooks benefit from this beautiful park as they use the walking trails that pass by it.  Our family has certainly benefited while tending the park by being able to spend time as a family and teach our kids about gardening, responsibility, and community spirit. We depend (and really appreciate) on the generous donations of people in the community and the annual BBQ to be able to buy plants and supplies for the park.

There are many things anyone can do to help, such as pulling a few weeds any time you pass by, donating bedding plants, bulbs, or cuttings from your own garden, watering the planters or beds, or help plant in the spring. The toughest thing to keep up with, especially this year, has been the watering, since there is no water source close to the park and it has been quite a dry season.  We haul water from our rain barrels and water the garden by hand, as often as we can.  Anyone with any ideas to help with this problem please let us know.

Questions or suggestions are always welcome and you can contact Laura McConaghy through email at lsmcconaghy@gmail.com, or by phone at 988-7896.

Rink Committee

Ice RinkThe Twin Brooks Rink Committee was formed to thoroughly analyze, research and present on the Ice Rink Construction Project to the Community League Executive.

Our terms of reference include the full evaluation of the community needs via the assessment survey that has been completed. The evaluation will be in regards to rink priorities and related usages. We will be identifying areas of concerns for the residents of Twin Brooks, exploring alternatives available to us as a community as well as presenting budget costing as well as timeline implementation to the executive.

Our activities are objective and factual in nature, and will attempt to meet the needs of Twin Brooks Community as a whole.

Our committee members are:

- Jeff Tarnowski, Project Manager
- Sid Fontoura, Committee Member
- Maureen Varga, Committee Member
- Sharon Tomaras, Committee Member
- Lori Simon, Committee Member
- Karan Nikhanj, ex-officio resource

We meet at the call of the committee lead, about once a month. We are actively looking for Twin Brooks residents that have a desire to see a rink in our community and can offer some research and analytical abilities to our committee. If you would like to volunteer your time, or have ideas to put forward please email us.

Click for more information on the Twin Books Ice Rink Project.