Our local gardening group has had an unusually easy beginning this spring season with the Covid outbreak. My spouse Mike and I took over the job of coordinating this group which was so ably done by Winnie Pietrykowski and Brian Ure for the last four years.

At the time of writing this article (April 23, 2020), traffic is calm in Old Ottawa South. There are fewer cars on the road and the Bank Street Canal Bridge has been re-configured to allow more space for pedestrians and cyclists. Isn’t it wonderful! But we are all looking forward to some degree of normalcy returning to our lives and our streets. Unfortunately some of the traffic and safety issues will return as well. In anticipation, the OSCA Traffic and Safety Committee has developed objectives for 2020/21 and on April 21, 2020, these were endorsed by the OSCA Board of Directors, so work will begin.

An unprecedented video-linked joint session of Planning and Agricultural and Rural Affairs committees on the proposed expansion of the urban boundary took place this week. Public delegations were included on zoom, a first for City of Ottawa meetings. Many other residents followed via live-stream.

In the first week of March - which feels like a LOT longer than two months ago - we announced that OSCA will be changing its registration system for Fall registrations to Amilia:

Due to the impact of COVID-19 and the resulting Emergency Orders enacted by the City of Ottawa and Province of Ontario governments, OSCA has postponed until further notice the Annual General Meeting scheduled for May 5, 2020 (notice of which had been published in the April edition of OSCAR).

Residents who live near Windsor Park who wish to submit feedback to the OSCA Working Group considering options for the Windsor Park fieldhouse are reminded to please send their comments by April 30, 2020.

Ever since the Firehall has been closed, OSCA's Executive Committee, the OSCA Board, and OSCA Staff have been working hard behind the scenes to make sure the Association continues to provide some of its essential services and community support. They have also started to make preparations for OSCA's new (operational and financial) reality, now that all City Recreational facilities have been mandated to stay closed until at least June 30th 2020. Below is a brief update of the types of things the Executive Committee and OSCA as a whole have been working on.

The Firehall is closed. Our March Break camps were cancelled, as well as the remainder of our Winter Session Programs. And with the extension of the closure of all of the City’s recreation centres until at least June 30th, we have now also had to cancel our Spring programs. But as we are sure you know, OSCA’s staff have been as busy as ever these past few weeks.

The closure of the Firehall has had a huge impact on all of us and like many, we are all missing the connections that our community space provides. As you have probably seen in the news, the City of Ottawa has announced that all recreation facilities will be closed until at least June 30th, 2020, and this includes the Firehall. One of the consequences of the closure is that we also do not have access to our phone line to answer questions and provide assistance.

Just a quick reminder that we have a separate section of our website dedicated to everything COVID-19 related.