WERA General Meeting of May 26, 2015

May 26, 2015: commenced 7:03 p.m.

                                Chair: Elmer Rudolph;      Recorder: Gavin McLeod

                                Number of attendees: 7

1. Approval of minutes of previous meetings: Motion to approve minutes of March 24, 2015. Moved by Joanne Dawe and seconded by Frank Norman.
2. Additional Agenda Items:
3. Our City Neighbourhood Visioning Process 2041: Elmer Rudolph is the appointed representative from the West End Residents’ Association. The next meeting in the process will be mid June. There will be more steps in the process including another workshop and a series of meetings from June to autumn when there will be an open house. The advisory group will work with city staff to formulate an OCP.
4. Residents’ Association Forum: Elmer Rudolph reported on the recent meeting; the main topic was the creation of open access data based on Freedom of information. Citizens of New Westminster will be able to access data including building permits, motor vehicle accidents and utilities, no personal or confidential information will be available: example here: https://data.tol.ca/.
5. Jane’s Walks: Mary Wilson reported on this year’s Jane’s Walks; the walks took place from May 1^st  to May 3^rd; there was a total of 14 walks this year; the weather contributed to a great turnout, New Westminster per capital participation was better than that of Vancouver. The Glenbrook Ravine walk reported a turnout of over 70 people Mary Wilson organized a walk across 10^th ave. into Burnaby and commented on the lack of useable access across 10^th ave between 12^th and 20^th; Mary will be discussing this at the next ActBiped committee meeting. Mary requested a motion from WERA to support her agenda. Mary’s motion follows: Move that WERA support and endorse the proposal that the city be requested to explore the possibility of improved pedestrian access to Burnaby across 10^th avenue by adding an additional crosswalk between 15^th street and 20^th street and making the 15^th street crosswalk more pedestrian friendly. The motion was seconded and passed. Alice Millar commented on a power outage affecting the light at 5^th avenue and Stewardson and inquired about a backup to keep lights active in the event of a power failure.
6. Report on New Westminster High Performance New Home Presentation: Gavin McLeod and Frank Norman reported on the presentation where passive home design was presented as the best alternative for energy conservation, environmental sustainability and comfort. The basic premise is a well designed thermal container with controlled air exchange Europe is the world leader in this technology. The initial cost is greater but operating costs are lower and comfort is much higher, check out: http://www.energysavenewwest.ca/.
7. Report From Community Policing Committee: Gavin Mcleod reported on the latest committee meeting; there has been and increase in break ins to vehicles check out: http://www.nwpolice.org.
8. Neighbourhood Traffic Advisory Committee: Joanne Dawe reported that the latest meeting has been cancelled so nothing to report.

Meeting adjourned at: 8:40 p.m.

Next meeting: Tentatively Tuesday September 22, 2015 at Unity in Action Church from 7pm to 9pm.