July 2015 Connections - City of Brandonbrandon.ca/images/pdf/Connections/COBConnectionsJULY15-FINAL.pdfBrandon’s new City Council was elected on October 22, 2014, and got straight

Every summer, you and your family or friends likely get the itch to pack up the car and

head out on the highway to soak in the Manitoba sunshine somewhere other than in

your own backyard. Well, this year, challenge yourself by putting down the car keys

and consider being a “tourist” in your own City instead! Try and visit:

Brandon’s Community Sportsplex, located at 30 Knowlton Drive. The pool is

currently under renovations, but you can still cool down with a public skate, or heat it

up with a racquetball game. Schedules and booking information can be found at

www.thesportsplex.ca. Outside, you can run/walk the outdoor track, then challenge

yourself to a trek or a mountain bike ride up Hanbury Hill.

The Wheat City Golf Course and

Recreation Centre at 3500 McDonald

Avenue, right along the scenic Assiniboine

River. Currently, you can play “The Back 9”, with

the full 18 holes set to open by Aug.1st. Visit

www.wheatcitygolfcourse.ca or phone 204-729-

2177 to book your tee time!

Brandon’s Riverbank Discovery Centre, located along Conservation Drive. This

unique facility is home to Brandon’s Tourism Centre and located in the heart of the

Assiniboine River Corridor. It also houses an Adventure Playground, outdoor fitness

equipment, picnic tables, shelters, and scenic walking pathways—and Brandon’s

Canada Day Celebrations! (More on Canada Day on Page 4)

Kristopher Campbell Memorial Skateboard Plaza, found at 9th St. and Princess

Ave. The streetscape-style park provides an innovative, accessible, and challenging

skate plaza. The plaza also has seating areas, trees, and landscaping that encourage

the public to take in the skateboarding sights.

Brandon General Museum and Archives, located at

19-9th St, in the Downtown Hub. This museum is found in the

historic former Manitoba Telephone Service Building and is

dedicated to the preservation of the City’s history. The

museum is open Monday-Saturday, 10:00am-12:00pm &

1:00pm-5:00pm in June, July and August. Admission is FREE!

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Be a Tourist in Your Own City!

July 2015

The Brandon Municipal Heritage

Advisory Committee (MHAC) is pleased

to be hosting the 14th annual “Doors

Open” event on Saturday, July 18th,

and Sunday, July 19th, 2015. The

event is designed to invite residents

who live in buildings of historical and

architectural significance to open their

doors for the public to visit. “Doors

Open” includes free self-guided tours of

heritage structures throughout the City,

along with narrative guided walking

tours. This year’s walking tour will once

again be led by local historian,

David McConkey, who will take you

back to 1916 on “A Fiery Walk”.

Also new to the list of participating

properties is the Royal Canadian

Artillery Museum in CFB Shilo, which

will be opening the doors of the

Museum’s private warehouse to take

people on tours of never-before seen

artifacts. In addition, free bus tours will

be available and there will be a kick-off

barbeque on the afternoon of Saturday,

July 18th!

Please visit www.heritagebrandon.ca

for more details.

Connections

~CONTINUED~

If FREE music festivals are your thing,

Princess Park in downtown Brandon has

you covered weekly! The City of

Brandon’s Music in the Parks program

runs every Tuesday evening at 7 p.m.

from June 2 – August 18— just bring

your lawn chair or blanket! Also on tap in

Princess Park this summer is the

Summer Lights Concert Series, with

music performance dates on the third

Thursday in June, July and August.

The City of Brandon has many parks boasting paddling pools, spray parks,

fitness equipment, Adventure Playgrounds, fire pits, picnic spots, baseball

diamonds, soccer fields, volleyball courts and much, much more.

A complete schedule of summer programming at our outdoor aquatics facilities

is listed just to the left, while more information on the 60+ parks,

greenspaces, and sport fields in Brandon can be found here.

It’s not just us that like to play in the park—our four-footed friends need their

space as well! The City of Brandon has three off-leash dog parks located

around the city: The Doggy Diamond at 2720 Park Avenue, the East End Paw

Park at 11th Street East & Victoria Avenue East, and the Hanbury Hill Pooch

Park at 600 Braecrest Drive. So, go fetch—but be sure to fetch a bag for your

dog’s business!

Kids need something to do during the summer and one fun-filled option is the

City of Brandon Youth Activity Centres (YACs). The YAC program provides

youth in the community with a fun, safe and healthy way to spend their

summer, while promoting enrichment opportunities in the areas of sports, arts

and culture, cooking and camaraderie. A full list of centre locations and how to

register can be found at www.brandonyouth.ca.

The City of Brandon takes pride in its 50+ kilometres of walking and biking

trails. In particular, we have a 20-kilometre route that circles the city which has

been marked with trail markers spaced 1 kilometre apart. Start your trek at the

Riverbank Discovery Centre and challenge yourself to see how far you can go!

The Brandon In Bloom program makes

Brandon beautiful through initiatives like Adopt-

a-Bed program and the Front Garden

Recognition and Miracle-Gro Garden Contests.

One of Brandon In Bloom’s popular summer

programs is its Open Garden Tours, which will

be held this year on June 18th and 19th in

conjunction with the Doors Open Heritage

Tours. Details are still being finalized, but you

can get updates on garden tour locations here.

See, Brandon? There’s so much to see and do right in your own

backyard! Start your ‘staycation’ now!

The City of Brandon’s

Community Services

Department and the YMCA of

Brandon have, once again,

teamed up to provide outdoor

pool, paddling pool, and spray

park programming for the

summer season!

Entry into spray parks and paddle

pools is FREE; admission fees for

outdoor pools can be found here.

Outdoor Pools ( June 22 to August 30)

Kinsmen Pool ~ 411 Park Street

Keystone Pool ~ 13th Street &

Southern Avenue

(June) Mon—Fri 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.;

Sat & Sun 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.

(July & August) Mon—Sun 12 p.m. to

7 p.m.

Spray Parks (July 2 to September 7)

*12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Canada Day!*

Stanley Park Spray Park

Kin Park Spray Park

Westridge Spray Park

Rideau Park Spray Park

Mon—Sun 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Paddle Pools (July 2 to August 21)

Valleyview ~ 77 Whillier Drive

Mon—Fri 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Riverheights ~ Riverheights Drive

Mon—Thurs 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Kirkcaldy ~ 30 Knowlton Drive

Mon—Fri 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The large drainage project currently underway along Conservation Drive and

Kirkcaldy Drive is certainly a significant one for our City. This $4.4 million project is

part of our larger flood mitigation strategy and will allow for the redirection of storm

water from Brandon’s North Hill that previously travelled to the Assiniboine River

through four separate outfalls to, instead, drain through a single outfall.

The new outfall design is made up of a large, 8-foot square pipe that will carry water

to the river. The design includes an overflow feature for heavy rains that then

directs some water to a nearby retention pond. Following a rain event, the pond is

then gradually pumped dry and made ready for the next rainfall. To accommodate

pumping, the pipe structure contains a pit and a pumping pad where several large

pumps may be located There is also a large gate chamber that can be closed to

prevent river water from backing into the storm sewer.

Much work has already been done, though construction for this project will continue

on three fronts in 2015/2016 - retention pond excavation and dike relocation along

Conservation Drive, work on the outfall and connecting storm sewer, and installation

of numerous sections of storm sewer pipe in the area. The outfall structure is

anticipated to be functionally ready by mid-November, with the final completion of the

project to be in March 2016.

Brandon’s new City Council was

elected on October 22, 2014, and got

straight to work on strategic planning.

The group convened in March 2015

for a two-day retreat at CFB Shilo to

collectively gather our thoughts and

determine a strategic plan to help

guide us for the balance of the 4-year

term and beyond. With the help of a

skilled local facilitator, a very open

process was undertaken to ensure

each member could offer every

suggestion they had. Throughout the

weekend, the process collated and

distilled down the ideas until a

manageable, more focused collection

of 10 priority categories were mutually

agreed upon. They are:

*Keystone Centre governance and

long-term funding

*Water treatment and infrastructure

*Drainage improvements

*Planning for the

continued growth of Brandon

*Downtown revitalization

*Economic prosperity efforts

*Resolving the future of the Wheat

City Golf Course

*Action on rejuvenating our

troubled Recreation Facilities

*Community Inclusion efforts with

respect to seniors, aboriginal op-

portunities and poverty issues

*Financial Stewardship

We’ve titled our strategic plan “Our

Plan, Our City”, and I believe as a

Council, we have crafted a sound,

broadly encompassing, yet

manageable plan that will help guide

our efforts for the next 4 years and

beyond. Read more about “Our Plan,

Our City” here.

Hey, What’s Happening On Kirkcaldy Drive?

BELOW: Positioning the gate chamber in the dike which, once fully installed, can be closed to

prevent river water from backing up into the storm sewer system.

BELOW: The dry retention pond being

developed along Kirkcaldy Drive. The pond is

designed to remain dry until it is needed as an

overflow for heavy rains.

ABOVE: The sections of 8-foot square pipe

that will carry storm water from the North

Hill to the Assiniboine River.

Council Connections

By Mayor Rick Chrest

The City of Brandon and the Brandon

Environment Committee joined forces with the

Global Market this year to host a kickoff to

National Environment Week party on May 30th.

There were over 300 people in attendance

throughout the day taking part in local

entertainment, face painting, fair trade

cupcakes, free compost and tree seedlings, as

well as learning from different environmental

stewards in the community. A huge thanks to all

the sponsors who made the event possible!

Then, on June 2nd, the City of Brandon, in

partnership with the Brandon Environment

Committee, hosted the 3rd annual Brandon

Enviro Expo.

The purpose of the expo is to educate and

empower youth in the Brandon School Division

(Grades 1-6) on environmental issues and

connect what they learn in the classroom to

programs within the community.

This year, 294 students took part, with

interactive workshops presented by local

environmental stewards from the surrounding

area. This year’s keynote address was provided

by Frank Tacan from the Brandon Friendship

Centre. This one-day event has become an

extremely popular event within the school

division – this year’s registration filled up within

4 hours! One participating teacher rated it a

10/10 and it is on her teacher’s favorite thing list.

Oh, Canada Day!

Wednesday, July 1st

Brandon’s Riverbank

Discovery Centre

Join Brandon in celebrating

Canada’s 148th birthday!

Activities are on tap all day,

beginning with a Living Flag

event at 11:30 a.m., and

wrapping up with fireworks

at dusk.

Click here for a full schedule

of programming!

“TLC For Your HRV”

Thursday, July 16th

~5 p.m. to 6 p.m.~

~Brandon Design Studio,

638 Princess Avenue~

Join City of Brandon

Planning & Building Safety

staff at this informational,

interactive session on the

general functions and

maintenance of HRV (Heat

Recovery Ventilation).

Connections Calendar

Connections Contact Info

City of Brandon Corporate Communications

410- 9th Street

Brandon, MB R7A 6A2

P. 204-729-2590

Stay Connected With

Your Community!

Visit the

City of Brandon’s

Online Events

Calendar Here:

http://www.brandon.ca/

calendar-of-events

Connect with the City of Brandon Online

Brandon Celebrates National Environment Week

ABOVE & LEFT: The kickoff celebration

for National Environment Week at

Brandon’s downtown Global Market.

BELOW: Nearly 300 Grade 1-6 students

from the Brandon School Division

participated in this year’s 3rd annual

Enviro Expo!