Water challenge solution will flow

WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image 

Exchange District BIZ has found a way to deal with the water woes in Old Market Square.

The Exchange District BIZ has found a solution to the water woes in recently renovated Old Market Square.

Last week, BIZ director Mal Anderson was scrambling to find a source of potable water to service food vendors at the Jazz Winnipeg Festival's closing weekend, which kicks off Friday at the downtown park.

A $600,000 landscaping upgrade that was completed in mid-June left Old Market Square with no drinking water. One of the contractors or engineers on the job accidentally capped off an old tap.

A new permanent water source won't be installed in the square until the second phase of its renovation -- a $1.5 million stage replacement -- gets underway late this summer, Anderson said.

But in the meantime, Jazz Winnipeg and Winnipeg Fringe Festival food vendors will get their aqua from potable-water hoses attached to fire hydrants.

Water from this setup has been tested and found safe to drink, Anderson said.

Glover drops the gloves

St. Boniface is not one big happy family, at least when it comes to politicians.

On Tuesday, St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover contacted the Free Press to complain that St. Boniface Coun. Dan Vandal appeared to have taken some of the credit for making Winakwa Community Centre's $2.63-million expansion a reality.

The previous day, all three levels of government announced a collective $2.4 million contribution toward the expansion, which ranks No. 2 on the city's priority list for community-centre upgrades.

Glover called to say she believes Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz made the funding happen -- and she criticized Vandal for suggesting the mayor was opposed to recreation funding in St. Boniface.

"Mr. Vandal didn't do anything and won't do anything," charged the Conservative MP, claiming the NDP-affiliated Vandal did not return her phone calls about Winakwa so she contacted Katz instead. "I want to give the mayor all the credit he deserves because he's the one who made this possible."

Vandal, to his credit, told the Free Press his earlier remarks about Katz were incorrect.

Glover, however, went on to plead for more civility among politicians at all levels.

"We're supposed to do what's right for voters, not stab each other in the back," said the rookie MP, who recently chastised Parliament for bad behaviour. "We have to change the system."

Not to be outdone, Radisson MLA Bidhu Jha also contacted the Free Press on Tuesday to say the Doer government deserves some of the credit for the Winakwa funding announcement.

Heritage hearing put off

City council's property and development committee has been forced to lay over a public hearing that will determine the fate of the Grain Exchange Annex, an 89-year-old office building on Lombard Avenue.

On Tuesday, the committee was supposed to hear arguments for and against protecting the three-storey structure under heritage legislation.

The city's historic buildings committee says it's a rare downtown example of 1920s architecture, but council's Lord Selkirk-West Kildonan community committee supports the owner's plan to demolish the Annex to make way for a parkade.

The committee did not have quorum on Tuesday, so the hearing is now slated for July 13.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 2, 2009 B2