Community input sought for Osborne park

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This article was published 07/05/2018 (3077 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new fixture will be popping up at the corner of Stradbrook Avenue and Osborne Street to get people thinking about what the future may hold for the corner.

The Osborne Village Business Improvement Zone will launch a community consultation on May 12 to solicit ideas from residents and people who frequent the area on what they’d like to see beneath the bell tower.

Stephanie Meilleur, executive director of the Osborne Village BIZ, said a modified shipping container will be placed on the site to invite people to share ideas for the space as the BIZ prepares to launch a $300,000 capital campaign to revamp the site.

The container, which will be painted weekly by local artists, is also the base for the new safety ambassador foot patrol program.

“We’re looking for the community to come out and give us their input on what they want to see in Village square,” Meilleur said. “Do they want to have four-season programming? If so, what kind? Do they want to see live entertainment, a pop-up market, green space?

“We have a collection of ideas that we have but we don’t know if it fits within our community, that’s why we’re engaging with the community,” she said.

One idea floating around the Village is converting the bell tower to an accessible lookout — a place where people can get a bird’s eye view of the community. The idea is to make the space a destination, Meilleur said.

“The lookout tower is the option that we’re looking at for the actual tower itself,” Meilleur said. “It’s not concrete, but it’s close to it. That’s what we would like to turn that structure in to.”

In concert with the consultation, the BIZ will also be launching an apparel line, will announce its first fundraising gala on June 7, a donation program, and a community 50-50 draw running into Canada Day.

The funds raised during the campaign will be directed toward the new square, Meilleur said.

The BIZ hopes to be ready to work on a design plan for the bell tower space by September and will incorporate public feedback into their proposal.

“We’re basically using the summer as a way to consult the community,” Meilleur said. “We’ll have musicians there, maybe a Slurpee machine on Saturdays, and free ice cream on Sundays.

“As the ideas and input will be coming in, we’ll be working with our landscape architect along the way to say, this is what we’re hearing, how do we build it in? And when September comes around, we’ll have a final concept.”

May 12 is also the date for the BIZ’s community cleanup.

“It starts at noon, people can come down, we have garbage bags, pickers, gloves, we’ll have music, a little bit of fun in the Village, and then you can go out to your street or area and help pick up garbage, and when you come back we’ll have a free barbecue and ice cream,” Meilleur said.