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Inside Rideau corridor NEWS
Rural women will be receiving government funding to help ensure their physical safety and economic health in rural Canada. – Page 2
COMMUNITY CITY HALL
Residents in the south end of Ottawa could have one more place to pick up last miniute groceries and a tank of gas. – Page 5
SPORTS COMMUNITY
The Manotick Curling Centre hosted the second annual Perky in Pink - Curling for a Cause event last weekend. Curlers raised more than $3,000. – Page 12
strategy invites residents to share what they love Emma Jackson
emma.jackson@metroland.com
EMC news - Parks Canada hosted a series of public workshops in early March to explore what residents along the Rideau Canal love about the world heritage site where they live, work and play. The workshops were part of the Rideau Corridor Landscape Strategy, a multi-year study which includes a landscape character assessment to map and document the cultural, historical, economic and natural significance of the Rideau corridor from Lake Ontario all the way to the Ottawa River. The assessment is primarily meant to help Parks Canada report to UNESCO about the status of its world heritage designation, but it also aims to guide appropriate planning and management of the area in the future. “The purpose of the landscape character assessment is really to consider the landscapes of the Rideau Corridor today, how they came to be, how they may change in the future and to make sure any future development is respectful of the visual qualities and character of the corridor,” said Caroline Marshall, the Dillon Consulting planner leading the research. Merrickville mayor Doug Struthers, who chairs the strategy’s steering committee, stressed the exercise is more than just keeping the world heritage designation. “We’re helping Parks Canada respond to UNESCO, but we’re helping our communities say ‘these are important values. Do we have the tools? Do we enough tools, do we need more tools, do we need different tools?’” said Struthers. “At the end of the day...we have a better idea of what’s
important to our communities.” The first of three public consultations was held at the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority headquarters in Manotick on Tuesday, March 6, and simply asked residents to identify what aspects of the Rideau Corridor are special to them. The approximately 40 residents who attended were invited to place arrows on a map of the Rideau Corridor pointing to places that are culturally, historically, economically and environmentally important to them. Places like Watson’s Mill in Manotick, the migratory bird sanctuary in Merrickville and the waterway itself as a recreational gem were common examples of what people wanted to protect in the future. A Dillon consultant at the meeting estimated that if each attendee identified 10 things they love, and the same number of residents do the same at the other two meetings held in Merrickville and Kingston, the planners would have more than 1,000 examples of what residents love about the Rideau Corridor. Of course, residents are able to provide feedback outside of the workshops as well. The study’s website www. rcls-sacr.ca has comment sheets for download, and residents can also upload photos of their favourite spots to the study’s Flickr.com page. Marshall said comments would be most useful in the next month or so, but they can be collected on an ongoing basis until the assessment is complete at the end of 2012. The feedback is part of the “desktop research” portion of the study, which will transition into field research this summer.
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RIDEAU see page 16
Photo by Emma Jackson
Brian Earl, member of the Rideau Township Historical Society, has been working for three years to restore the Dickinson family monument in Beechwood cemetery.
Historical society to restore Dickinson monument Emma Jackson
emma.jackson@metroland.com
EMC news - A monument to Manotick’s founder Moss Kent Dickinson will finally get the attention it deserves this spring. The Rideau Township Historical Society, along with Dickinson Square Heritage Management Inc. (DSHMI), will restore the crumbling Dickinson family memorial in Beechwood cemetery. Long-time historical society member Brian Earl said he’s been working on the project for three years, ever since he discovered the monument in the old section of the national cemetery in Vanier with a broken pillar lying on the ground beside the otherwise stately structure. The sandstone engravings are also fading quickly, and will likely disappear in the next
50 years, Earl said. As well, the monument is skewed on its based and chipped on one corner, the result of what Earl suspects was a run-in with a wayward mowing machine. “When I saw that, I thought ‘that’s terrible for Moss Kent, the founder of the village.’ And I’ve been working since then to have it restored,” Earl said. He originally wanted to re-engrave the sandstone plaques and restore the actual monument, but Beechwood staff insisted the stone structure is a historic artefact in its own right, and must be preserved as is. Instead, a masonry firm will repair the broken pillar, and the engravings will be copied on a nearby bronze plaque to preserve the information.
PROTECTING see page 3
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