Monday, September 26, 2011

Invitation for 2-hr Hike Around Trails at Kearney Lake

On Friday, October 7, 2011 at 1 o'clock (rain date October 14) join The Halifax West Trails Association for a two hour hike featuring the trails at Kearney Lake, a hike with challenging terrain. We will hike the trail to Charlie's Lake Loop, enjoy the Charlie’s Lake Lookoff and climb to Paddler's Ridge with the reward of seeing Charlie's and Kearney Lakes at your feet from the top. At the edge of Paddler's Ridge, Bob McDonald, chair of the Halifax North West Trails Association, will talk about the watershed area Charlie's and Kearney Lake are part of and talk about HRM's promise of a Regional Park. On the way back to the parking lot, we will complete the Popcorn Island Loop that feature the beauty of Kearney Lake and its woodlands.
Kearney Lake is the home of Maskwa Aquatic Club and the lake is in active use about 10 months of the year by Paddlers from the Club. For more information regarding Maskwa Aquatic Club, go to www.maskwa.ca. Hikers often see National and Canadian champions training on Kearney Lake.

In the spring, hikers enjoy the many wildflowers in bloom, lady slippers, mayflowers, trilliums, pitcher plants and native orchids. In the summer many hikers cool off in the waters of either Lake. In the fall the leaves changing color come to life from the top of Paddler's Ridge. In the winter Maskwa’s Loop and Popcorn Island Loop trails continue to be well traveled and hikers enjoy packed snow to hike on.

Please bring water, food ,sturdy foot wear and be prepared for the steep terrain and uneven ground of these trails.


Meet at the parking lot at Maskwa, 91 Saskatoon Drive.

Kindly email me if you plan to attend, Leaannerose@gmail.com.

See you at the trail head.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Maskwa Presents an Afternoon of Music to support athletes

Maskwa Aquatic Club &
The Carleton Restaurant presents:

An afternoon of music with The Worry Birds

Sunday, October 23 at 1pm
At The Carleton
1685 Argyle Street, Halifax
In support of Maskwa Aquatic Club’s Florida Winter Training Group

Tickets are $20/each/$50 per family
Available by calling The Carleton at 422-6335

www.thecarleton.ca
www.theworrybirds.com

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

A Number of Local Public Meetings

FYI PUBLIC NOTICES:

1) PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING - Case 17082 - Emscote Lands

Monday, Sept 19, 7 p.m.
St. Peter's Anglican Church Hall,
3 Dakin Dr (off Bedford Hwy/KLR intersection).
Case 17082 - Application to enter in to a development agreement to permit a residential development for the Neighbourhood F and Mixed Use Business Campus of Bedford South/Wentworth, an approximately 82 acre (33.2ha) property located between Highway 102 and Bedford Highway, Halifax.

For more information on the application please see link below:

http://www.halifax.ca/planning/Case17082Details.html



2) HRM DISTRICT BOUNDARY REVIEW PROCESS - PUBLIC INPUT

The next steps:

The next step is for HRM to determine the district boundaries based on 16 districts in HRM.

HRM is required to make the final submission on polling district boundaries to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board. The Board will also hold public hearings before making the final decision on the polling district boundaries (not the number of districts - that has already been determined with the decision of the NSUARB).
HRM is holding a number of public information meetings to review the proposed polling district boundaries and receive feedback from the public before making the final submission to the NSUARB.

Public Information Meeting Schedule & link to reports/information/survey.
http://www.halifax.ca/BoundaryReview/index.html

NOTE: Two of six Public meeting sessions are being held in Mainland North and Bedford area, and are included below so residents can provide feedback to HRM. There are significant proposed boundary changes for existing districts. Your input is very important!

You may also provide written submission via clerks@halifax.ca

Wed, Oct 5th, 7 p.m. at Canada Games Centre Community Boardroom, 26 Thomas Raddall Drive off Lacewood Dr, Halifax.

Thurs, Oct 6th, 7 p.m. @ Basinview Drive Community School Cafeteria, 273 Basinview Dr, Bedford

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Free Event at Canada Games Centre to Help Athletes get funding

The 2011-12 Podium Performance Series is about to begin for another year. The fall sessions will focus on helping coaches hone their skills for securing grant and sponsorship funding for themselves, athletes and athletic programs.



Podium Performance Series sessions will takeplace on Wednesdays from 7:00-9:00 p.m., as follows:



October 5th, 2011

November 2nd, 2011

December 7th, 2011

January 11th, 2012

February 8th, 2012

March 7th, 2012

April 4th, 2012



A full description of these sessions will be available at the end of the month at http://cscatlantic.ca/ns-podium-sessions/.



The first session of the series will take place on October 5th from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. in the Community Room of the Canada Games Centre (across from Lifemark Health Centre).Blaise Landry will facilitate this session on learning how to write high quality grant requests. Specifically, Blaise will focus on strategies for selecting appropriate grants for your needs, strategies for getting all the information that you need before you decide to write a grant request, creating budgets and basic dos and don’ts of grant requests. Blaise will share some completed grants for review and discussion.


Blaise Landry has been a Sport Consultant with the Province of Nova Scotia for 26+ years. Prior to that,he served as Executive Director for Wrestling Nova Scotia and Softball Nova Scotia. Blaise has a Bachelor of PhysicalEducation and an MA in Leisure Studies from Dalhousie University. He has been involved in grant assessments and reviews for a number of different programs in the province.



To register for this session, please send an RSVP email to daphne@cscatlantic.ca.


Thanks,
Daphne Pellerin
Executive Assistant
Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic/NCI-Atlantic

26 Thomas Raddall Drive, Suite 166

(Canada Games Centre)

Halifax, NS B3S 0E2

P: 902.425.0942

F: 902.425.5928

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Nationals Update

What a ride! Homeward-bound drama aside (Irene played havoc with some of our travel routes coming back from Welland through New York and Vermont), we had a fantastic showing at Nationals, with many of our more-than 40 Maskwa athletes going head to head with the very best in the country. Maskwa crews made more than 30 finals and of those who made finals, 18 placed in the top five! That's the top five in Canada! Here, in no particular order, are our top finishers:

1. Juvenile Men K-4 1000 (Matt Beaver, Ben Kendall, Nathan McKinnon and Jesse Scott) - 3rd

2. Midget Men C-4 1000 (Matt Coutts, Robin Kendall, Alex Scott and David Webster) - 5th

3. Midget Men K-2 1000 (Robin Kendall/Jacob Steele) - 1st

4. Junior Men K-1 500 (Jessop) - 1st

5. Open Women K-4 200 (Ciara Jerrett, Jillian Steele, Natalie Miller, Alexa Irvin) - 5th

6. Senior Men K-2 1000 (Jessop/Ian Miller) - 5th

7. Juvenile Men K-2 1000 (Matt Beaver/Ben Kendall) - 5th

8. Junior Women K-2 500 (Alexa Irvin/Natalie Miller) - 1st

9. Juvenile Women K-2 500 (Ciara Jerrett/Jillian Steele) - 5th

10. Midget Men K-1 1000 (Jacob Steele) - 4th

11. Senior Women K-2 1000 (Natalie Miller/Alexa Irvin) - 4th

12. Junior Women K-4 500 (Ciara Jerrett/Jill Steele/Natalie Miller/Alexa Irvin) - 1st (and a new Canadian Record)

13. Midget Women War Canoe (C-15) coxed by Chad - 3rd

14. Midget Men C-15 (Coxed by Jordan) - 5th

15. Junior Women K-1 1000 (Alexa Irvin) - 1st

16. Junior Women K-1 1000 (Natalie Miller) - 4th

17. Junior Men K-1 1000 (Andrew Jessop) - 4th

18. Midget Men K-4 1000 (Matt Coutts, Nathan Haley, Robin Kendall & Jacob Steele) - 1st

Congratulations to all of our athletes and to their coaches (Head Coach Chad, Jordan and Pam), whose hard work and dedication has paid off big-time. Some of the athletes have been training twice a day, year round, often in harsh weather, so it's great to see them reap the reward for their efforts.

Congratulations also to Maskwa's Masters paddlers who took part in the CANMAS regatta immediately following the Nationals. The Masters paddlers did Maskwa proud in what was a windy day of competition on the Welland canal.

Maskwa set a goal this year to join the ranks of the top 10 clubs in the country and we succeeded - coming 10th out of 42 teams competing! And the terrific results didn't end there. Maskwa's Midget men came second place in overall points and our Junior women came third overall. The work and dedication of all the athletes, their coaches and all the parents is to be heartily commended.

Given that this was the largest Maskwa contingent we've ever sent to Nationals, you will all agree that it was a huge undertaking to coordinate and for that we owe Mike Haley, our Nationals Coordinator, an enormous bouquet. Bet you didn't realize it would be a full-time job when you signed up, Mike! In fact, without Mike and his smooth-talking skills, we would never have been able to field the Midget and Juvi war canoes, never mind kept things running as smoothly as they did. Special thanks as well to Janet Steele who stepped up to organize the fundraising campaign which covered a significant portion of the club's fees for boat transport, coaching and other club costs. Kudos also to our many parent-chaperones/drivers/meal-makers, who ensured that the athletes made it safely to and from the course and had plenty of fluids and snacks. Wendy Haley, Carol Coutts, Anne Webster, Janet Steele, Sally Campbell, Jackie Hoar and Margaret MacDonell did a fabulous job of looking after the team.

And finally, a shout-out (literally!) to our Maskwa cheering section, featuring the dulcet tones of Wendy (Go-Maskwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa) Haley and her side-kicks Mike, Blair and myself. Let's just say that if the national paddling community didn't know Maskwa before, they sure know who we are now!

Ian Scott
Maskwa Commodore

Road Construction on Kearney Lake

Road Construction - Kearney Lake Road

On Thursday, September 1 and Friday, September 2 (weather permitting) road construction will take place on Kearney Lake Road from Highway 102 to Castle Hill Drive.

During this time there will be lane drops. Motorists should expect delays and are requested to find alternate routes .

HRM apologizes in advance for any inconvenience these delays may cause.