Clair Lake

On October 15, 2015, the Clair Lake Citizen’s Task Force held its last meeting. We discussed with the city their efforts last summer to finalize the remediation work. The low greenbelt areas, which experienced flooding, had been filled and reseeded. These areas no longer have big pools of water after the smallest rain. The chicken wire, which was meant to protect the water plants that had been seeded, has been removed and now Mother Nature can take over and fill in some nice water vegetation. The only other item that remains to be addressed is the wet meadow area on the north side of the inlet to the lake. This area does not drain in the required 2 days following a rainfall and encourages people to walk along the muddy bank-a safety hazard from the city’s point of view. Thus, sometime very soon the green mesh will be removed and the lip of mud will also be excavated connecting the wet meadow area to the rest of the lake. With that, all of the work the city had planned will be done and the project will be closed. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the BPHA and all the citizens in the Beechwood neighbourhoods who have supported this project over the years. Every time we needed a crowd, either beside the lake or at a council meeting, you have always been there in large enthusiastic numbers. I would also like to thank the citizen members of the task force, Joan McKinnon, Kay Wentzell, Sheila Brown, Karl Kaufman, Emil Frind and Dick Schnarr, and many others too numerous to mention, who have endured many, many meetings-monthly for several years- since I became involved in 2008 and for several years before that in the case of the individuals named above. This committee has become a model for citizen involvement in City projects (to the degree that a Brazilian professor came to study our group and wrote an academic paper about it!) and that, in large part, is due to the tenacity and drive these individuals exhibited. I would also like to thank the City, the staff that served on the task force over the years and former Mayor Brenda Halloran for having the foresight to form this committee to involve the citizens in the remediation process. So, with that, after 7+ years of chairing this Task Force I am signing off. In the end, we still have Clair Lake as the center point of our neighbourhood, remediated and dredged and any way you look at it, that is a legacy for both our citizenry and the City that will live on into the future. It has been my pleasure to serve you all and I hope to see you beside Clair Lake enjoying the peace and serenity it brings to our community. 

Sincerely, 

Brian Dixon

Chair of The Clair Lake Citizen’s Task Force, Marlowe Drive

Clair Lake Task Force Members