Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the community services committee to order. Grimby is situated on treaty land. This land is steeped in the rich history of the first nations such as the Hadawandrank, the Hodnesoni, the Anesnab, including the Missosagas of the Credit First Nation. There are many First Nation, Matei, and Inuit people from across Turtle Island that live and work in Niagara today. The regional municipality of Niagara and Grimsby stands with all indigenous people, past and present, in promoting the wise stewardship of on the lands of which we live. Are there any disclosures of pecuniary or non-puniary interest? Okay, seeing none, moving on to the approval of the agenda. Can I get a mover and a seconder to approve the agenda? Okay. Uh moved by member Brethther, seconded by councelor How. Resolve that the agenda for the May 26, 2026 community services committee meeting be approved. All in favor? Okay. And that's carried. Can I get a mover and a seconder to receive the previous meeting minutes? Moved by member Leairard, seconded by member uh councelor Delavio. Resolve that the April 28th, 2026 community services committee meeting minutes be received. All in favor? Okay. And that's carried. So, we have two presentations tonight. The first is from George Bodner of the Grimsby Green Advisory Committee, who will be providing the advisory committee's end of term presentation. George, if you could please come up to the podium >> uh to the right. >> There we go. Thank you, chair. Um, my name is George Bodner. I am on the Grimsbury advisory committee. Um I have a degree in environmental practices worked in the field taught college in both civil engineering technologies and uh also environmental engineering technologies. So just um as a note the civil engineering technologies are pretty much operations in the town. So a lot of college graduates do come to the municipalities to work. Probably 80 90% of my students did. Um I'm also a certified lead auditor for quality management systems and an in uh have been an independent information technology consultant for too many years. And I only bring that up because that is the um lens that I've applied this um summary of our time together. Excuse me. um our GGAC which is the Grimby green advisory committee uh lay members brought uh a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table and I've been really uh happy and um fortunate to work with all of them. Bruce McKenzie is a living cultural asset and the depth of knowledge and experience that he brought to the table shaped many discussions about our natural assets. Bob, who is here today, is our primary tree champion, pushing for more robust a more robust tree protection bylaw. Uh an increased tree planting to offset the ashevalt desert of the new Peach King Center parking lot. Annette, who is also here today, is a tireless public advocate of true environmental stewardship and is working towards building a healthy, sustainable system. Moren, who I don't believe is here today, uh her ability to build public facing events meant that the GGAC had greater public reach. Travis is also not here today, but he was from uh one of the local conservation authorities, and his technical knowledge was invaluable to our discussions. And John uh John's community reach and passion challenged the rest of us to center on the relevant issues of the projects that we talked about. And of course there's Marilyn who is here today. She worked tirelessly to uh push the town to build sustainability toolkit for a better Grimby. Sorry, I'm just going through a pulmonary situation here. So breathing is a bit difficult. All right. So I'm going to go to slide three. That was our introduction. That's okay. So we can start there. Sure. Um the so this is actually the introduction to the Grimsby Green Advisory Committee. It's been around I think a couple of count terms of council. Um we had a lot on our table on our plates at the table. Um we accomplished very little of that I would think. But if we can move to the next slide. So did we go from slide three to five? Four to five. >> Four to five. Okay. So, our terms of reference that we are supporting climate action plan policies and procedures as requested, conducting a tree giveaway program, supporting the microforest projects, uh community education project, key priorities for future terms of council. Um let's go to slide five, please. I think we've done uh enough of that. We'll move to slide six. So, our accomplishments. Um, I'm actually just going to jump. We I'll deal with this slide right now. It just the order is not um ideal for my presentation, but we did a lot of discussion. We did a lot of um projects on our own. A couple of those are mine. Uh Bob was very instrumental in pushing the tree agenda. the public tree bylaw and we got a tree in we didn't get a tree inventory, the town did a tree inventory, something that we've been looking forward to seeing. Um, and natural assets are very important. Uh, the Grimsburg Green Advisory Committee had very passionate defenders of the town's natural assets and I think we can move on to slide seven. That was slide seven, I'm sorry. go back. Anyways, we'll back up to seven, please. Thank you. And I apologize for uh I didn't put together this deck and I'm just trying to work off it. So, we are fortunate to have very passionate defenders of our natural assets. What are why are natural assets so important? Well, they provide important functions to our town. Most times their value is extremely hard to accurately measure. Even though there is a whole discipline devoted to environmental economics, for example, what is the worth of a tree? A tree econom a market economist would try to determine the dollar value such as how much lumber or fruit it produces is worth. But the current economic models are insufficient in determining value. When you want to think about the value of n natural assets, ask yourself what is your monetary value? The value of a human being. you'll quickly grasp the futility of these lines of inquiry. Natural assets provide intrinsic or built-in values. They're undefinable. In other words, priceless. But just as the economy provides economical capital, the natural assets provide what's called environmental capital. What is the lakefront or the escarment worth to the town of Grimby? These are the kind of assets that we want the town to protect and protect in fundamentally um important ways. Both of these assets being the lakefront or the escarment provide a uniquely identifiable character and affect much of our lives in the town whether we realize it or not. Sadly, the town of Grimby has been lagging in recognizing the importance of these assets and has been playing a bit of catchup with the rest of the Niagara region. The natural asset topic is where the GGAC members really shone. The important skills, knowledge, and leadership brought to the table in these discussions was incredible. We all shared the goal of planting more trees, one of our natural assets, including our council members. I guess this was the least contentious issue before the GGAC, and a common ground between us and town hall. In support of this, the town undertook a tree inventory which I spoke about and that was an important step in assessing the tree stock within public town lands. I personally put together a canopy study which quantified our overall tree canopy coverage. The town later commissioned their own canopy study which I believe presented an overly optimistic representation of the canopy coverage. While the consultant used automated methods to identify canopy from satellite imagery, I used a more reliable research software package with higher resolution imagery. The canopy is well below established acceptable thresholds and most of it is situated in NEC controlled land on the escarment. Many GGAC members collaborate on natural asset management with other organizations and despite much committee time devoted to this topic, we were unable to gain traction on this issue. Even the possibility of grants for the town wasn't enough to convince town hall to develop a more robust management plan. We do not need consultants on this issue. We have enough knowledge in house. We have enough knowledge on the committees that we form. We are always willing to provide high level input to develop a framework through which our regular GGAC through our regular GGAC business and it was outside of our terms of reference. This is an oversight which must be corrected for future councils. We are pleased with the updates to the town's website and recognize the work Jillian has been doing in this area. We recognize the work that went into the tree inventory and wholeheartedly support this initiative, but we're not sure how this important asset will be used and whether there is a plan for the care and maintenance of this data tool in the future. That's where my IT background comes in. It would be unfortunate to see the effort go into a system which decays from neglect, and I hope it becomes a central planning tool for community services, operations, and bylaw enforcement. Similar to the canopy study, we are on number eight now and I think I finally synced up my notes with the slides. I investigated a ground temperature or heat map study of the town. The technology assigns a color gradient to measured ground temperatures. The darker the red color, which doesn't really look like red in this slide, but let's just say the darker the color, uh, the hotter the ground temperature or surface temperature. I overlaid a data set on there of builtup areas, in other words, urban areas in town. And you can see that there is a definite impact of having an urban uh area when it comes to surface temperature. The hottest areas are the biggest roofs with the John Deere facility up to the top left being significant in the image. And just a note that Maryland did reach out to John Deere and received we received positive feedback about this issue. There were discussions on how they might mitigate this to improve their corporate image. When you look at the heat uh map and you look at what the issue is, the sun heats up large expanses of roof. Sometimes climate change mitigation just means a new coat of paint. In other words, if they painted that roof white, that would actually reflect a lot of the heat back up into the atmosphere and out into space. Uh the next impactful roof in town is the 40 Creek Whiskey building and I'm betting there's no shortage of volunteers to visit them and exploring cooperation between the town and the company. One interesting aspect of this type of study is that the temperature fluctuations are not limited to urban areas. You'll see to the south part of the image there with south being down towards the bottom that there are many hot spots in rural areas especially where there is no vegetation to uh absorb the heat of the sun. Um nine please. All right. Uh not only do volunteer our time in town hall but many members put boots on the ground literally getting their hands dirty to make projects happen. Now I have to say something about slide nine and slide 11 which are both pictures of events that um I believe that at least some of these pictures if not all of them aren't actually green Grimby green advisory command committee events. They actually are Annette's Grimby environmental network events. So, I just want to make that clear that this is a way that uh people in the community are working towards um some kind of environmental stewardship of our land here in town. And we can move to slide 10, please. All right. So, this really is the big part of anything a green committee should be doing, I think. So this is the climate change action plan which I'm going to refer to as CCAP. And the GGAC spent much time on individual components of a CCAP listed on this slide. In fact, I don't think there was a meeting that went by where we didn't talk about most of these things. Um, we did discuss, uh, sorry, but some of these items were actually not part of our activities and trying to see which one it is. Sanitary sewer upgrades. Um, we really had no input. That was a a planning or operations thing. The greenhouse gas inventory was not anything we participated in, but we certainly support uh any infrastructural or uh systemic um plans that the town has to increase our climate resilience. Um we did discuss the CCAP document proposal and by far the CCAP uh which again is the climate change action plan um is probably the biggest missed opportunity on this council. The document was delivered at the proverbial 11th hour and was never really given the time and attention it deserves. Okay. I was especially surprised to hear councelor Sherar's glowing summary of it to council. Uh while the lay members of the GGAC are unanimous in agreement that it is a flawed or extremely flawed document. I believe that the C this version of the CCAP is the type of document that one puts out when they want to maintain the status quo. It is purely aspirational. Um let's move to slide 11 please. Here are some more of Annette's activities. Um also with the GJC members participating and we can go to slide 12 now. We did table several motions throughout our history on the GGAC. Um, I think the only ones that really went anywhere were the oak wilt, which was brought up by Bruce McKenzie. Um, and I believe the heritage butternut tree was one that went through. Um, most of the other ones we talked a lot about them, but we really didn't put together any motions. Um, so yes, there was some things that were happening. I'm not sure how much input we actually had into that. So, if we could move to slide 13, please. Um, one of the most rewarding aspects of volunteering on the GJC was the public engagement. We were able to do we were able to put environmental issues to the public in front of uh or on behalf of the town. In these events, I learned that town residents are keenly interested in sustainability, and I believe we do them a disservice if we do not recognize and act on their on these important issues. Uh, if we can move to slide 14, future opportunities, we continue to 15. All right. So, what is the path forward? This is the big question I think because we have a lot of ground to make up just compared to the other municipalities in the Niagara region. We are far behind them. Firstly, the green committee should be a standing committee. Okay. Community services is a big portfolio and not an appropriate place for the green committee. Keeping it as an advisory committee under community services mean it gets lost in all the other business. I found myself wondering why we spent so much valuable time discussing inconsequential details about planting a few trees or installing a couple of bicycle lock stands. Our terms of reference, both original and reconstituted, limited any meaningful discussion, and we felt that anything we did died at community services. Being characterized as a make work exercise clearly indicated staff's attitude towards the committee. Furthermore, future GGAC's and councils should have more public interfaces. Expanding the public facing events requires minimal budgetary commitments and builds stronger relationships between town hall and public. Definitely continue and expand the tree giveaway. It is free labor to expand the town's coverage, canopy coverage, and everything we do that to address this will help the town in the next 50 to 100 years. It would be helpful to have some kind of follow-up or public involvement to promote actual tree planting and make sure those trees that we give away actually get into the ground. Perhaps social media campaigns where residents can show off their progress as they as the trees mature uh would help establish those kind of ideas in order to meet and this is I think an important and sobering fact. In order to meet the accepted canopy coverage, which is 30%, that is ideal for health, social be well-being, etc., we would need about a million trees and approximately 3,000 acres of land. That was a calculation that I did on the canopy study. We can celebrate incremental successes by planting these trees, but let's keep it in perspective. Given the numbers, the ideal canopy coverage target of 30% will never happen in my lifetime. And we need to look for alternative solutions which provide similar environmental capital benefits. We can and should convert infrastructure to non-carbon-driven systems. But I feel that this is a small part of climate change adaptation. We need real systemic change in the way the town conducts business. Sustainability is defined as the ability to carry out something indefinitely and I stress that indefinitely. And it is a pay now or pay later proposition. It always costs more to pay later. For example, we need an immediate update to the town's engineering standards. Much of our town is built to accommodate 5-year storms. That means that we statistically would get one of these storms every five years. However, we've had five five-year storms last year alone. And we seem to be getting between five and 10 100year storms every decade. We will staff where will staff and council be to answer the Grimsby home owners when we eventually get the storm event that floods residents basement. Consider the cost of that alone. This can and should be done by town staff and not rely on expensive consultants. It requires informal collaboration with other municipalities. In a similar vein, much of the money spent on consultants to develop natural inventories and strategies can also be done in-house in collaboration with other municipalities. Most neighboring municipalities have more robust strategies than Grimsby and in my experience, they are more than willing to share the provide assistance. I mentioned earlier that sustainability is the ability to carry out an activity indefinitely. The reality is that the sustainability ship has sailed. We are now left. We have put it off too long and we now have to focus on resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from future from major shocks. We need to build private and public resilience tools before something really bad happens. Hurricane Hazel hit our area in 1954 and at that time required $135 million to clean up. This cost doesn't include the 800 military personnel deployed or the 81 deaths. nor does it include the millions of dollars to purchase the properties in flood planes, ensuring that people do not live in flood susceptible areas. Our excellent system of conservation authorities was created as a direct result of Hurricane Hazel and incidentally is now being dismantled by Queens Park. The lesson from Hurricane Hazel is that like most disasters, a series of smaller contributing factors produced an extraordinary impact. Failure to put an effective plan in place is extremely costly in the long run. Resilience planning involves a comprehensive risk analysis that the CCAP totally avoided. Hurricane Sandy is an example of not doing a deep risk analysis. Because of the storm impacts, the city of New York and the state of New York required billions to cover the damages. Seemingly simple factors like interruptions to power and communication networks can have deep impacts both on the town residents lives and economic prosperity. I was a Red Cross volunteer during the ice storm of 2013. >> U Mr. Bodner, sorry. I got one more page. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Uh and the biggest demand was for an electrical outlet to charge a cell phone. That was also the year that Toronto experienced intense flooding with water snakes entering submerged GO trains full of passengers. This is why we need a proper CCAP built with actual best practices. A true risk analysis may look mundane on the surface, but when fail in multiple ways produces catastrophic results. Incidentally, this is the type of risk analysis that would strengthen the town for any adverse incident, whether climate change related or not. To those who say the town can't afford this, I say this. The money spent on a proper CCIP would have laid the groundwork for a fundamental plan rather than an aspirational plan. A functional CCIP is prescriptive. It lays out a clear framework with achievable milestones uh which increases the resilience of all our systems and god forbid in the event of a catastrophic event provides council, town staff, first responders and community officers with a plan to put feet on the ground in the shortest possible time. I too am a taxpayer and want value for my money. I'm keenly aware of the tax burden put on families. However, done right, a CCAP would provide effective and agile system and a framework to achieve real goals in um in climate change mitigation and act as a quality management system. Best practices requires a commitment to continuous improvement which makes the town lean. I have one final word about addressing the politics of climate change. It is not and should not be political. In fact, in reality, climate change is politically neutral. People on both the left and the right now are prepping for possible disasters. Everyone, regardless of political leaning, can see that climate change is happening. Hunters, fishers, farmers, gardeners, and everybody else with a connection to the land are seeing a change. We have frequent sustained intense winds now that we never had before. We've had snow in the past, snow in April. We've had hurricane haze in the 50s. We've had a big snowstorm, I believe, in 77. But we are not, we have never seen what we see now in climate. As the current GGAC wines down, I hope that future councils recognize the importance of these issues and the role that the green committee can play. And I believe there's one more slide with all our names. And I do take issue because we agreed that uh our names would be in alphabetical order there putting Bodner on top of course. >> Anyway, >> thank you very much for your presentation. >> Uh do we have any questions or comments from the committee? Councelor Flavio. >> Thank you, Chair through you to Mr. Bodner. Thank you for your presentation. There's a lot to think about there obviously and a lot to consider. Um, you talked about neighboring municipalities doing things differently and you know, you piqu my interest there. So, I guess and if I don't want to put you on the spot, but you you brought it up in your presentation. Um, are there do you have examples of best practices that are being done in other Niagara municipalities that we should consider because the whole point of your presentation is what should we do going forward, right? So, so do you have some examples of those best practices that you can give us or use as examples so that we can say, "Hey, next term, let's make sure that we look at this." Sure. Um, I think a proper climate change action plan would be appropriate because the one that is in there now has no let let me give you an example. For 30 years, the pro province of Saskatchewan had an environmental protection act with no regulations under it. That means there is nothing in that act that's enforceable. As you may know from provincial law, it is the regulations that hold the rules. I see this climate change plan as that. So other municipalities and I would say unanimously I believe have already done a lot of the natural asset stewardship tasks like taking the inventory um and having some kind of climate action plan. We were just looking at examples of one of the neighboring uh official plans where they built micro forests or tree forests into it. So yeah, the by every single metric Grimby is behind all of Niagara municipalities. >> Thank you through through you chair. I I'll I think it's definitely something again because some of a lot of the things you're talking about and you talk about the umbrella of community services um are public works for example not community services because community services deals with you know a lot of our building infrastructure and uh parks and things like that but it doesn't deal with for example uh street trees you know um that's done through public works so perhaps public works might be a more appropriate place for this to go or uh definitely there should be some sort of relationship between the public works department and that that committee however that looks because a lot of what you're talking about is through the public works committee. So I would I would agree with you know the especially the inventorying and and uh replacement and uh long-term uh maintenance of of public trees. definitely something that the public works department would be responsible for. So, it definitely should be probably through that department. Uh I am concerned about what you said about 5-year storm planning because uh to to make it clear, you know, I've been on public works for 15 years, 16 years, something like that. Um there are different levels of planning for different types of storms, right? So, you know, there are 100red-year storm ponds depending on the the plan for the neighborhood. Uh there it's so saying that the town is bu built on a five-year plan. Now I agree with what you're saying about the fact that we're seeing those fiveyear storms and 50-year storms and 100redyear storms every two or three years every 5 years now rather than every hundred years. But the planning is based on what we're required to do. And so you know we've had numerous developments planned over the last 25 years. Let's say when a new development is planned, the storm water management for that development needs to be based on a 100red-year storm to to deal with all the water from that one development. Now, if there are existing older developments that weren't built based on that plan, I can think of a couple down by the lake that were built in the 50s and 60s that would have had a different standard with ditches, surface drainage, a lot, you know, it dealt with differently. Um, but saying that we have a 5-year plan is not really accurate in in in my humble opinion. I I I I've seen hundred-year plans in place in multiple neighborhoods, new developments throughout the municipality. I can think of half a dozen large storm water management ponds that we have that again, like you said, fill up a lot more than we thought they would. you know, where we thought that a park, for example, that could be both storm water management and park because it's a 100-year storm site where it's not going to have water in it for a very long time, has water in it all year long. I can think of one site like that. You know, that being said, it was done based on what we knew from an engineering perspective at the time on best practices and the 100red-year standard is one that is used throughout the town where we need to use it. There are engineering standards set by the province that make sure that we do those things. A lot of what you agree what you're saying with saying I agree with completely. I I want to make that clear. But there are a couple of things that that I think are are not 100% accurate and I think we need to we need to but I do like your list of to-dos and I think that having a very clear list of the whole point of this thing for us from for every one of these committees is to say what can we do better going forward right uh we had four-year period with no committees we had a period where you know due to the pandemic there were very little in-person participation of things. So, let's learn from this. Let's learn from all the things that you're saying here, and let's make it better next time around. So, I agree with all you're saying. Your list is good, but it's not in the presentation. It was mostly what you said verbally because I didn't see a lot of those to-dos in the presentation. So, let's get those in writing. Let's make sure that those the next term of council, the next term of that committee has that as a to-do list to check off. the the things that are doable obviously the things that are a little bit harder we need to to find the right path for those but thank you for your presentation I didn't mean to like I hope it didn't come across as an attack I just like we're we're having a discussion I appreciate everything you've done your committee has done but I do take like I haven't through my experience have seen the good sides >> sure >> but there are definitely things we can improve on there there's no doubt about that >> I just through your chair I'd just like to address a couple of the issues you said especially about the storm uh planning that 5-year did come straight from planning department number one and there are different levels of the the IDF application. IDF is the intensity dur uh duration and frequency of storms that is the tool that is used to de to uh determine how much water would fall in any particular storm. And most of the areas, five five the five-year areas are the lowest like you would find in uh a subdivision that might not be as prone to flooding. Uh because getting it wrong is that's what it is. It's flooding. Once the ground can't absorb any more water or once the water cannot be conveyed where it's supposed to be, it goes overland into people's basement. That's the problem. It affects infrastructure. So, the five-year plan is in or the five-year storm uh planning is in place in some areas. It there it's not townwide. That's not the way that the the storm planning works. There are areas like you say that have the storm retention ponds, but it still is there and that minimum should be brought up wherever that is applied. That is not adequate. And the other thing is that most municipalities in Ontario are not staying at the 5-year uh storm planning. And a lawyer friend once told me that if you are no lawyer ever comes and says how do I meet the minimum requirements of the law. The minimum requirements of the law are not the moral standard to hold ourselves to and they're not an effective planning standard to hold ourselves to. We need more robust planning because eventually we are getting more rain. We are getting more winds. This will affect the residents of this town. Do we have any do we have any other questions or comments? Okay. So, I will go next. Uh I would just piggyback off councelor DeFlavio. Um I definitely would like to see a list something that is simplified because I re really appreciate the um the work that you've all done and all of the expertise because that is way above you know what I I am you know my wheelhouse. So, um if you could prepare a list and you could simplify it as much as possible um for a lay person um and also to like councelor Favio had said um if we could really think about the needs the the big items that we need to address right away um and then the simpler ones but keeping in mind like I feel like the planting of trees is is pretty inexpensive and we have >> we should agree I we should continue Yes. Sorry to interrupt you. >> No. So, so that I think is something that we can do. Um, obviously there's there's pressures with development that are never going to go away. So, we have to keep that in mind. Um, financial pressures as well. So, we have to be realistic. Um, I'm on board with doing whatever we absolutely can do and that we would have agreement from the province and from our our Grimsby people for sure. Um, so I'm on board. But if if we could somehow get better communication as far as what our next steps are, I think that would be great because I feel like there was a little bit of a filter. So, um I was surprised by some of the comments. I I like Frank talk. So, personally, I was not offended. I appreciate that that you were clear on that stuff. Um but I would like to get something in writing so that we can if you know for the next council even just >> I will I will happily provide a document to you. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um a few things as well. Um, when you were talking about the roofs that I was thinking today, I actually took some pictures of the Canada Games roof um at Brock University. It's uh it's a green roof. What if like is that is that something that is very cost-effective? Like is that something that we could apply and it would have a significant benefit? >> I taught a lot of green roof technology. In fact, I taught a course in college where you had to do a college thesis and probably every third person in the engineering technology department did a green roof. So, it's definitely something I'm very familiar with. Um, it works really well and not only does it uh insulate the building from the sunlight, but it usually provides habitat for much needed insects. Last year, the insects just seem to have disappeared. And as Albert Einstein said, if we lose our bees, we lose our food. So, I am 100% on board for green roofs. I think they're a great thing. They have some considerations under the building code because they have the loadbearing obviously has to be greater than a regular roof. There was a requirement in some municipalities up until the current administration in uh Queens Park that roofs of a certain size had to have 20% green roofs. That is gone now, unfortunately. But it doesn't mean they can't be done. Green roofs are an excellent source. I mean there are hotels in major cities that are keeping bees on greens green roofs so that they can actually provide like honey for their chefs and like there are so many benefits. The more green we can get in the better because we have to reflect more sunlight back into space. That's the key goal. Uh we don't know how to decarbonize air. So the heat that's coming in we just have to get rid of as quick as possible. And a big black ash faults parking lot is not it it heats up it converts those visible light into infrared which just makes things worse. The more we can do that way the better. >> And financially like is that is there a big cost to that? And also have you heard of of corporations going you know splitting expenses or a partnership in that in that way? >> Sure. There used to be a lot of grants available for that. Um it is a bit more expensive obviously but when it's done right it's not as expensive as you would think because the when you select the proper vegetation like sedum is a local uh indigenous plant that grows I mean I have it on my property and even in the height of the August hot weather nothing kills it. So there are a lot of um vegetation species that really work well and if you can get it to a point and it's maintained and I by maintenance I mean just the gardening aspect of it um it's really doesn't add a lot of ongoing operational costs. >> That's something to consider. So I appreciate that. Um a few other things to add here. Um the grants I I I'm in agreement I think we need to access grants. Um I I was at FCM and it it sounded like there's an abundance for for trees which are great. So that's something I would like to see. I think we we could access that. Um another thing um I think we need to get more youth on board. And I've said this, you know, to Annette, I've said this to a few people. I think we we when we do these tree plantings um and it's you know I think this is something the responsibility of the town um just in general to get the word out and maybe have events where we're starting to educate the elementary school children right cuz I know it's a little harder when you get to high school and they you know they may have other things that I feel like we need to go younger maybe and and and make it something that they understand and where where they'll Yeah, we're never going to get three million trees. I'm not >> that I don't believe that. But these events like I worked I volunteered at the tree giveaway with Jillian >> and they are great interface between town hall like they people want to see that town hall is doing something council is doing something. We're in election year, right? These are things where the public sees action even though we're never going to meet the 30% target that way. They're extremely good events. uh the visibility of them really is does a lot for the town. >> Okay. So, I just my last comment, I I I feel like this is an easy thing to do. I feel like that we have so much buy in from the community on a lot of these things and um if we have more of these tree plantings, I feel like the these are things that we could do. So, again, if we could somehow incorporate the elementary schools and uh the education piece, I think that would go >> It's the youth that are inheriting our world that we're leaving them. >> Exactly. So, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Um, any final questions before we move on? No. Okay. Can I get a mover and a seconder to receive the presentation? Moved by a member uh member breather, seconded by councelor How resolved that the delegation from George Bodner regarding the Grimsby Green Advisory Committee end of term presentation be received for information. All in favor? Okay. And that is carried. All right. Our second presentation is from Leanne Wallace and Diana Lzinski of the Age Friendly Advisory Committee who will be providing that um the committee's end of term presentation as well. U but first they will receive a brief introduction from Olga McNeel, chair of the committee. Olga, Leanne, and Diana, please come to the podium. And again, there's a button on the right hand side that you'll need to press. Good evening, Chair Sherwa, members of the committee, and members of the public. My name is Olga McNeel, and it's my pleasure to be here today as chair of the age friendly advisory committee. On behalf of the committee, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce two of our um dedicated members, Leanne Wallace and Diane Lassinski. They will be sharing with you our end of term presentation which details not only the success of the advisory committee over the term of council but some future opportunities for next term as well. Leanne and Diane will outline the work we've done, the partnerships we've built, as well as feedback we've gathered from the community. They will also highlight some of our key achievements and our future opportunities for the next age friendly advisory committee. I look forward to their presentation and encourage you to ask any questions you may have. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Diane. Leanne. >> Good evening. Uh that that photo uh was one of our first uh events that we did together. Um the uh official uh raising of the flag on October 1st um for the international day of the older person. So um next slide. Before we start, uh I would uh like to begin by allowing our committee to acknowledge the sudden passing in 2025 of a valued friend and an active member of our age friendly committee, our 55 plus active living club advisory committee uh as our publicity convenor and a founding member of the age friendly Niagara Council, Karine Wilson. We miss you, Karine. Next slide, please. So, uh, we're going to go through, um, the, um, the agenda and and starting, um, it gives me great deal of pride to stand before you tonight with Diana to present our final report uh, for the age friendly committee for this term. Tonight's agenda includes a brief introduction about age friendly accomplishments of our inaugural age friendly committee in its first three years future age friendly opportunities and closing remarks and an opportunity for questions and answers. Next slide please. Next slide. Okay. Uh as an introduction, uh Grimby is one of 12 municipalities in the Niagara region to join the global age friendly movement and we are an active participant um in the region's Niagara Older Adult Alliance. Our current membership consists of Mayor Jordan and five citizens who live in Grimby. Olga McNeel, who you've met as our chair, myself, Adrienne Brown, Diana Lzinski, and D and Janice Eggman. We also are extremely grateful for the staff support from the clerk, Noah. And we wish to acknow Excuse me. We wish to acknowledge special recognition and a big shout out to Christa Bowie, recreation supervisor, for her contagious energy and resourcefulness to support the efforts of both the age friendly and the 55 plus active living club advisory committees through successful financial grants and relevant program opportunities that Diana will expand on shortly. Thank you. And one of the the images that you just saw was uh one of our events a year ago uh it's hard to believe a year ago uh at Centennial Park when we were uh officially uh launching the wind phone but we'll you'll hear a little bit more about that. Our age friendly committee started work in June of 2023 and we embraced the prescribed terms of reference and followed the mandate to establish goals and a work plan during the term all through an age friendly lens. Can we um put the slide forward one more? Another one. Thank you. Uh, thank you to the community services committee for the opportunity to tell you and our community about Grimby's dynamic age friendly committee. This is valuable information for council and our hope is that you keep our presentation for your reference. With an aging population worldwide, the United Nations created a resolution focusing on older adults in 1991. In response, the World Health Organization, the WHO, initiated the age friendly movements in cities and towns around the world, aiming for successful and integrated aging of its residents. In 2002, the WHO created the active aging framework consisting of eight domains. The committee community and health care, transportation, housing, outdoor spaces and building, social participation, respect and social inclusion, communication and information, civic participation, and employment. And that's why we're here. Can you pop it forward, Noah? Thank you. One more. Thank you. The information highlighted on this slide shows a strong dedication to Grimby becoming progressively more age friendly and that's our committee's brochure that we use often um in promoting our committee. So, some examples are um Grimby hosted uh Noah being the Niagara Older Adults Alliance conference this past April at the new major refrigeration Peach King Center. It's worth noting that Grimby has a voice at the Noah table as well. The conference included over 80 guests from Niagara area age friendly committees along with several amazing keynote speakers. There have been two community surveys on the Grimby um website focusing on older adults. The results highlighted three key priority areas. These are helpful focus areas moving forward and I think Leanne will touch on that after me. Um Grimby hosted an active living fair back in March. Noah, can you just go one forward and see if we have the pictures? Yes, those are older pictures, not from um this year, but it's the third year that Grimby's uh age friendly committee has hosted. And this year, we were using the full gymnasium at the major refrigeration Peach King Center. And again, another huge success. We had approximately eight uh sorry 500 attendees and 60 plus community partners with display tables and information to share with the attendees. There was an overwhelming and positive response from Grimby residents and from seniors beyond our borders to this event. Judging from the feedback forms, it's no surprise that Grimby's age friendly events are setting a new standard for hosting regional conferences. Age friendly events and initiatives are funded through supportive grants from related stakeholders and provincial initiatives. Huge thanks to staff for writing for various funding opportunities, not to mention their organization and logistics in support of these events benefiting older adults in our community. These major agefriendly events receive many, many compliments on the event itself, as well as many kudos regarding our new major refrigeration Peach King Center with all its amenities and programs. Can you go As you can see from this slide, there is no lack of activity and success in our initiatives or our accomplishments. For example, a windphone was installed along with a railing at Centennial Park last year. As you saw by the photo, it's a disconnected telephone placed in a quiet outdoor setting that allows grieving people to symbolically call and speak to deceased loved ones. Social prescribing is when health care providers recommend community activities instead of medical treatment to improve the well-being with a plan and support options. The goal is to refer and integrate into the 55 plus programming. In June 25 and March 26, we hosted two cognicity clinics. This highlighted community interest in cognitive health and well-being and in partnership with Bayest. Again, you know, these are huge opportunities that our community seems to really um be very interested in. Another big highlight was the town of Grimby received a province of Ontario age friendly community recognition award that was presented to Mayor Jordan in Toronto on January 18th of this year. Lean next slide please. More of the wind phone. Okay, next slide. Okay. So, our committee is very proud of the work we achieved since June of 2023. We still have much work to complete. Um, and we have many more ideas and initiatives that we recommend for the town's age friendly movement going forward. to highlight a few. We'd like to recommend continuing age friendly programs and completion of reporting in order to retain our WHO designation. We've heard through uh other municipalities that you just can't take for granted that you are a a designated age uh sorry age friendly community through the World Health Organization. you can lose the designation and have to start the application all over again. We recommend enhancing public awareness of actually what is age friendly through branding and updating the town's website, social media platforms to showcase the work of the committee and all its volunteers. Developing a professional slide deck would ensure that our committee can increase awareness to the community and local organizations such as the art gallery and the chamber of commerce. continue promoting the need for intergenerational programs, partnering with the 55 plus active living club, formerly known as the seniors club, and the downtown Grimby BIA to establish an agefriendly recognition program for businesses to benefit older adults. Other opportunities for collaboration include partnering with local education institutions with relevant gerontology programs and initiatives through research and data relevant to the industry of aging such as the newest trends called NORCs naturally occurring retirement communities. the other municipalities in Niagara are um already doing their research and combating social isolation and loneliness. Uh that was one of our um focuses over the past three years and there's still much to be done. Finally, the area that we really want to see evolve in the very near future is volunteer development through a formal program for volunteer recruitment retention, which is sadly lacking for the town of Grimby. a dedicated program and staff could launch and sustain programs such such as social prescribing and partnerships with other organizations with age friendly programs. Next slide please. So in closing, the past three years have been rewarding for all the members of our age friendly committee and we believe the committee as a whole. Thank you for listening and we can address any questions you may have and I know you will. >> Thank you very much for your presentation. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? >> I figured councelor Flavio >> I was going to let I I waited. Um thank you for your presentation. Uh great information in there. um on part of your who we are on the the pamphlet that that we received uh it talks about um ensuring that Grimsby remains inclusive, accessible um and talks about facilities and uh one of the big transitions that occurred over this last term of council was from the old Livingston activity center to the major refrigeration peach king center. So if I was hoping you could speak more about the impact that's had. Now I know I'm there for other activities and it's nice to see the groups the seniors groups whether it's the musicians or the card players or all the other groups and I know that you are kind of an oversight organization. You're not like in the in the details and I get that. Um, I'd like to know the impact of the change from the Livingston Activity Center to the Peach King Center and how that's that transition has gone and and you know what you think the the next steps might be from that perspective because you talked about some of the other things that you'd like to see going forward. Uh, I'll let you speak now. >> Okay. Um, it's a work in progress. Um the uh Livingston Activity Center is a beloved um institution of the senior's club and uh before the transition uh over to the new facility um there were a number of changes to the seniors club um that occurred including the name change which was really embraced by by most of uh the membership. Um, as the age friendly committee, we're very fortunate that members of the committee cross into the 55 plus advisory committee. So, some we wear both hats at the same time often. So, the transition um uh is is in progress. All of the programs are over at the new facility. But one thing I can say and I know uh Christa is poking me here and so is Trevor. The membership has doubled since January. So uh almost 50% increase in membership and we don't have the exact statistics from the software. We're working on that through the seniors advisory committee, but um we believe that most of the new members are in the 55 plus range. So that it's it's it's a little too early to say, but there's a lot of activity happening in that other building in the new building. Um so we hope the future's bright. >> That that's great news. like doubled since January is incredible. Uh I think that what all of us I I don't want to speak for everybody, but I think that I can speak for everybody in saying that one of the goals was to create a true community center, not just an arena and not just a what used to be the senior center, a a true community hub. And and what you're telling me is that that's kind of where we're going, which makes me very happy. I I love the fact that in the same facility, if somebody comes for one activity that's there, they can also use the walking track. They can also choose to go to the gym if they want to. They might stay and watch their grandkids play hockey or play another sport, volleyball, basketball. They might choose to play pickle ball while they're there. There are lots of different things happening in one building. And that was our goal. So, when you tell me that the numbers have gone up, that makes me really happy. And I think that that probably makes every one of us appear happy and I hope that that's a an upward curve that we continue to see because that was kind of the whole point. So thank you for that information and I know it's anytime there's a change. You know I've changed facilities far as a teacher schools are concerned. You know sometimes you're reluctant because none of us like change. Like I I hate it. I hate having to change. But in the end, sometimes change forces us to change the way that we do things too. And the old way that we we're doing thing, the comfortable way that that I know that I was doing things as a teacher might change as a result of the new place that I'm in. And a lot of times that might lead to progress. So I'm hoping that that's the the long term. But thank you for your presentation. Thanks for your commitment to the committee. And I hope you'll stick around for another four years when when we put the next group of the committee together. Yeah. Thank you. there any other comments or questions? Okay, I'm not I'm not I just wanted to say thank you as well. I think you've done a fabulous job this term. um all the committee members. Um I love to hear that there's double the amount of people coming out which is I'm not surprised because I'm at the community center every day and I see it and I'm what's with the taichi these days like 80 people or so for it's crazy. It's great though. Um, and I think I think part of the draw too is that there's this energy from the from everybody from all the different ages in the same building and it's just kind of I don't know every anytime I see anybody at the Beach King Center and we just you know talk about this there's just an energy people really seem to be grasping it and uh and I think if there's something that you guys are doing really well and I hope that we continue is that the whole loneliness bit is that we're extending out to people that maybe have lost a loved one or just need to make some new friends in town, I think that's just something we should be doing communitywide. Um, but if we could continue to do that, that would be, you know, wonderful to hear for sure. Um, with the volunteering, Big Brothers and Big Sisters needs volunteers and I think our 55 plus would be, you know, a a great addition. So if that's something that you know maybe just through conversations if you let people know that that's that's a need in our community and there are a lot of kids that would love to have any of you come and and it's uh I think it's once a month is all that is required. So just put that out there that that's something that I know that that they we do need assistance with. So again thank you. Yes, Leanne. May I just make a comment about the volunteering? There is absolutely no shortage of uh residents in Grimby who wish to volunteer. We don't have the capacity to organize the volunteers to run programs. So our social p prescribing program uh we received a grant through the OACO and forgive me I don't know the acronym but it's the Ontario um older adult community um centers association. We get the funding to run these programs, but we don't have the manpower to actually fulfill them. So, we had to push the social social prescribing into the this next year. And because age friendly has ended as a committee has dissolved, we've passed the baton over to the 55 plus group, but there's just a handful of volunteers that can run programs. So going forward, we would ask council to really consider formalizing the volunteer part, the staffing part to support that. >> I think that makes sense. It's just a matter of kind of getting all of those resources together and having a network that people can draw on it. And I I do believe councelor Christi had asked for something similar um just with our our services in Grimby. And I think that that we have something like that. Um but I think maybe to refine it a little bit more with the volunteering aspect would be something that we could look into. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Okay. Can I get a mover and a seconder to receive the presentation? Moved by councelor Delavio, seconded by member Leairard. Resolved that the delegation from Leanne Wallace and Diane Lazinski regarding age friendly advisory committee end of term presentation be received for information. All in favor? Okay. And that's carried. All right. Thank you both. Thank you everybody that presented today. Appreciate it. Okay. Can I uh moving on to museum business? >> You can tell them. >> Oh, you can. Sorry. If if you you're free to leave unless you would like to watch the rest of this. Not quite as exciting. Okay. Uh all right. Sorry, Janet. Can can I get a mover in a second to to get report DCS 2624 museum information report May 2026 on the floor for discussion? Okay. Moved by uh councelorio, seconded by member Leairard and Janet. Please go ahead. Thank you through you, chair. Um, I don't have a lot to report this month, but right now, uh, I would just like to highlight a few things that are going on at the museum. Um, Saturday, June 20th from 11 to 4:00, we are having our second vintage creative market on the museum grounds. I would love everybody to come out and see that. Um, also opening June 8th, we have our community exhibition from the Grimby Photography Club. Um, they are working very hard as a team to, uh, get this exhibit open. So, I encourage everybody to come out and see that. It'll be local Niagara photographs as well as local Grimby photographs. Um, May is museum month. Um, and, uh, in honor of May's museum month, the museum is launching a youth volunteer program for students aged 9 to 17. This program is intended to get kids volunteering early and often. The focus of the program is for children to be the ambassadors for the museum. They will be involved in community engagement, awareness, and fundraising. Um I have mentioned in the past months that uh the museum staff has been very busy trying to get our collection as much of our collection online as possible. Uh so since my last report in April uh we have increased the number of online files uh by 2500 files. So there are 2500 new artifacts online. So uh we are still pushing away of our 23,000 pieces that are we have. We now have just under 4,000 online, so we're moving at a pretty good pace. Um, we're uh looking towards the fall. We already have two schools confirmed for our museum uh museum in the schools program. So, that is fantastic. And we're still looking to get a few more in there as well. Um the museum foundation repairs, they have started filling in uh the trench that we have the moat around the museum. So, it looks like we are making good progress. uh eventually once they get uh all what they have done filled in front door of the museum will be closed and the museum will be closed for uh and I don't know how long it depends how long it takes them to fix the front of the building. Um but right now we are still open for business and that is what we have so far. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Janet. Any questions from the committee? No. All right. Resolve that report DCS 2624, museum information report May 2026, dated May 26, 2026, be received for information. All in favor? And that is carried. There are no consent reports tonight. And moving on to discussion reports. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2622 Grimsby Santa Claus parade road closure report on the floor for discussion? Moved by member breather, seconded by councelor How, and Sarah, please go ahead. I'm actually gonna pass it over to Trevor. He'll cover the next three. Uh, a few of them do seem like they're quite a a distance away. I realize no one wants to talk about the parade right now, but with committees uh concluding early, we did want to get these in a bit early this year. So, Trevor, >> thank you. Sarah, you stole my joke, but I I will I'll move on. Um, yes. So, this is just a very early approval for the Santa Claus Parade road closure, which will take place on December 5th, 2026. It'll be our 69th parade. Um, I'm expecting an email from Sarah later tonight about our plans for the 70th year, so I'll look forward to that uh at about 11:00 p.m. And um yeah, so we're uh we're planning for another uh a good year. Uh the we are not planning to be impacted by downtown reimagined. though the road construction project will not have any impact on the route. Uh so we are planning for our normal route uh for this year. Um it'll be much the same in terms of the road closure um along Livingston um and up to Ontario Street. Uh the one big change that we instituted in 2025, which we're continuing in 2026, is actually how we resourced the parade in terms of its closure. Um so last year we did actually bring in a third party company to assist with the road closure instead of doing with all uh just staff. And this is something that we're seeing um kind of across different parades across Ontario as um expectations for vehicle mitigation and some of the incidents that have occurred at parades and other uh festivals and events over the past few years. Um so they actually come in, they help uh you know have barricades, they have trucks, they have all the equipment, uh they help actually with the planning of the control plans. Uh so that went really well in 2025 and looking to continue that in 2026. Uh but ultimately uh planning for a very similar uh Santa Claus parade as we're used to uh each year. >> Are there any questions or comments from the committee? No. All right. Resolve that report DCS 2622 2026 Grimsby Santa Claus Parade road closure report dated May 26, 2026 be received and one that the community services committee recommend that council endorse the event related road closures on Livingston Avenue Main Street West on Saturday, December 5th, 2026 for the purposes of a parade which will be forwarded for approval to the Niagara region. All in favor? And that's carried. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2623 remembrance day road closure 2026 on the floor for discussion moved by councelor how seconded by member brethor and Trevor go ahead uh thank you chair this will be a very short one uh this is our road closure request for remembrance day it covers a small section of Main Street West um up to Patton Street and Elm and it's really just a small section to accommodate the the small parade parade or processional that happens as part of remebrance day ceremony. Uh the ceremony is delivered by the Royal Canadian Legion uh branch 127. We just kind of offer some logistical support in terms of this road closure and we help out with the sound um that type of thing. But yeah, this again will be planned as normal as if you've attended in the past. It's a very small limited closure that's supported uh by our team, our public works team and our fire department. >> Okay. Any questions or comments? No. All right. Resolve that report DCS 2623 Remembrance Day road closure dated uh May 26, 2026 be received and one that the community services committee recommend that council endorse the event related road closure on Main Street West on November 11th, 2026, which will be forwarded for approval to the Niagara region. All in favor? That is carried. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get report DCS 2625 road use for peachbud race Niagara triathlon and women's triathlon on the floor for discussion. Okay. Moved by councelor DeFlavio seconded by member Leairard and Trevor. Go ahead. >> Thank you chair. Uh so final three closures I'll cover tonight are for three uh races or also triathlons. Uh the first is the peach bud race which is coming up the quickest at the end of June. Uh, this one takes place right right here, very close, and uh, starts along Livingston. It goes up to um, where's my map? I believe Murray Street and then over to uh, Robert's Road. They have a variety of different routes. They have like a 1 km kids run and they have a 5K and I believe a 10K as well. Um, there are road closures related to this event. Uh, but it is a single lane. Uh, so it does allow for traffic to travel um, um, on the other lane, which is good. So we will keep traffic flow moving through. Uh they typically start out of less eternity. We expect they will continue to do the same. However, they are planning to leverage uh now that we're complete the uh major refrigeration peach king center for some logistics and bit pickup that type of thing. Uh but overall planning for a very similar in terms of overall traffic impact as we've had in previous years for this one. The other two events are the Niger triathlon and women's triathlon. We've had these races uh for many many years in the community. Um they are based out of Nellis Beach Park and there's obviously a triathlon so the swimming component obviously in Lake Ontario. Um a cycling uh component that goes along Lake Street and then running on Lake Street as well. Um the clo the areas depend on the length of the race. There's many different varieties that they offer. Uh but there are no full road closures required as part of this uh of these events. uh they use pylons um and police as needed to uh cordon off the areas that they're using, but there's no full closures related to uh this event. Uh between those two, the triathlon and the two triathlons, they bring in over 3,000 participants, which is great. Uh people who come from all over and um the companies actually that deliver these races are locally based as well, which is really nice. So they actually deliver events all over Ontario, but they are locally based, which is great. Uh so again, no significant changes for that one compared to what you're used to experience. Okay. Are there any questions, comments? Uh, I have a comment. I would say that the the last two, they were in my backyard, so they're great because we my kids and I will cheer. Well, they're a little too old to do that now, but we used to. Um, and, uh, yeah. Um, I'm just a question as far as, you know, when there are accidents on the highway, um, a lot of the traffic gets rooed to Lake Street. And you said that there's there are police officers that are there. So if something like that happens, they will deal with that traffic inflow. Sorry, this is just something I just thought of uh you know because today we I was noticing a lot of traffic in the same thing uh through the chair. I mean obviously I believe if there was a traffic impact of that nature that's not what would be planned for typically like they're planning for the regular flow of traffic and their control plan is based on managing that. Um so whether police are required or not, sometimes it's police, sometimes it's book seven trained um either volunteers or private companies that are brought in to deliver that and those plans are approved by either our public works team and the region depending on the roads that they're using. But my guess is that the event of I think what you're thinking is like a full highway closure. I know kind of exactly what you mean, which can happen on Lake Street. um that's not what this is planned for and presumably we would need to, you know, contact the police or escalate that matter if it got to that level because unfortunately obviously those things are quite random and hard to to predict. It's just one of those worst case scenarios if that happens. So hopefully there there's a a quick communication uh if needed. So all right. Um okay. Result that report DCS 2625 road use for peachbud race Niagara triathlon and women's triathlon dated May 26 2026 be received and one that the community services committee recommend that council approve the use of local roadways for the peach bud race Niagara triathlon and women's triathlon races to be held on June 30th uh July 18th and August 8th respectively um subject to the issuance of valid permits notification of to the Niagara Regional Police and EMS and review and approval from the Niagara region. All in favor? And that's carried. Can I get a mover and a seconder to get the final report DCS 2626 May Community Services Department information update on the floor for discussion? Okay. Uh moved by councelor How, seconded by member Brethther, and Sarah, please go ahead. Thanks for your chair. And I will just mention with that road closure uh question you asked, we do um send the police all of the route information ahead of time as well. So at least from a proactive nature, they also are aware of when those events do occur if if unexpected events happen. Uh so just a couple of things running through the report. Uh we are doing some ro roof work at the major refrigeration teaching center. That is a final piece outstanding from our construction project. It couldn't be completed during the ice season, so needed to be done during uh dry floor time. So, in early June, there'll be a few weeks where you may see some activity. No, we're not reconstructing anything new. We're just finishing up a piece of work. Uh, we are working as a team on launching a youth pilot uh youth room program as a pilot uh at the uh MRPKC. And I'm just going to turn it over to Trevor for one minute just to describe the pilot that the team's working on together. >> Thank you, Sarah. Uh, yes. So, we have been uh you know slowly adjusting uh to our new reality over at the uh MRPKC which has been great and it was really great to hear some of the feedback from our age friendly community and our our 55 plus active living club. Um on that note um in terms of the MRPKC we do have a report that'll be coming to council on June 15th that's a bit of a wrap-up which will have some statistics and metrics in terms of some of the growth you've experienced building on some of the questions I I heard asked today. So, uh, more information to come on that. Uh, but the youth room has been something that we've been working towards. Um, it's already in use. We use the youth room for overflow for a number of our 55 plus programs and other programming. There's a billiards table in there. Uh, but we have been slowly building towards the utilization for our youth and are launching a pilot program um, at the end of June uh, to start that. Um, so we're planning to operate it as a casual drop in space two two days a week as a pilot, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the end of June. It'll be open to youth ages 12 to 18. Um, there's no there'll be no cost to access the youth room. It's a very consistent standard practice uh for youth rooms and centers across Ontario where you're free to come and go um as you please and a space to be, you know, safe and engage and socialize. Um, however, certain additional programming. So, we're looking at kind of pairing it potentially with some like drop in basketball activities or outdoor play on the field or maybe even some fitness opportunities. So, we are planning to pair that with other elements of programming we have in the building with the youth room kind of as the hub that we can kind of build from. Um, we will require a membership uh for youth. It's no charge, just a way for us to understand who's coming, have emergency access or emergency information as needed. Um to begin, we'll have uh activities that you see already like shuffle board, table tennis. We have a couple video game systems. Uh really what we're looking to do through this pilot though is uh not to make too many assumptions about what our youth are looking for and let that feedback kind of come organically from the folks who come so that we can plan our own not only our programming but also our materials that we need so that it feels like a welcoming space. And we feel that there will also be programming that will developing that. I'm seeing off the top of my head things like board game nights and and that cards that type of thing that I think will organize hopefully organically um as we as we move through the pilot. Uh so we will be uh funding this through the existing 2026 operating budget and based on its outcomes we will uh be looking at a full operational plan for that room as part of the 2027 budget. Um one other improvement we're looking to make as part of this is just improving our communication with youth. Uh youth are definitely one of our more underserved groups in our community and definitely have a really hard time finding opportunities that they can engage with in a way that they want to and on their terms. Uh so one of the thing we're looking at doing is obviously we have the youth room but building resources that say what can just youth do in our community not just necessarily through the town of Griby but through other agencies and other opportunities that we have uh including the skate park, the outdoor rank fort leader and training programs, the mayor's youth and advisory committee to name a few. Uh one other initiative that impacts youth that we're looking to launch kind of in conjunction with this pilot is a uh study cafe at the concession area. So we have that kind of public concession area where you can free just to sit. Uh free feedback from our MYAK folks is that when exam season rolls around the library becomes a very very busy place. Uh so just looking for a little bit of an overflow. We're going to have some snacks and you know power outlets and things where people can sit and uh do some studying. And I think in particular for our blessed Trinity folks who are, you know, from a walking distance, we're hoping that gives them a place to uh to be while they're looking to study. Um, so we're looking uh definitely excited to see this uh move forward. >> Thanks, Trevor. The team's been working really hard to uh focus a little bit more on youth, so we're excited to see where that takes us. Uh, moving along, the Niagara River Lions Mesh Refresh Program is underway. So several basketball nets in our community were replaced with new mesh through the program. And then upcoming on June the 16th, there is an evening event that they are hosting. It's an open practice that people can come and watch. And then it will conclude with actually an interactive piece with families. So we're looking forward to bringing that uh to the facility at uh the major refrigeration peaching center. A tree giveaway project, which is touched upon earlier in a presentation, was done earlier uh this month. In total, 195 trees were given out at the event. uh when Jill, our team member, kind of took the lead on this, posted this on uh social media, I think in in a record amount of times, we had a response to some of these things. So, it really speaks to the community's interest in these types of programs and getting involved with them, which is great. The Livingston Activity Center is now um has a rental agreement uh for all seven days in place with New Life Church in Grimby. Uh so that began in the early uh early this earlier in May and that agreement will be in place until December 2028. The conservation clubhouse there is uh some work being done right now. We need to do some uh environmental assessments um and soil testing of that site. We have done a phase one assessment and it does require a phase two. So that is currently what our team is doing and then following that we'll update uh in terms of what the next steps are for that property. I did throw a photo in there of Casablanca Waterfront Park. Uh high lake water levels have had some impacts on our beaches uh quite significantly. So at some in some it's a lot of pebbles, a lot of driftwood, but in some there's uh bigger impacts. Casablanca Waterfront Park is one of them. You can see in the image just the end of the ramp there uh has some eroding in that corner. So, our team is working with some um experts in the field just to make sure that we're really looking at the right long-term solution from a maintenance standpoint and also an access standpoint. I will just flag this was the location that we did have the accessible beach mat. Um, unfortunately because of the condition of the ramp right now, we can't have it there, but our team uh actually met on site and looked quite extensively at this beach and nearby beaches, and we'll be bringing forward um some other recommendations for this coming in the future. For an events, uh we had community safety day on Saturday, May the 9th. Always a very well- attended event happening in Grimby is coming up in the next coming weeks in June as well as several other events with music and movies that are outlined in this uh report. And if you're looking for some of the specifics week to week, they will be listed on our weekly digest that's on our website as well that you can subscribe to uh that will share the further details with you. And lastly, just wanted to note that we have a unique opportunity coming to us uh through a referral from Sport Niagara, an agency we work with that's Niagara based uh promoting sport tourism and we have a Dodgeball Canada event coming to us later in 2026. So that'll be kind of fun. That's all. >> Thank you, Sarah. We have any questions or comments? Councelor H. >> through your chair. Um, first of all, anybody that doesn't know, I'm on the board at the library. Um, and I was really surprised to get into this report to see what we're doing and with Fort which taken a lot of years to to kind of get to what's been service and and a and a part of our town that uh that has used that and has looked forward to that and given a lot of support to it that being fort and the users of it. Um the and I see us we're doing that and then I'll go to that cafe. I talk for studying. Well, mo most of it gets used for the computers if you're talking about that we start to back up a little bit. But most of the kids that that are using the library for studying purposes, they're very adaptable and being able to move around. But there's we've got eight public uh um computers right there that What was that? >> Oh, sorry. um you so I just I don't see as that to me uh it seems like it's a pure uh duplication of a service and knowing that a lot of and I'm thinking of the fort a lot of its traffic is not people that you know are living out here uh or living out the far east and uh and they're not driving. Okay, so it has to do with location, location, location. Another that distresses me probably more than anything is we're using prime time hours. And I would be thinking that if we can generate revenue um that prime time hours are are the money makers for us um to to use it. Um it just surprises me. I'm I'm disappointed that it's that u that it's not more productive that we have to give it away. And I suppose I really cut it that complimentary snacks and beverages um that while supplies last. But I don't think we've got that elsewhere. But anyways, um I really um was surprised and disappointed uh that we've done this. uh as far as I know, unless it's at a higher level, but it not been uh talked about at the board uh at at the library to find out, okay, or to be asked or what do you think? So, I think you're taking a shot at the uh at the library. Um and I'd be looking at those uh those hours. So, that's it. All right. Before I go, is there anybody else that would like to speak? Um, I actually really liked these programs a lot. They were the the two that I thought jumped off um for me that I I wanted to talk about. Um, and I it's interesting. I appreciate that perspective because I would like to speak with Ashley at the library and see how they feel about it. Um, I think it's the way I'm kind of seeing it is that we're freeing up a little bit of space for them and for their staff so that they could pro probably provide a little bit more programming on their end. Um, and that I feel like the for the study cafe especially that that area is a little underutilized here right now. So I I do feel like this would help them um you know just ease off that that you know um that demand for the study space. Um but again I I will speak with her directly because I would like to hear as well. Um yes Trevor if you want to go and then I'll I'll talk about the other part later. Go ahead. >> Sure. Yeah I just wanted to clarify. Uh so the study cafe is only for 2 days. Uh so we're not looking to to duplicate a service that is at the library and and well well used and liked there. Um, this actually came in response directly from our mayor's youth advisor case. These are from the youth themselves who said the library is actually too busy um on these days because when everyone's in exams, all of our high schools go to exams at the exact same time. All those exams are usually within 5 days. Um, and obviously our youth uh just like me myself when I was there, I did all my studying in those five days and no other five days. Um, so the the demand is incredible. So I think in this case really I think what we're doing is actually complimentary to library to say we're creating additional space to kind of for overflow. Uh we we don't expect that to uh to kind of take the place of the library and we're actually already seeing it happen informally um BT students who are just kind of coming even on their lunch or after and kind of setting up their laptop uh because they're in the proximity. And I would agree with that because when when I saw the agenda, I was here uh working out and I actually popped over there to see and somebody there was an adult actually there at their laptop and met somebody there working and there was a a a student that was hanging out in the chair by the window. So that's great if we can use a little bit more of that. I would um suggest though that I'm an occasional teacher with both of those the two high schools here and uh and there are announcements occasionally I noticed for Blessed Trinity when things are happening for volunteering. So I don't know if you could make an an like put that out on the announcements because I think that they need to to hear it rather than just a word of mouth kind of thing but um Sarah did you want to speak to that? >> Yeah it's a great point. and we can do that and we can we're also going to just track who comes. Um and certainly we'll we can loop back as well even to the library to find out if there was a negative impact. I think as Trevor said what we're hearing is we're we're responding to a bit of an an overdemand for it. Uh so we can do some of that collection as well and respond back to certain but certainly promoting that. I know that the mayor's youth action committee is really excited about this initiative. They were really excited to to see this happen. So we are treating it as a pilot not ongoing and certainly we'll uh gather feedback from the outcome of that. And just really quickly in terms of Ford, I have had conversations with the executive director who's well aware of what we're doing and actually quite supportive of it. We're actually looking at partnering with them to to do some work with them as well within the capacities that they have because they too are constrained with some capacities to see how we can work together. >> Perfect. Um second thing is the drop in. I love that idea as well. Um I will give feedback for my daughter who's in grade seven. Um, a lot of them they'll get dropped off down by McDonald's and like there's there's tons of kids that do this and they just hang out downtown like they're not causing any problems like they're good kids. So if we could maybe draw those kids cuz again for her she'll sometimes go and do drop in volleyball um at the YMCA. And so I think if if we open that up to to you know volleyball and maybe some basketball cuz I think a lot of the boys tend to prefer the basketball whereas a lot of the girls are all about volleyball right now. I think that would be a great compliment if we could do that and I and I do see the kids kind of um in my head envisioning this going bouncing from the gym to um the youth room and I think that would work very well. So if you put it out there they will come for sure. Um yeah. There any other comments or questions? No. All right. Okay. Um All right. Resolve that report DCS 26 uh 28 may community services department information update dated May 26, 2026 be received for information. All in favor? Okay. And that is carried. All right. Our next meeting of the community services committee is scheduled for Tuesday, June 23rd at 6:30 p.m. And thank you everybody. The meeting is adjourned.