As we start April it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to the Shiraz Shariff as our MLA. Mr. Shariff will be endeavoring to continue with a meaningful career and give back to the community as he has always done. I have had the opportunity to work with Mr. Shariff as a volunteer for the past several years and I have the utmost respect for his integrity and honesty. During his tenure as our MLA his quiet leadership style helped all groups of residents, to ensure our quality of life was respected and we could live in safe and productive communities. Mr. Shariff it is a great loss to Calgary McCall and we would like to wish him every success in the years to follow.
Martindale Celebrates – 20th Year Anniversary
The month of March was the Membership Awareness Month. The City of Calgary recognizes the importance of community associations and works with the Federation of Calgary communities to strengthen communities with the city. Do you have a community membership? It is always a question residents ask what the community does for my $10.00 membership. Well perhaps as you read about the history of Martindale CA we can answer your question.
The Martindale Community Association will be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. After digging up the facts about the community association, I found out the following.
In 1983 the Taradale- Martindale Community Association was formed, this in fact would make a 25th year anniversary however in 1988 Martindale formed its own community association thus the 20th anniversary is this year in 2008. Since we filed our bylaws as one stand alone association, Martindale has grown substantially as a community and currently today in 2008 we are over 4000 homes according to city census.
After checking city archives I could only find the names of three Aldermen since1988 that have served Ward #3, John Schmal, Helene Larocque and Jim Stevenson. The current board endeavors to build relationships with the city council so we can keep our community healthy and growing.
We as a community have had some great accomplishments and have seen many projects both civic and provincial add to the growth our community. In recent years the community association has shown leadership and participated on committees that helped with the building of Crossing Park school, McKnight-Westwinds LRT Station, McKnight and 36St overpass, the NECCS project, just to name a few of the current projects. We have some controversial issues to deal with also, the development permit for the slaughterhouse which is now bankrupt and not running, the permits to expand other cultural or educational communities within the boundaries of Martindale, for example the permit for expansion of the Deshmesh Cultural Center which did not take place and most currently the Francophone Regional School Authority are working on a development permit to build a French only school within Martindale.
Past board members worked with “Hopewell Communities Forever” program to ensure our community association could sustain itself for a number of years. This at the time was not popular with the previous alderman Schmal as this money came directly to the community of Martindale rather than to the city for use of building recreation facilities. This program was started in 1993 and ran approx 6 years, it included The Crossing and Martha’s Haven developments, MCA board members visited each home with a community membership and a welcome gift to the community. It was a great way to engage residents.
I believe that the community association has embraced the Deshmesh Cultural Center and helped guide and build bridges with the residents who attend the center. The current board has participated in the annual parade and has attended the national Kabaddi tournament this past year held in the park next to the Center.
The sour gas well located in the community was abandoned in 2006 and this task took great effort by MCA board members working with the developer, the city staff and the oil company team to have this project completed.
The community association is called upon time and time again by City of Calgary to support bylaws & community developments.
The last development phase of Martindale will include the houses on Martindale Drive north to Saddle Towne Circle and the strip along 80th Ave from Metis Trail east to Martha’s Haven or 52 St. The jewel of the community will be the High School and the NECCS site. The anticipated completion date of the NECCS project is 2011; the high school is on the list from the provincial government however it still needs funding in order to start construction.
We have had some long time residents volunteer on the board and keep in touch with the current MCA directors. I know of four past presidents that have kept in touch with the current board. These kinds of volunteers are the ones that started this community association and we will continue their important work to enhance and help our community grow.
Martindale can be proud of the diversity and how we have embraced all the cultural groups. The MCA board endeavors to help all residents with a variety of concerns and help direct them in the right direction to have their voice heard and concerns dealt with at the right level of government.
Come and celebrate with Martindale this year at anyone of the community events we have planned. See the calendar for dates of these events.
Monthly Activities in Review
Family Skate day was attended by a few regular community members on Feb. 17, 2008.
Our rink volunteers worked really hard to ensure that we had great ice for this event.
We served hot dogs and hot drinks.
Crossing Park – Grade 6 class have sent us a thank you letter for the efforts of the rink volunteers so they could have an outdoor class in February. The rink ratz cleaned and flooded to ensure that the ice was useable. It is great that the grade 6 class could have the skating rink to use for the day. Thanks to Dave and Jessie for keeping the ice clean.
The whole class sent a thank you card signed by each of them.
McKnight Westwinds LRT Appreciation Celebration
We were invited to attend a thank you at the Artspace Gallery on March 6 with the other community associations who worked on the Community Consultative Committee – McKnight-Westwinds LRT Station.
Kelly Jones sat on this committee and attended all the meetings; it was time consuming task and approx 18 months in length. The CCC met monthly and then bi-weekly to get the project ready for construction. Alderman Jones and Stevenson were in attendance as well as Calgary Transit and City of Calgary Transportation Infrastructure staff. It was great to have a final windup and now we have the station within walking distance of your community.
