Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
- City Council’s annual budget and year-end expenditure reports were released on Friday. Council budgeted $1,263,865 in 2011 and actually spent $1,118,682.
- Council is considering a new bylaw that would ban smoking within 10 metres of any outdoor playground, skating rink, sports field, or spray park. Similar legislation exists elsewhere. If passed, the new bylaw could take effect as early as next month.
- Monday is the deadline for nominations for the next Historian Laureate. Ken Tingley’s two year term ends in April.
- Congratulations to FiliStix, Tres Carnales, Cake Couture, and Guru – the folks behind those organizations made Western Living Magazine’s list of the 40 Top Foodies Under 40 for 2012! Great to see Edmonton represented.
- I certainly wouldn’t be handing out any awards until the project is finished, but the City has received an Award of Merit from the Consulting Engineers of Alberta for the North LRT to NAIT project. UPDATE: To be clear, the award was for the LRT tunnel under the new EPCOR Tower, taking advantage of that building’s construction, which makes sense.
- Did you know Edmonton still had a milkman? Barry Svederus was the last milkman in Edmonton until he retired on Friday, a job he has been doing for 34 years!
- The City of Edmonton is accepting applications for the position of firefighter until March 30.
- The list of nominees for the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts was announced this week! Should be a great event.
- Congratulations to Sam Pillar, Forrest Zeisler and the rest of the team at Jobber – they just scored a six-figure venture capital investment!
- Another year, another uneventful NHL trade deadline. Check out the analysis at OilersNation.
- Work is well underway for a new stormwater line in The Quarters. Cool photo of the giant hole crews dug – six stories deep!
- Four Edmonton schools made the Fraser Institute’s top 10 schools for 2012. You can check out the full list here.
- Police handed out 379 distracted driving tickets in February, the most since the legislation took effect in September.
- It sounds like Council will be discussing the Edmonton Stories website this week – Councillor Diotte wants to see the program shut down.
- Here are some recent business comings and goings from Bill Mah.
- In case you missed it, here’s the first part of my State of the Edmonton Twittersphere for 2011.
Big snowflakes fell in Edmonton today, but with warm temperatures ahead, it won’t last! Here you can see the Jaffer Building signage going up. You can see the finished product here.
Here are some upcoming events to note:
- The Innovative Leaders Lecture Series continues on Tuesday with TELUS CEO Darren Entwistle.
- Yelp’s Prohibition Party takes place on Wednesday at Suede. Should be a fun way to mark the one year anniversary of Yelp in Edmonton!
- March 8 is International Women’s Day, and there are a bunch of events taking place around the city to mark the occasion. The annual Key Communicators Luncheon takes place at the Sutton Place, and there’s a wine & cheese celebration at NorQuest.
- BlogWest gets underway on Thursday and runs through Saturday at the Delta Edmonton Centre Suite.
- The Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton is holding an open house on Thursday afternoon.
- The Oilers host the Canadiens on Thursday evening at Rexall Place.
- The high-flying Oil Kings will go for six wins in a row on Wednesday as they host Moose Jaw. On Saturday they host Red Deer at Rexall Place.
- The Edmonton Rush are back in action at home on Friday evening when they’ll take on Calgary!
- You can take part in the International Women’s Day March on Saturday at Tipton Park. Or, check out the Women’s Wellness Fair at the Alberta Avenue Community Centre.
- The City of Edmonton is holding a Neighbourhood Engagement Workshop all day Saturday at the Santa Maria Goretti Centre.
- For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.
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