Current News

…as of Monday, September 20, 2021

Argyll Community League — Annual General Meeting

Everyone who is a resident of Argyll is eligible to vote at this meeting

Each year, around this time, the League holds its annual general meeting to review the past year, elect our executive group, bring forward issues from residents, and plan for the next year. These meetings are not very long as we do not operate a lot of programs, and we have a small membership. This is an opportunity for any homeowner or tenant resident to voice a concern or ask for help from the community league.

Wednesday, September 29^th at 7:00 PM
Argyll Community Hall
6750 88 Street NW

The meetings are held in the community hall (with proper distancing and protective masking provided) where we make decisions about budgets, grant applications, and hear reports about our financial status as well as our projects. This year will be particularly important as we will be seeking some approvals for ongoing projects and hearing about some others. We are also renewing our operating agreement with the City of Edmonton (every ten years) and we will be updating everyone on the progress made to repair a portion of the building.

Our meeting is also an opportunity to visit with your neighbours, learn what's going to be happening in the future, and get some background on what the City is planning for our district. We don't hold regular meetings throughout the year so this is the one opportunity to find out whether you like what is going on or if you would like to make a contribution to operating our neighbourhood.

We would really like to see you there.

Argyll Street Signs — Design options

The Improvement Committee of the Argyll Community League have been working for the past couple of years on the top five items which residents told us they would like to have in our neighbourhood. Along with work on a Community Garden, a Basketball court, and Tribute sitting area where the school used to be, they've also engaged with the City of Edmonton traffic people to make unique signs for our streets. Inside our neighbourhood we can have a special design for the street numbers which tell people something about us. There are, and this is no surprize, some limitations regarding readability, accepted colours, and the complexity of the design. The City has been installing a variety of new sign options in nearby neighbourhoods for some years now and residents supported the idea of doing it here in Argyll when they responded to our campaign in 2018 to submit suggestions, and then prioritized them into a top-ten list. Each one of these projects undergoes a process of municipal review as well as work with various other stakeholders to deal with any impact our little projects might have on their activities or membership. This means dealing with adjacent community leagues, other user groups, sports groups, and the like. As much as we have some control over what we can do to "improve" our little neighbourhood we still have to abide by some of the established requirements in order for standards to be maintained.

Toward this end an online survey has been set up for residents to visit and make some choices expressing what they would prefer from a short list of design options or design elements within the allowed range provided by the City itself. We've engaged with the artist who created our "visual style" some years ago to mock-up a set of images showing what these options might look like in our neighbourhood. We're now asking homeowners in Argyll to tell us what they would prefer and it will guide the committee's work on the Street Signs into the next year. The survey (at the link below) is fairly short at only 6 questions. We will compile the results and (hopefully) present the numbers at our AGM in September. The survey will be "live" until September 22nd.

Online Survey – Argyll Street Signs

Very shortly residents will receive a paper version of the survey in their mailbox. We are sending out these paper survey "ballots" in an effort to capture the opinions of all our residents, whether or not they visit our website, Facebook™ page, receive our e-mail newsletter or don't have a Gmail account. If you don't want to do our survey online you simply need to check the boxes on our paper survey, then stop by the hall to slip it into the mailbox outside the doors. It's important to remember this survey is meant for homeowners and primary tenants to fill out and the address for the house is a required response; so that we don't have people in Airdrie trolling us. You will have until September 22nd and we sincerely hope to have these signs going up in the spring of 2022.

Follow up to remarks on some of the survey submissions:

Is this going to be a levy on homeowners?

This is a good question because we did require homeowners and primary tenants to submit their opinions. But the answer is no. This is being done as part of our allocation of Casino funds and fits right into our budget plans for 2021.

There is no meaningful reason to change the signage.

This item appeared on a comprehensive survey of residents (between 2017 and 2018) when asked what they would like to see in the neighbourhood. The results of our open submissions were presented to residents again to narrow down the list to their top ten choices. Then residents were surveyed again to order them by preference. Since then a volunteer Improvement committee have been working on the top four projects. This is just one of those projects already requested by residents. This survey is for input about the design.

Argyll YOGA

Classes to return in September

Yoga for Strength, Alignment and Flexibility

Argyll Yoga will begin Wed Sept 8, 5:30-6:45.
Cost will be $120 to register for a 13-week term.
Drop-ins are welcome, if space allows. $15 per visit,

Hatha yoga poses and flow sequences help improve your postural alignment, mobilize your joints, stretch all the major muscle groups and build strength. We will endeavor to start easy and build gradually.

To register or with questions, call/text Renee at 780.903.1911

We limit the class to 12 students. Contact Renee if you are planning to register. Also be sure to let her know if you have a recent injury or some physical limitations.

Pre-School programme.

Plans to operate a Pre-School Programme this fall are now on hold. The recent health crisis has interrupted our efforts. We continue to move closer to establishing the programme.

We’ve come to an agreement with a non-profit organization to operate our program. We are still seeking out interested Parents who want their children to attend our programme. We are asking parents to contact the Pre-School teachers to get answers to questions directly from those who will be teaching the children.

Parents can still send an e-mail to yegeducationalprograms@gmail.com and begin the discussion about their lesson approach and what rates they are going to set.

The success of this program will depend entirely on the number of registered children so if you can share this invitation with any other families who might be interested in our programme it would help us get things going.

Keep an eye out for an announcement during the winter season regarding our plans for fall of 2022.

All indoor community activity is still on hold

As things continue to improve across Alberta, limited use of the community hall is permitted under current restrictions. Sport and fitness activities are being allowed with indoor guidelines. We continue to NOT allow outside rentals and are monitoring AHS and the City of Edmonton for changes to the restrictions.

Continue to Watch: Alberta Health Services for updates on their web site with details and for dealing with worried children or adults. I recommend having a bookmark of the AHS site on your favourite browser to consult for their evolving response. AHS

Cycle Route Map

A fellow from Avonmore Community League has compiled a list of his favorite cycling routes, mapped them, and written a detailed route description.  Although written from an Avonmore perspective, they work for Argyll residents as well.  The project isn't finished yet, but it is far enough along that it is certainly usable. He's keen to share it with residents of Argyll.  You can request a copy of the Word document by e-mailing Bob at: volunteer@avonmore.org.

What will YOU deliver?

Edmonton Meals on Wheels are kicking off their “What Will You Deliver?” volunteer recruitment drive with the goal of bringing 100 new volunteers onboard to prepare, package and distribute daily meals to seniors and homebound members of our community. They are looking for committed individual and group volunteers to roll up their sleeves in their kitchen as well as hit the road delivering meals to clients.

Kitchen volunteers are hard at work every day preparing healthy and nutritious meals in their downtown food production facility. From there, an incredible network of volunteer drivers deliver more than just a meal, providing daily social interaction and wellness checks, which allow our clients to feel connected and engaged with their community. You can make a difference in your own neighborhood.

For additional details visit Meals on Wheels or e-mail to: volunteer@mealsonwheelsedmonton.org

Air Quality in Argyll

An air quality sensor was installed on the roof of Argyll Community Hall in 2019. If you've been curious about the variation in levels of pollution from local sources, along with levels of pollution arriving from distant places, then you can visit a web page which shows all the sensors in the Edmonton area to keep up to date with air quality issues in our neighbourhood.

The Sensor was installed by a non-profit organization (Alberta Capital Airshed) and did not cost Argyll anything to host it. It might default to the U.S. format for "Parts Per Million" for particle and pollutants in the air, but you can switch the the Air Quality Index used by Canada's Weather Service using the menus on the control panel if you want to compare with what Environment Canada is reporting. Some browsers will default to the Canadian Index if they share the location of the device visiting the site.

If you explore the menu box you'll find reading for Temperature (F° & C°), Humidity, Humidex (F° & C°), as well as indicies from a number of jurisdictions. If you click on the "dot" representing our sensor another pop-up of information will appear – including some average scale charts of past levels.

Local variations in air quality can rise suddenly and diminish just as quickly. If you suspect the quality of our air has taken a turn, or you smell something unpleasant, it's possible to check in with the sensor in our neighbourhood to see if the chart shows a sudden spike or a rise in the average levels. This sensor is also capable of detecting high levels of pollution produced upwind of our neighbourhood from a variety of industrial and agricultural sources.

Canada's Blood Service needs your help

The need for blood and blood products increases every day, with someone needing blood every 60 seconds. Due to the impact of Covid-19, Canadian Blood Services are struggling to keep up with demand and have 20,500 more appointments to fill over the next month. They are asking the public for help fulfilling this need.

What you need to know about blood donation

Blood and blood products are a critical part of everyday medical care. Blood donations help patients undergo major surgeries, routine medical procedures, cancer treatments, and much more. Everything Canadian Blood Services do to help patients in Canada depends on donors. Blood donors are essential to Canada’s Lifeline.

The need for blood is constant. Each year, over 100,000 new blood donors are needed to ensure patients have reliable access, where and when they need it. If you are in good health, book now at blood.ca, on the GiveBlood app or call 1 888 2 DONATE (1.888.236.6283).

The Jammers

This programme has returned to the hall with indoor restrictions.

All musicians (at any level of skill) are invited to spend a little time together playing songs and keeping time each week. They meet on Thursdays from Noon until 3:00 PM in the main hall of the Argyll Community Centre. They welcome any instrument you are willing to jam with. Electric and Acoustic instruments are both welcome. Singing on key is optional :-)

If you want to sit-in on what they get up to each week, contact Ken by phone and get the details for their next jam. You can come and sing, play along or just relax and enjoy the music. Call Ken 780.466.8127 for more information. There is a $2.00 fee for use of the hall.

Where can I sign up for e-mail notices of your social events?

Our mailing address is:
Argyll CL Social Events
6750 88 Street
Edmonton, AB T6E 5H6
Canada

Or you can sign up for our e-mail news service where you get notices into your inbox electronically.

There is more local information on our Contact page.