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Toboggan hill returning: mayor BY SANDRA BOLAN 3 | Stouffville Sun-Tribune | Thursday, August 13, 2015 sbolan@yrmg.com STAFF PHOTO/NICK IWANYSHYN MPP Helena Jaczek speaks during the YOU 177 age friendly community announcement at the WhitchurchStouffville Public Library Tuesday. The cabinet minister gave $35,000 for a municipal aging study. Seniors' needs up for discussion BY SANDRA BOLAN sbolan@yrmg.com Bring generations together to create a strong community. That is the impetus behind WS YOU 177. On Tuesday, the organization received a $35,000 grant from the provincial government to study age-friendly community planning in WhitchurchStouffville. "It's all about engaging everyone in this project because each of us deserves to live in a community where we feel at home, where we feel supported," Helena Jaczek, MPP for Oak Ridges-Markham, told a group of about 40 people who gathered inside the Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library to hear how the money will be spent. So far, 56 organizations and municipalities have been awarded money from the $1.5 million fund, according to Jaczek. "We want to know what seniors need in terms of services, structures and policies, as well as how young people feel about growing up in our community," Brian Puppa, director of programs for WS YOU 177 told those gathered. He noted physical structures like roads, buildings and homes garner the most attention when it comes to communities, "but it's the underlying psychosocial dynamics, the social infrastructure that makes the community strong." Parts of Whitchurch-Stouffville currently have one of the highest densities of people over the age of 65 in York Region, according to Puppa. He also noted, by next year and for the first time ever, there will be more Ontarians over the age of 65 than children under 14 and by 2036, 35 per cent of the Canadian population will be over the age of 55. Utilizing the World Health Organization's eight dimensions for age-friendly communities -- public buildings, housing, transportation, community support, civic participation, communication, social participation as well as social inclusion -- WS YOU 177 will undertake a community-wide consultation process to better understand the needs of local seniors. In 10 months a report will be made available to the community and council with recommendations. "I see where they're coming from ... but it's a little bit beyond the municipality. We can't tell the municipality and developers what to do," Mayor Justin Altmann told The Sun-Tribune. "It's one thing to talk about it, but how are you going to implement it?" Altmann asked. Pat Ogston, president of the 55+ Club likes the idea of an intergenerational community, but admitted some of her club members are struggling with what WS YOU 177 is trying to do. "It's a new idea for them and sometimes new things take baby steps to get going," she told The Sun-Tribune. The toboggan hill is coming back to Thicketwood Park, according to Mayor Justin Altmann. "It is the one thing that should have never been removed from the park," Altmann told The Sun-Tribune. The idea came about after Altmann recently went for dinner on Main Street, then grabbed an ice cream and went for a walk through Memorial Park. He spoke with adults and children about what they liked and didn't like in the park, with the overwhelming SUN-TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO sentiment being the toboggan hill Fun on the toboggan hill in Memohas to come back. Altmann then went to Facebook rial Park in 2007. with this: "How many people would like to see the toboggan hill returned and then the reports ... not tellto Memorial Park?" ing people what they should or Within 48 hours, the post had shouldn't have," Altmann said of his more than 5,000 hits and it now sits process. at over 8,000, according to Altmann, Altmann plans on making a who added, all of the feedback has notice of motion on resurrecting been positive. the toboggan hill at the next coun"Yes and I don't even have kids. cil meeting, which is scheduled for Memorial Park used to be filled with Aug. 25, 7 p.m. people in all seasons. Now it is empty The mayor has no costing or green space with a road through it. timetable for its construction, but Bring the fun and people back to the said it "would be a very good pospark," wrote Lynn Kahrkling sibility" the toboggan hill could be "Yes. Everything has been taken ready for this winter. out of Memorial Park, our neighIn 2010, the toboggan hill in bourhood park. By the time any- Thicketwood Park was relocated to thing gets added, my kids will be in a berm in the vicinity of Lori Avenue university," wrote Krista Beatty. and Thicketwood Boulevard walkAltmann said he has already spo- way. ken with the people from Tiny SeedThe move was part of the Memolings, a not-for-profit community rial Park master plan and Park Drive program for children operated by extension, then-mayor Wayne United Soils, who have confirmed Emmerson told The Sun-Tribune. they will donate material and labour "That was always the plan. It was to reconstruct the hill. supported by the residents," he said Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville in April 2010. staff will take care of seeding and The hill was also moved for safety sodding it, along with its regular reasons, according to a town staffer, maintenance, according to the who said York Regional Police had mayor. concerns about the lack of lighting In the past, town staff would first and that you could not see around do a report on the feasibility of such the side of the hill to the skateboard a project, possibly with some pre- park. liminary costing and then provide a While backhoes levelled the hill, recommendation to council. Public young residents affixed handwritten signs to the surrounding fence consultation would then follow. "You've got to go to the people requesting it be saved. PEPPERTREE KLASSICS Women's Fashions, Footwear and Accessories . . . 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