In May, the Town of Richmond Hill were the winners of the first Watershed Awards to recognize communities adapting to effects of climate change.  Burnside is the Prime Consultant for the project.

The facility is located in a Town park on Major Mackenzie Drive, through the middle of which flows the East Don River.  A small dam was constructed across the river in the 1980s, creating a small storm water facility to service the adjacent subdivision being built in conjunction with it.  The facility had developed structural deficiencies and did not operate as intended.

With a construction cost of over $4M, the rehabilitation of Pioneer Park is the largest capital works project ever undertaken by the Town.  The project has its origins in the late 1990s and Burnside was retained to complete the project in early 2005.  The project now is nearing completion and construction is to be completed by mid-summer, which is well ahead of schedule and within budget.

Despite the project being under construction, the Town has fulfilled requests from other municipalities and agencies to hold site tours.

In addition to extensive landscaping and trails, the expanded facility now provides fish passage, aquatic habitat, flood control and water quality control.  So far, the neighbouring residents, fish, birds, frogs, provincial / federal agencies and, most importantly, the Town all seem quite pleased with the way Pioneer Park has turned out.

www.richmondhill.ca/PioneerParkProject

“IBC and FCM Announce Winners of First Annual Watershed Awards
to Recognize Communities Adapting to Effects of Climate Change -
Toronto and Richmond Hill share Watershed Award for Ontario”

Toronto, ON – May 29, 2010 – Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), in partnership with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), has awarded both the City of Toronto and the Town of Richmond Hill the 2010 Watershed Award for the province of Ontario. The City of Toronto won for its Basement Flooding Protection Program and the Town of Richmond Hill won for its Pioneer Park Stormwater Management Project.

Direct IT & Burnside Cost & Asset Management Version 8 – Break-through Solution Capabilities!  The new Version 8 Direct IT & Burnside  Cost & Asset Management solution is a web deployed cloud computing solution that has merged Direct IT’s Work Manager application with R. J. Burnside & Associates Limited Asset Manager application  into a single software solution.  Version 8 will also deliver new capabilities for mobile work and inspections leveraging new powerful and low cost tablet devices such as the Apple iPad2. The new capabilities of Version 8 will significantly reduce IT costs for municipalities and provide substantially improved Cost & Asset Management features.  “The world is moving to popular new low cost devices like the Apple iPad2 – Direct IT is supporting this trend with Version 8.”- Len Adams, Managing Partner, Direct IT.
New capabilities added to Version 8 in response to customer requests include the following:

• Work order schedules

• Bar coding

• Laser Fiche integration

• New mobile device platform for work and inspections

• Improved mapping features

• Enhanced Facilities and Housing

• New Structures module

• Improved year-end financial features and audit trail

• Expanded capital planning to include capital needs and improved scenario’s

“We are delivering a powerful yet practical engineering based capital planning solution for municipalities at a very affordable price.  We expect to have expanded pavement management capabilities including scenario planning as part of our solution by the end of 2012. ”– John Burnside, President R. J. Burnside.

Why Cloud Computing?  Cloud computing saves both Direct IT and municipalities money – which results in better products and services for our customers.  How? You save money through reduced IT support with web based software and cloud hosted service.  No more updating of individual PC’s and new releases get deployed automatically.  Availability is also significantly enhanced - you can get to your software from anywhere at any time, with almost any device.  Security is also improved as cloud hosting services employ world class technology environments.  Cloud computing can be taken advantage of within your existing IT infrastructure or through Direct IT hosting services. “Central Elgin will take advantage of Direct IT’s hosting services for Version 8 as soon as possible – we see immediate and long term savings for us” – Sharon Larmour, Director of Finance/Treasurer, Municipality of Central Elgin.

Peter J. Marshal Award. Our Cost & Asset Management Solution has been validated with the Municipality of Central Elgin receiving the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) Peter J. Marshall certificate of merit award for municipal innovation. From the AMO website: ….The Award recognizes those municipal governments demonstrating excellence in the use of innovative approaches to improve capital and/or operating efficiency and to generate effectiveness through alternative service deliver initiatives and partnerships.   The Award’s objective is to showcase instances where Ontario municipalities have implemented and can point to tangible outcomes from new, more cost effective ways of providing public services and facilities.  By awarding and profiling innovation, we continue to advance creativity and strong municipal government.  More information regarding Central Elgin’s project and the Peter J. Marshal Award can be found on the Ontario Municipal Knowledge Network website at:

http://www.omkn.ca/Content/omkn/BestPractices/GasTaxAwards/PJMarshallAwards1/default.htm

Contacts. To learn more about how our Cost & Asset Management Solution can deliver significant benefits to your municipality contact:

Jim Boyer, Partner, Direct IT
jim.boyer@directit.ca
905.833.3922 x2104

Arunas Kalinauskas, Manager, R. J. Burnside
arunas.kalinauskas@rjburnside.com
519.941.5331