A Proud and Humble Heart

A Proud and Humble Heart

It is with a proud and humble heart that I share a bit of office news. The 2014 RE/MAX of Wasaga Beach Awards were just published.

2014_Awards_Ad
To the local resident skimming the pages of the paper, I doubt it’s even cause for pause. For my amazing loyal clients, it may serve as a “post-consumer confidence” boost, providing coffee conversation and a bit of satisfaction for working with a REALTOR who has passion and energy for real estate clients and our local community. Our fearless leaders, my sister Marilyn Ruttan and nephew Jason Ruttan, shared the news in an email, saying:
 “Congratulations to everyone who won an award and to everyone who works in our RE/MAX office as together with everyone’s help we ended the year with a 41% Market Share amongst the Wasaga Beach Brokerages.”
I love how our office managing to capture a whopping 41% of area home buyers and sellers only receives a brief nod…and we move on. We don’t rest on our laurels…because we’re simply too busy helping clients transition into their dream homes. I’m proud of our achievements as an office and am pleased to share them.
Marilyn also commented:
“Please note the donations update along the right side of the ad as well. Our totals continue to climb which is something we should all be very proud of. In last year’s award ad we announced that Bruce’s Motorcycle for Miracles had raised approx. $20,000 and now it is up to almost $80,000. Congratulations Bruce for showing us that you can raise huge amounts of money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, take several months off work and still be the #1 Individual Sales Representative in the office for 2 years in a row!”
When I try to convey the satisfaction and gratitude I feel for the support of every single person who impacted the 2013/2014 Motorcycle For Miracles fundraising tour, words truly fail me. To each and every kindhearted client, local businessperson, family member, Facebook friend, traveller and fellow RE/MAX associate along the way, thank you for your interest and support in this ongoing initiative!
The Motorcycle for Miracles' Flag Generated a $30,000 donation from RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic to SickKids Hospital via the Alyssa Rae Johnson Foundation

The Motorcycle for Miracles’ Flag Generated a $30,000 donation from RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic to SickKids Hospital via the Alyssa Rae Johnson Foundation

For More Photos, Click Through Below

Let the Holiday Season Begin

Let the Holiday Season Begin

Waking up to frost on the pumpkins this morning got me thinking about what’s ahead. And personally, the only way to get through the winter with my sanity is to either 1) head south or 2) keep busy!

If you are looking around online for things to do in our beautiful area as we honour our veterans and then get into the spirit of the holidays, make sure to mark your calendars for the annual Holiday Parade. We love being able to snap a really great array of photos of the parade. They really showcase the great energy of Wasaga Beach residents.
Enjoy a look at what’s truly wonderful about Wasaga Beach (the people!) right here.

 

 

The Annual RE/MAX Wasaga Beach Yard Sale for the Cure

The Annual RE/MAX Wasaga Beach Yard Sale for the Cure

UPDATE: Over $4000 Raised for CBCF!

A hearty THANK YOU to all who came out to support the charity event at the RecPlex!

The beautiful warm sunny day helped hundreds of high quality gently used items get ‘discovered’.

Great turnout in Wasaga Beach today and fun to see the smiles when people would ask "how much?" and hear the answer "it's all for a donation to the Breast Cancer Foundation so whatever you would like to give"

Great turnout in Wasaga Beach today and fun to see the smiles when people would ask “how much?” and hear the answer “it’s all for a donation to the Breast Cancer Foundation so whatever you would like to give”

It was like a party in the parking lot, seeing tons of clients, family, friends, all hunting for a bargain or a burger or just to make a donation and come away with a decorative item or something useful for the house or kids…just such a win-win.

As you can tell, we love this initiative and are so grateful that the #Wasaga Beach community is into it too!

 

yard sale for the cure

Mary, Jossy and Holly Johnson

Meeting to Discuss Water Levels in Wasaga Beach and Collingwood

Lake Huron level

Lake Huron levels have set new record lows, say officials.

Wasaga Beach and Collingwood residents

are interested in current and future Georgian Bay water levels for many reasons so we thought we’d post a bit of background information (sourced directly with thanks to www.cbc.ca via The Current podcast from last Friday) to explain why water levels are such an important issue to all of us.

To find out more, contact David Sweetnam, executive director of Georgian Bay Forever and Bob Duncanson, executive director of The Georgian Bay Association.

The Great Lakes hold 20 per cent of the world’s fresh water. And that percentage is shrinking, threatening fish stocks and wetlands, putting shipping lanes at risk and prompting talk of a crisis in a water system that defines a region and sustains a multi-trillion-dollar economy. There have been many media alarms sounding about this issue, especially since January with interesting articles like this one.

But the proposed solutions pit communities against each other. They also raise concerns about whether we can engineer our way out of a problem many people think is largely of our own making.

Water levels are down all over the Great Lakes and they have been for more than a decade. The Great Lakes have seen water levels ebb and flow before. But many people think what’s happening now is different, that it’s being driven by climate change and other human interventions not nature taking its course. It’s exceptionally bad on Lake Huron, the lake Georgian Bay is attached to.

The red around the Wasaga Beach and Collingwood area of Georgian Bay shows how extremely stressed our area is compared to the rest of the Lake Huron and other Great Lakes areas.

The red around the Wasaga Beach and Collingwood area of Georgian Bay shows how extremely stressed our area is compared to the rest of the Lake Huron and other Great Lakes areas.

Over the years, various parts of the Great Lakes have been dredged to build harbours and shipping channels. And those interventions seem to have knocked the Great Lakes system out of balance.

Here’s why.

The water in Georgian Bay runs to the southernmost tip of Lake Huron and drains into the St. Clair River. That’s been happening for as long as the Great Lakes have been around about 10,000 years. But about 50 years ago, the St. Clair River was dredged to improve shipping channels. And since then, the water has been draining from Lake Huron a lot faster… apparently too fast.

Roger Gauthier — a retired hydrologist with the US Army Corp of Engineers — explains it:

“If you increase the channel capacity in the St. Clair river, you have an outlet that is essentially leaking … if I can use that term … what you end up doing is you lower Michigan, Huron and Superior. The lakes are out of bounds.”

So, how do you slow down a river?

With underwater speed bumps.

“The original designs were actually done in 1965. You would put in a series of underwater structures, maybe 20-25 of those to essentially act as speed bumps on the bottom of the river that would slow the flow of the water.”

Studies from the US Army Corp of Engineers show those speed bumps would slow the river enough to significantly increase water levels all the way up in Lake Huron. As Roger Gauthier said, the idea has been around for a long time.

This graphic shows how dredging of the St Clair river would obviously have profound effects on Georgian Bay water level maintenance.

This graphic shows how dredging of the St Clair river would obviously have profound effects on Georgian Bay water level maintenance.

But it has been given new life, thanks to the International Joint Commission. It manages the joint interests of Canada and the United States in the Great Lakes. And the Commission is recommending both governments look into putting some kind of structures in the St. Clair River.

To ask questions, gather information and find out how you can help, attend the 7 pm meeting at the RecPlex in Wasaga Beach tonight.

Water levels meeting May 30 2013

The Future of Public Space in Wasaga Beach

Calling All Visionaries!

The Main Street Pedestrian Mall a few months before being destroyed by fire in 2007.

For quite some time now, residents and visitors alike have bemoaned the lack of a vibrant, attractive public space on Wasaga Beach’s Main Street. And so, this Thursday, November 29, 2012, citizens, community leaders, and municipal staff of Wasaga Beach will come together to participate in a public workshop to discuss the possibility of creating a public event space around the Main Street Pedestrian Mall at Beach Area One.

  • What:  Main Street Pedestrian Mall Visioning Project
  • Who:  Hosted by 8-80 Cities, for anyone with an interest in public space and transforming the Main Street Pedestrian Mall into a more vibrant and healthier place
  • When:  Thursday, November 29, 2012, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
  • Where: Banquet Hall, Wasaga Stars Arena, 425 River Road West, Wasaga Beach, ON

Strong winds after 1 a.m. contributed to the devastation

The timing of this visioning process is appropriate, as it was 5 years ago, on November 30, 2007, that a major fire destroyed between 50 to 70% of the main street pedestrian mall, including 17 businesses and 5 apartments. The fire was fuelled by very strong winds, eventually turning it into one of the biggest and most disastrous fires ever in Wasaga Beach history.

One of the previous visions for tourism at Wasaga Beach’s main end

Plans to rebuild the beach front included shopping, an indoor/outdoor theme park and monorail service.

Despite the major fire, the beach and the remaining businesses reopened the following summer, though the residents and visitors of Wasaga Beach commented that the old arcade and various dingy shops would be thoroughly missed and media reports labelled the event “the end of an era“.

The proposed development came to an abrupt end when the Blue Beach Corporation declared bankruptcy in 2010. The Town of Wasaga Beach worked out a plan to help the remaining businesses open for the season but the plans for hotels, theme parks and a monorail all ended and have not been revived.

Out of the fiery destruction of all those “historic” shops must come something inspired! Such was the impetus for the upcoming Pedestrian Mall visioning project, a workshop where participants will brainstorm around the question:  How can we create a vibrant pedestrian space at Beach Area One?

In 2011, the Wasaga Beach community determined that one of the key principles to revitalization of the Main Beach Area was the establishment of a public square which could be used year-round as a gathering place and to program special community events. The Town was successful in receiving a grant through the “Make a Place for People” project, which is an Ontario Trillium Fund program administered through 8-80 Cities, a non-profit group that promotes active transportation and vibrant public spaces, and will be facilitating the workshop.

The purpose of the program is to lead the community in a design and visioning process on a smaller scale to create a vibrant and healthy public space at Beach Area One at the Main Street Pedestrian Mall. Anyone with an interest in public space and transforming the Main Street Pedestrian Mall into a more vibrant and healthier place is encouraged to come out to the public workshop, which will run from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012 and be held at the Banquet Hall, Wasaga Stars Arena, 425 River Road West.

For more information, please contact Nathan Wukasch, Planner, Town of Wasaga Beach at (705) 429-3847 or email nwukasch@wasagabeach.com