Spring has diminished the piles of snow, only to make room for the piles of soil as construction begins on Boyle Renaissance Phase One, which includes our new community centre. The new board elected at last month’s AGM will spend a lot of effort in the next two years getting ready to open the new community centre. But that’s not all we do.

We’ve been consulting with the Transportation department on the community’s behalf, discussing the new LRT “corridor and alignment” – that’s LRT-speak for what route the trains will take (corridor) and exactly how they will use the route. Where on the street, where the stations are, and where tunnels start is all part of “alignment.” Unfortunately, consultation in our community wasn’t as early or as frequent as we could have hoped, so we have been making up for it now.

Members of the Chinese community have joined with Boyle Street Community League and Riverdale Community League to form an LRT working group which has been meeting with the city to discuss serious concerns. The most serious issue is the location of the tunnel “portal” right in front of the Chinese Elders Mansions, cutting this part of the community in half and isolating the elders. Station location is also being discussed, as the current station location is too close to Churchill square and doesn’t serve Riverdale and the east side of Boyle as well as it could. If you have some concerns about the LRT issues, give us a call at our newly-reawakened telephone number, (780) 422-5857 and see if you can get involved.

We’re pleased that our “green shack” program funding is approved, so again this year the kids program will be located at Mother Teresa school playground. We hope you will brings your kids to join this active, successful summer program.

This fall we will be bringing the league to our community in as many ways as we can, hoping to sign up new members. Your fees have been waived until the end of 2012, but you still have to join and get a card to take advantage of all the benefits of membership.

This fall we will be bringing the league to our community in as many ways as we can, hoping to sign up new members. Your fees have been waived until the end of 2012, but you still have to join and get a card to take advantage of all the benefits of membership. For instance, did you know that your membership in Boyle Street Community League entitles you to participate in community league programs all across the city?

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues has a couple of new ways to help us with membership growth. One is their NextGen program to bring in youth, the other is a nine-month multicultural inclusiveness project which will pitch the value of community leagues to newcomers and cultural groups who haven’t traditionally been involved in community leagues. The project will provide interpreters and other help to encourage involvement. As new people join, the league will change and grow in exciting ways.

Over the past year and a third, your community league has been “re-constituting from concentrate.” We need active members to work with those opportunities. We encourage everyone in our community to join the community league and get involved and “be the change you want to see.”

For more information and to get involved in the Boyle Street Community League, call (780) 422-5857.