Barrhaven Bugle: Cobble Hill becomes Crossing Guard Park
And the first West Nile mosquitoes turn up in Ottawa
Issue 8-2026 · Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Barrhaven · Stonebridge · Half Moon Bay · South Nepean
Circulation · 1004
This Weeks’ Sponsor
This week's Barrhaven Bugle is brought to you by Barrhaven Kidz Clubhouse, a home daycare near Woodroffe and Stoneway, and a paying Bugle advertiser. One full-time spot is open for September. Book a visit →
From the Top
Cobble Hill Park Will be Renamed Crossing Guard Park in Memory of Peter Clark, Who Lost His Life on Duty
Map: OpenStreetMap contributors. The park is marked. The crossing where Mr. Clark stood, Cedarview at Kennevale, is a block to the north.
Council voted on July 15 to commemoratively rename Cobble Hill Park, at 200 Cobble Hill Drive, as Crossing Guard Park. The motion came from Ward 3 Councillor David Hill and was seconded by Councillor Riley Brockington. Hill said in a video posted to his Facebook page that the vote was unanimous and that a memorial plaque is planned.
Peter Clark was 55. He died in March after being struck while on duty at the crossing at Cedarview Road and Kennevale Drive, near Mary Honeywell Elementary School. The park sits about a block from the corner where he stood.
The motion frames the new name as a tribute to Mr. Clark and to every crossing guard who takes up a position at an intersection so that children and families can get across it safely. That is the part worth sitting with. Most of us pass one of these people twice a day, at the same corner, in whatever the weather is doing, and could not name a single one of them.
The Bugle will report the plaque wording and any ceremony once the City announces them.
Sources: City of Ottawa Council record, July 15, 2026; Councillor David Hill's public announcement.
There Are a Thousand of Us!
A word of thanks.
I started the Bugle on June 5. It went up as a Substack first, then I followed with a website. Initially, there were 7 subscribers to the Substack - two were me, one was my wife, and a few from some cold emails - and it stayed that way until I started paid ads on July 2.
As this issue is being edited we stand at 1004 subscribers. Eight weeks to 1000! That's a signal that people are hungry for local news and events. It's people signing up, forwarding it to a neighbour, replying with tips and corrections, and telling us what they actually want.
Thank you, again, and here's to the next thousand!
Indian Food Festival of Ottawa
21-23 August at Clark Fields Park
We asked Bhakti Sheth, the Event Director of the Indian Food Festival of Ottawa, which is organized by her husband, Sagar Vora, for five minutes with the Bugle, and we are putting that together now.
Here is what she has told us about the festival’s return to Clarke Fields Park from August 21 to 23: it’s three days of food, live performances, family activities and local businesses in one place.
It’s built to fill an afternoon or an evening rather than a quick stop so plan to stay. It is aimed at Barrhaven, and not just the Indian community, so whoever you are, come out and support the festival!
The full Five Minutes with Bhakti Sheth, will be out this week on the website!
The First West Nile Mosquitoes of the Season Are Here
Is it just you, or are the bugs bad this year?
Photo: Katja Schulz, via Flickr, CC BY 2.0. Culex pipiens, the northern house mosquito, is the species that carries West Nile virus in this part of the country.
It is not just you. My wife walks our pup, Freya, at Beryl Gaffney Park every morning, and they have literally been chased off by them, with or without bug spray. I've noticed an increase too. During my nightly walk with Freya along Strandherd around 9:30 PM I've encountered more bugs this year than ever before.
That said, there is a reason to pay a bit more attention to it. Ottawa Public Health says its routine trapping and testing has turned up the city's first West Nile positive mosquito pool of the season.
A positive pool is not a human case. OPH says no confirmed or probable human cases have been reported in Ottawa this year. Most people who are infected develop no symptoms at all. But the finding is the annual signal that the virus is circulating in the local mosquito population, and it is the point in the summer where the advice stops being generic.
What OPH asks residents to do is small and specific. Use a repellent approved by Health Canada containing DEET or icaridin. Take particular care between dusk and dawn, which is when the species that carries it is out. And empty or refresh anything around your property that holds water for seven days or more, because that is all the time it takes: flowerpot saucers, birdbaths, a wheelbarrow left out, a sagging pool cover, the tray under the air conditioner, a kid's toy filling with rain.
One thing worth knowing, because it catches people out every year: the risk does not end when the evenings start to cool. It runs until the first hard frosts.
Are you finding the bugs bad? Let us know at content@barrhavenbugle.ca
Source: Ottawa Public Health bulletin, July 31, 2026, and the OPH West Nile virus page.
Sponsored Section
Photo: supplied by Barrhaven Kidz Clubhouse.
Presented by Barrhaven Kidz Clubhouse
September is four weeks out, and one full-time spot is left. Barrhaven Kidz Clubhouse is a small home daycare near Woodroffe and Stoneway, run by a provider with more than ten years of experience, First Aid, Health and Safety and CPR certification, a current police records check, and a Ministry of Education quality inspection report you can ask to see.
Doors open at 7 a.m., with 3:30 and 4:00 pickups available and other hours arranged. Home cooked meals, a published weekly menu, play-based learning and daily outdoor time. Visits welcome, references on request.
Barrhaven Kidz Clubhouse pays to advertise with the Bugle. That is what keeps the Tuesday newsletter free, and it is a local family business backing local news. If you are looking at childcare for September, they are worth a call.
The Bugle is Published New Every Morning on the Web
This email lands on Tuesdays. That is one day out of seven, but Barrhaven isn't only open on Tuesdays.
The Bugle is published at barrhavenbugle.ca every morning.
The day's Barrhaven news briefs, weather alerts when there are any, the full community calendar, the day's Strand Herd cartoon, the business directory, and the puzzle. If something happens on a Thursday, it is on the site on the next day, not eight days later.
Put the Bugle on Your Home Screen
The easiest way to see it is to put it on your Android or iPhone's home screen, where it sits with your other apps and opens with one tap. There is no app store download, no account, and no password.
It takes four taps once you pull it up:
On an iPhone:
Open barrhavenbugle.ca in Safari,
Tap the Share button at the bottom (the square with the up arrow),
Scroll down, and
Tap Add to Home Screen.
On Android:
Open barrhavenbugle.ca in Chrome,
Tap the three dots at the top right, and
Tap Install app.
Full instructions for both phones are at the “Show me how” link below.
And send us your photographs
The Bugle would always rather run a real picture of Barrhaven than a stock one.
If you have a good photo of Barrhaven, we would like to see it. The pond at Chapman Mills. The market on a Sunday morning. Your street under snow or under construction. A pitch at Ken Ross. The sunset off Longfields. Something you noticed on a walk that made you take your phone out.
Reply to this email with it and tell us where it was taken. We credit every photo we run to the person who took it, and you keep your picture. Nothing is used anywhere without your say-so.
This Weekend in Barrhaven
Tuesday, August 4 and Thursday, August 6
City storm-recovery drop-in sessions at Ben Franklin Place, second floor, 101 Centrepointe Drive, 1 to 5 p.m. both days. One-on-one help with Compassionate Grant and Residential Protective Plumbing applications, backwater valve permits, and general legal information. Bring your documents. Canadian Red Cross case managers are in the same building weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., until at least the end of August, on 1-800-863-6582 or by walking in.
Saturday, August 8
Rainbow Loom Bracelet Bash at Staples Barrhaven, 101 Marketplace Ave, 10 a.m. to noon. Free, hands-on, and aimed squarely at the kids.
Live music on the patio at Kelsey's Barrhaven, 75 Marketplace Ave, 7 to 9 p.m. with IssaBel. The bi-weekly patio series moves inside to the bar if it rains.
Sunday, August 9
Barrhaven Farmers' Market at the Nepean Woods Park and Ride, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Local vendors, every Sunday.
See everything on the full calendar: barrhavenbugle.ca/events
Community Pulse
1. Your bin day is a day late all week. Because of Colonel By Day on Monday, August 3, curbside green bin, recycling, garbage and bulky item collection moved to today, Tuesday, August 4, and stays one day late for the rest of the week, with Saturday making up the missed day. Libraries, including Ruth E. Dickinson, are back to regular hours today. Collection details →
2. OC Transpo comes to the Sportsplex on August 11. A customer information session runs Tuesday, August 11 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Nepean Sportsplex, with a Zoom session Thursday, August 13 at the same time. The City says staff will cover the Customer-First Action Plan and this fall's service changes, and take questions. Register through Engage Ottawa.
3. A Nepean studio for adults with developmental disabilities is fighting to stay open. Silver Spring Studio, on the old Silver Spring Farm property, runs two three-hour art and cooking classes every weekday for people 16 and older. The Ottawa Citizen reported on July 29 that it operates with no grants or dedicated funding, and that because it cannot direct-bill, classes can cost families hundreds of dollars up front. It is one of the few programs of its kind in the west end.
4. Barrhaven Scottish says registrations are at a five-year high. The rugby club's own weekly update, dated July 20 and published July 25, puts registration at 444 with the season still running, retention up from 53.8 per cent to 69.8 per cent over four years, and 50 registered coaches. The figures are the club's own.
If the Bugle has earned a spot in your inbox, forward this to one Barrhaven neighbour who'd want it. That's the single biggest thing you can do to keep the Bugle useful.
From Jay’s Blog
The Bugle's publisher on why the Bugle exists.
We walked into the Broadway in Barrhaven by the Home Depot, and my wife said, "Oh, the Prime Minister was here yesterday for breakfast." I said I didn't know that. She said, "I saw it on my Facebook group." And in that moment I realized I have no idea what is going on in Barrhaven.
The internet never really replaced the newspaper. Facebook came along and one source turned into about forty. Every club has a page, every organization has a page, every business has a page. If you want to know what is happening you have to have already joined the right page, which means you are never exposed to the thing you did not know about. If you did not know about it, you did not see it. That is what costs a place its sense of itself. It is a bit like a town losing its team.
My fascination with all this probably started in grade 7, when I got a paper route delivering the Vancouver Sun. Three years of it. There was something about taking the papers out of the box at the pickup site, the texture of the newsprint, the Herman cartoon on the front page. My first real job with the Army Reserve came from a newspaper ad, that turned into a 35-year career. Everywhere we were posted, I got the local paper. The last one was the Pembroke Observer, where I spent five years on the editorial board. The age of the printed local paper ended around the time we moved to Yellowknife in 2013.
Barrhaven is not Ottawa, and Barrhaven is not Orleans. When amalgamation folded all these places into one city, it took away a layer of identity. Take the Prime Minister. Somewhere else he is the Prime Minister. Here he is Mark Carney, our MP, and Parliament Hill is 15 kilometres and another world away.
So this is a newsletter focused on Barrhaven. When I report what a councillor did, I won't tell you what to think of it. What I am telling you that this elected person, this week, did this thing, and leaving you the room to decide whether it fits with how you see the world. There are a hundred places to get or give an opinion. This is meant to be a place for the facts.
Local newsrooms are not coming back. They were a people business and they closed when the money left. But that does not mean the news stopped mattering. What amazes me is that with today's tools, one person can do what used to take a dozen, and connect 110,000 people who live in the same place.
Barrhaven is a place, not a footnote.
Read the full version: barrhavenbugle.ca/from-jay
What's Being Built
River Run closure scheduled for Greenbank realignment work
Map: OpenStreetMap contributors. The closed stretch of River Run Avenue is marked in red, from Perseus Avenue east to Burbot Street. The inset shows where that is within Barrhaven.
River Run Avenue will close between Perseus Avenue and Burbot Street from Monday, August 24 through Monday, August 31, according to Ward 3 Councillor David Hill. The closure is for first-phase work on the Greenbank Road realignment project. Hill says residents who may be affected should have received written notice before the work begins.
This is a construction notice rather than a claim that the larger project is complete or that a new development application has been approved. Readers in the area should follow the posted detours and the notices delivered to affected homes.
Sources: David Hill, "Road Closure | River Run from Celestial to Burbot | August 24th to August 31st," published July 31, 2026. Closure limits given as the City of Ottawa names that block of River Run Avenue in its road centreline data; Celestial Grove reaches River Run by way of Perseus Avenue.
From City Hall, to Queen's Park & the Hill
The Rundown. This is where we tell you what our elected officials have been doing on our behalf, taken from their releases, newsletters and public records. This section covers the work of the office and not the campaign. Every elected official gets it irrespective of any election. The Bugle and this section isn't about politics, it's to keep you informed.
City Hall
Ward 3: Councillor David Hill announced the Crossing Guard Park renaming, having moved the motion at Council on July 15, seconded by Councillor Riley Brockington. Hill posted a video to his Facebook page saying the vote was unanimous and that a memorial plaque is planned. That is our lead story this week, above.
Ward 24: Councillor Wilson Lo's July 28 newsletter carries several things worth knowing.
Parking tickets got more forgiving on July 28. Early payment now runs 15 days instead of 7, the set fine 45 days instead of 30, a review request 15 days instead of 7, and the default stage 76 days instead of 61. Tickets are now printed on yellow paper so they are harder to miss on a windshield. Full brief →
Kids 11 to 18 ride free until August 31 with a Presto card. Details →
Disc golf is down to one basket per park. After a safety audit, the plan went from two baskets per park to one, Oldfield Park came out over layout concerns, and the eastern edge of Furness Park went in. The sites are now Calaveras, Chapman Mills and Furness. Funding is earmarked but not approved, and Lo says resident feedback is still welcome.
Clearbrook Drive traffic calming survey closes August 27 at 11 p.m., if you live on it or drive it. The City's page carries the study, the concept plan and the survey link.
Chapman Mills Conservation Area boardwalk rebuild starts next month, with no closures expected. Claridge Drive resurfacing and sidewalk work is set for September 21. Fallowfield Road should be finished this week, with line painting possibly running into next. On Earl Mulligan Drive, Lo says the contractor has been ordered to rebuild six deficient speed cushions at its own expense.
On Alto, the high-speed rail project, Lo says the Ottawa to Montréal section is anticipated to start construction in 2029 to 2030, the preferred route is expected in November after focused consultations, and the corridor needs a right of way of about 60 metres, narrower in urban areas. The route through Barrhaven is not yet public.
Your councillors:
Ward 3 Barrhaven West, David Hill, David.Hill@ottawa.ca, davidhillbarrhaven.ca
Ward 24 Barrhaven East, Wilson Lo, Wilson.Lo@ottawa.ca, ward24.ca
Queen's Park
In his Nepean roundup published Sunday, August 2, MPP Tyler Watt says he is "deeply disappointed by the Province's decision to limit" the Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians program to certain areas only, and that he has met with Ministry officials to press for the eligibility area to be widened. That is the same program most Barrhaven and South Nepean addresses currently fall outside of. He also points residents to Canadian Red Cross flood support at redcross.ca/2026ottawafloods.
The same roundup lists where he has been in the riding:
the Half Moon Bay Community Association BBQ,
a Barrhaven Seniors' Council euchre afternoon,
the Barrhaven Farmers' Market, and
the Ottawa Lebanese Festival.
His office asks residents to send community events for inclusion.
On July 28 he published a separate post on provincial government advertising spending, with no Nepean-specific item in it.
Your MPP: Tyler Watt, tylerwatt.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org, tylerwattmpp.ca, constituency office at 250B Greenbank Road.
The Hill
Where your MP was, from the published public schedule only:
Wednesday, July 29 in Red Deer, Alberta, touring a housing site and announcing homebuilding measures alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, then a canola farm and a meeting with farmers, and
Thursday, July 30 in Delta, British Columbia, touring the Port of Vancouver.
Public-schedule stops in the riding this week: none.
This is a ledger of published public events, not a verdict on the work: a blank day means no public schedule was published, not an idle one.
Your MP: Mark Carney, mark.carney@parl.gc.ca, markcarney.libparl.ca, constituency office at 240 Kennevale Drive, by appointment.
Sources: City of Ottawa Council agenda, July 15, 2026; Councillor David Hill's public announcement; Councillor Wilson Lo's ward newsletter; Prime Minister's public schedule advisories at pm.gc.ca; Tyler Watt's public MPP newsletter; contact details from ottawa.ca, ola.org and ourcommons.ca.
Public Safety
Two drivers charged after 140 and 145 km/h on Limebank. The Ottawa Citizen reports that a road safety officer recorded one driver at 140 km/h on Limebank Road, then clocked a second at 145 km/h. The reported stretch is posted at 80.
Both licences were suspended and both vehicles were impounded for 14 days, the Citizen reports, attributing the enforcement details to Ottawa police.
Source: Ottawa Citizen, July 31, 2026, reporting Ottawa police enforcement details.
Only in Barrhaven
Nothing tests a neighbourhood's memory like the post-long weekend garbage and recycling schedule. The holiday pushes collection back a day, and it stays back a day for the rest of the week, which means every household in Barrhaven is now running a private calculation it did not ask for.
You will see it playout on the driveways. Green bin is Wednesday, no, Thursday. Somebody's bin will go out on the regularday day from muscle memory and sit there overnight looking confident. And then Saturday turns up to make good on the missed day and quietly undoes the whole thing again.
See you at the curb!
Source: City of Ottawa Colonel By Day collection notice.
What Barrhaven's Searching For: Business Intelligence
Ten thousand people are coming to a Barrhaven park in three weeks
Image: Barrhaven Bugle / Bugle Business.
Here is a date Barrhaven businesses might not have in their calendar yet.
The Indian Food Festival of Ottawa runs Friday, August 21 to Sunday, August 23 at Clarke Fields Park, 93 Houlahan Street, and entry is free. The organizers say past editions drew more than 10,000 people and that vendors sold out. It is listed by the Barrhaven BIA and by Ottawa Tourism.
That is very likely the largest concentration of foot traffic anywhere in Barrhaven this summer, and it is happening in a neighbourhood park rather than on a main street. Which is exactly why a lot of operators will miss it. It is not a City event and it is not a street festival that closes a road and puts a notice through your door. If you are not already looking for it, the first you will hear about it is the parking.
What that is worth to a business here.
A crowd that size does not stay inside the park fence. It arrives early, it leaves hungry or full, it needs somewhere to park, a washroom, a coffee, a pharmacy, an ATM, something for the kids. Three days of that lands within a short drive of most of Barrhaven's retail.
The businesses that get anything out of it will be the ones that decided in advance to be open, staffed and visible that weekend, rather than the ones that noticed on the Saturday. If you are within a few minutes of Houlahan Street, that weekend is a decision, not an accident: your hours, your staffing, and whether anything of yours is in front of ten thousand people who have driven into your neighbourhood.
And if you are further out, it is still a date worth knowing. Late August weekends are quiet. This one will not be.
The Bugle is naming published dates and a public location. This is not a comment on the festival, and it does not suggest any local business is involved with it or endorsed by it.
Sources: Indian Food Festival of Ottawa; Ottawa Festivals calendar; Barrhaven BIA community events. Attendance and sell-out figures are the organizers' own.
Renting out a place, selling privately, or want to reach Barrhaven? Advertise with us → barrhavenbugle.ca/advertise
Last Week's Reader Pulse
Thank you to the 35 readers who swiped the Reader Spending Pulse that closed on Tuesday, July 28. We publish these results because a survey only means something if we close the loop with the people who answered. Here is what you said.
Are you spending more this summer than you were earlier in the year?
15 of 35 said they are spending more, 43 per cent.
The other 20 said not more.
In the past month, did you buy from a local Barrhaven independent even though a chain was cheaper?
18 of 35 said they did, 51 per cent.
17 said they did not.
Would you pay a little more to buy from a local independent instead of a chain?
25 of 33 who answered said it is worth it, 76 per cent.
8 said price wins.
Read together, those three make an honest picture. Three quarters of you say you would pay a bit more to stay local, and about half actually did in the past month. The distance between the intention and the receipt is the part local owners have to plan around, and it is smaller here than the grumbling would suggest.
Method: anonymous, one response per device, 35 responses counted after reverse-pair, attention-check, completeness and speeder screening. Self-selected and link-shared, so this is a qualitative snapshot of readers who chose to weigh in, not a representative measurement of Barrhaven.
Reader Pulse: final call
Image: Barrhaven Bugle / Reader Pulse survey card.
Barrhaven, call it. This week's deck closes tonight, so this is your last chance to weigh in. No login, no names, aggregate results only, and the numbers come back to you right here.
Puzzle Corner
Last week's answer: the Barrhaven sports centre whose Ottawa Police in-person office hours were paused for the summer is Walter Baker Sports Centre.
Barrhaven Trivia:* how many hectares is the Barnsdale Road site where Minto has proposed 942 new homes? *(Answer next week.)
This week's Barrhaven Mini, all local words, a few minutes to solve. Play it now →
Sources: Councillor Wilson Lo's ward newsletter (last week's answer); Ottawa Business Journal, via the Bugle's Minto brief (this week's answer, held for next issue).
Election Corner
Where the Bugle stands: nowhere. We present candidates and their ideas, promote no candidate, and take no position on the election or its issues.
The City clerk's certified list still shows six candidates across Barrhaven's two council races:
2 in Ward 3 Barrhaven West, and
4 in Ward 24 Barrhaven East.
There have been no new certifications or withdrawals since last week. A person is a candidate when the clerk certifies the nomination, not when they announce, so this list is the one we count from.
Here are the five questions. Every certified candidate gets the same five questions from the Bugle, the same space to answer, and the same deadline. We will print them in full so you can see exactly what we asked, and so can anyone still deciding whether to run.
1. What is the one local issue in your ward you hear about most often from residents, and what would you do about it?
2. If you're elected, what is the first concrete step you'd take in your first six months on council?
3. What's a Barrhaven place, tradition, or detail that most residents outside your immediate neighbourhood might not know about, and why does it matter to you?
4. Where do you think the City has gotten a recent decision affecting Barrhaven wrong, and what would you have done differently?
5. What in your own background or experience do you think best prepares you to represent your ward on council?
Where things stand. Five of the six certified candidates have been sent the questions:
Ward 3 - David Hill and Donna Blackburn
Ward 24 - Wilson Lo, Zahy A Adam and Yoosaf Melparamba.
The sixth, Jules Ruhinda in Ward 24, has no public contact route in the City's data and we have not been able to reach him. If you can put us in touch, or if he is reading this, we would like to send him the same questions.
No answers have come back yet. Nobody is late: the deadline is Tuesday, September 8, and candidates have until then. We will print their answers, and we will list every certified candidate whether they answer or not.
What would you ask them? Send us the question you want put to candidates in your ward. House rules: civil, and respectful of the candidates and the process. We will not publish personal attacks. Questions may be shortened or combined, not every one will make the final list, and the final list goes to every certified candidate at the same time. Reply to this email with yours.
Nominations close Friday, August 21, and election day is Monday, October 26. Advance vote dates will appear here once the City publishes them.
Full profiles, the published questionnaire, the response ledger and our conflict-of-interest disclosure: barrhavenbugle.ca/election
Source: City of Ottawa, certified candidates for City Councillor, Wards 3 and 24; the Bugle's own candidate outreach ledger.
The Strand Herd
Image: The Strand Herd / Barrhaven Bugle illustration.
See every Strand Herd → barrhavenbugle.ca/cartoon
Barrhavenbugle.ca updates between Tuesday emails with events, quick news briefs, The Strand Herd, the directory, listings and other local tools. See the full community calendar anytime: barrhavenbugle.ca/events.
Thanks again to Barrhaven Kidz Clubhouse for supporting the Bugle and local news in Barrhaven.
Have a tip, event, correction or photo? Reply to this email anytime.
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