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Greetings all. Here are 3 items that I hope are of interest to you amidst this holiday season:

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1) HVRA's Home Energy Retrofit Programme (HERO) has been extended to the end of January, 2010.

That means you still have time to do as 115 of your neighbours have done: sign up for a HERO energy audit with Carson Dunlop. And once you've had the audit, and undertaken improvements big or small to improve the energy efficiency of your home - you will become eligible for provincial and federal rebates of up to $10,000. Those rebates are due to expire early in 2011, so don't wait too long.

As you'll recall from our flyers, 20% of the energy loss in houses in the Harbord Village is from drafts that are the equivalent to having a 22 square inch window open day and night, 365 days a year. We can reduce our heating bills, and make our homes more comfortable cheaply by simply stopping those drafts with caulk. In addition, 29 households are working with Atlascare to replace their furnaces at discounted prices.

To sign up or obtain more information, send an email to hero@harbordvillage.com, or call David Booz at 416-806-2669.

2) The Toronto Women’s Bookstore is in danger of closing.

Harbord Street once had many bookstores, and may soon lose one of the few that remain. To learn more about the challenges facing the Toronto Women’s Bookstore on Harbord, visit http://www.womensbookstore.com/. Please consider making a donation online and buying some books at the store over the next couple of weeks.

3) U of T Engineering students want to help solve our problems.

Jason Bazylak, who recently moved into Harbord Village, is the coordinator of a University of Toronto Engineering course that needs projects for first-year students to work on, starting in January. The scope of possible projects is unlimited, but they should be ones that a team of junior engineering students are capable of addressing. The students would meet and consult with you in January. After that consultation, they would propose solutions to the problem(s) you have put before them.

If you decide to take advantage of this offer, please note that the students cannot implement the solutions they propose to you. If you like their solutions, it will be your responsibility to find someone to implement them, if you yourself do not wish to do the work.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about possible projects:

* How can I capture and use rainwater to water my garden without taking up a lot of space?

* How can I secure my bike in the front yard while allowing it to be easily accessible in the morning?

* I need a device to help me clear leaves out of my gutters without climbing up a ladder.

* How can we discourage people from driving the wrong way on one-way streets?

* How can we reduce traffic moving through the neighbourhood?

* How can we encourage bike use in the neighbourhood?

* How can we discourage littering, particularly but not only in our parkettes?

* How can we help residents cope with large garbage/recycling bins?

* Could a garbage/recycling vehicle be designed that could pick up in laneways, from the rear of a house rather than the front?

If you have a problem in need of a solution, please contact Jason Bazylak asap at jbazylak@mie.utoronto.ca. He will be checking his email over the holidays and would be happy to answer questions or help refine projects. His students will start working on the projects in early January, so he is hoping to receive your emails before the end of the year.

Season's Greetings to you and yours from the HVRA!

Cheers,

Tim Grant, HVRA chair, www.harbordvillage.com,

(416) 960-1244 Fax (416) 925-3474

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