Halloween is history and it’s time to start thinking about the city’s rake-to-the-curb leaf collection, set to start Nov. 8 and continue through Dec. 6, 2023 in Cambridge.
City crews will collect the leaves for composting, once section of the city at a time. Look for an interactive online map at this link, under the “Cambridge Leaf Collection Program” drop-down section.
Leaf collection times
Here’s what West Galt residents need to know about leaf collection:
Nov. 13- 17 – collection mostly in the triangle of west Galt between the Grand River, St. Andrew’s Street and the south city limits.
Nov. 20-24 – collection west of Rosslyn Road and north of Bismark Drive; and south of Blenheim Road to St. Andrew’s Street.
Nov. 27-Dec. 1 – collection north of Blenheim Road including Blair Village, west of the Grand River.
Cambridge city crews collecting leaves.
The city encourages property owners to leave leaves in place over the winter, providing habitat for pollinator like bees and butterflies.
Cambridge is designated a Canadian Bee City, for local efforts to protect pollinator habitat.
Or you can rake, mulch and compost, to keep the nutrients on your property for your 2024 growing season.
Bagged yard waste collection in Cambridge is provided by the Region of Waterloo.
You may also take your bagged leaves and yard waste to the Cambridge Waste Management Centre, 201 Savage Dr., Monday to Saturday between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Fees may apply.
The Dickson Park Grandstand reopened after renovations, in this photo taken July 14, 2024. Photo by Kevin Swayze
UPDATE JULY 2024: Repairs to the historic Dickson Park Grandstand are complete in Cambridge.
It looks like the reconstruction of the Dickson Park grandstand will be done by winter 2023.
Work involves a top-to-bottom restoration of the 104-year-old historically designated structure.
Work started in late July 2023 on the nearly $1.3 million project, funded by the City of Cambridge and Ottawa.
Work involves repairs to the flat roof, replacing the wooden bench seating and concrete foundation, and new access step repairs.
To passersby, reconstruction of the Dickson Park grandstand looks like the time winter weather will do it arrives in December 2023.
On Sat., Nov. 4, 2023, painters worked in the unseasonably warm 9 C weather, working under the roof from a cherry picker lift.
The Dickson Park grandstand is an historically protected structure in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. It was built in 1919. In 2003, it underwent a $1.2 million restoration.
The historic Dickson Park grandstand in Cambridge, Ontario, closed in July 2023 for renovations costing almost $1.3 million.
Painters finishing work under the roof of the Dickson Park grandstand in Cambridge, Ontario, on Nov. 4, 2023.
The 2023 renovation of the historic Dickson Park grandstand in Cambridge, Ontario, included a new flat roof, wooden bench seating and access stairs.
The 2023 renovation of the historic Dickson Park grandstand in Cambridge, Ontario, cost almost $1.3 million.
Dickson Park History
Dickson Park was created in 1871 when William Dickson Jr. donated 21 acres of land to the Town of Galt.
The original grandstand was built in 1891 or 1892, says Jim Quantrell, in his history book Time Frames, from the City of Cambridge Archives.
The grandstand was doubled in size around 1904, as the Galt Horse Show was a big annual event in Dickson Park at the time.
On Jan. 8, 1916, the grandstand burned to the ground. Three boys later admitted to setting the fire.
Today’s grandstand in Dickson Park was built in 1919. Today, it is a historically designated structure under the Ontario Heritage Act.
Use the slider to compare now and then photos. There’s been a grandstand at Dickson Park in Cambridge since 1890 or 1891. The photo of the original grandstand is courtesy of the Cambridge City Archives. It shows the structure after it was expanded in 1904. It burned to the ground in January 1916. Today’s grandstand was built in 1919 and is undergoing renovations in 2023.
Canada Day was usually just another work day on the farm when I was growing up.
Not like today, when it’s a holiday with community parades and fireworks in Cambridge, Kitchener, or Waterloo. Or a backyard family barbecue might be more appealing.
Now that I’m a business communications professor at Conestoga College, I encourage the international students I teach to enjoy the break from classes, join in community events and learn more about Canada.
Canada Day events Waterloo Region
For my students at the Doon or Downtown Kitchener campuses, there are Canada Day festivities in Waterloo Region. The Canada Day parade down King Street in Cambridge ends at Riverside Park, where fireworks light up the skies.
July 1 now is so different than when I was growing up on a farm just south of Hamilton, Ontario.
Late June and early July was in prime time for cutting and bailing hay, before putting it in the barns to feed cattle over the winter. The weather was usually stinking hot and humid. And it felt even hotter when working the upstairs mow of the barn, under a sheet metal roof with minimal air circulation and clover dust burning my eyes.
Days that felt like 35 C outside felt more like 45C or 50C up in the mow. I remember sweat stinging my eyes and running down my back as I worked beside my dad and brother with hooks to drag, lift and stack 30 kg bales of cut and bundled grasses.
It looked like what was happening in this video, except we would always be wearing gloves. The video below shows how I remember the bales of hay carried up into the barn for stacking.
Didn’t care about Canada Day
Almost five decades ago, I didn’t care that most stores were closed on July 1. If was sunny and hot, we were putting bales up and in the hayloft, not shopping.
Now, I tell my international students that since July 1 is a national holiday, most stores and businesses will be closed across Canada.
It wasn’t until I turned 16, and started working part-time in a camera store in shopping centre off the farm, that I started paying attention to the Canada Day Holiday. Especially when it fell on a Saturday, like in 2023, when my holiday day might end up on Friday, or a Monday. I learned to like working on July 1, because I was paid a premium rate.
And later, when a newspaper reporter and assigned to work on holidays, the employee union contract guaranteed I receive double-time pay.
She came to town and fell in love with the architecture in Cambridge, Ontario – especially on the west side of the Grand River. She’s now a private chef creating and serving gourmet meals in homes across West Galt. Photographer Stan Switalski provided the cover and inside images to accompany the story.
The monthly magazine is published by Best Version Media and delivered by Canada Post to mailboxes in my neighbourhood.
For 17 years, I worked as a journalist, photographer, and editor at the former Cambridge Reporter newspaper. Now, 20 years since it closed, I continue to put my local news and writing skills to work as a content coordinator for Neighbours of West Galt. It’s an analog anomaly in the 21st century: a print-only, local magazine.
I’m always looking for news, event, and photo submissions about West Galt, at this email.
Stories and photos submitted to the magazine in the January edition included:
Another book published: Tara Mondou released another of her fiction novels, entitled Tara’s story.
GaltRailway history: Local historian Trevor Parkins-Scibarras shared one of his Transit Time Warp photo comparisons. It shows a train crossing the Grand River in 1900 and again in the same spot in 2022, using the landmark Canadian Pacific Railway bridge over the Grand River.
Pet of the Month: Bubbles, a Labradoodle dog who greets customers entering Molloy’s Soap at 7 Grand Avenue South.
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