Cape Broyle entering new year with revamped Recreation Committee

By Patrick Newhook/December 16, 2021

The Town of Cape Broyle has high hopes for what it can now do with its newly expanded Recreation Committee.

On Tuesday, December 7, council held a meeting and expanded the committee, which has done yeoman’s work over the years organizing events such as the Santa Claus Parade and other activities.

The key difference between the old committee and the newly updated one is mainly size. For some time now, the committee had been down to two members. Now it has been increased to include more members and will operate as a more formal arm of council.

Mayor Beverly O’Brien is hopeful that will enable the town to tap into more grants that can help the community.

“The government is offering a lot of opportunities around recreation and grants and stuff like that, and I just felt that we were probably missing out on some of them because we didn’t have a formal committee,” said O’Brien. “Now we do have a formal committee.”

The mayor is also optimistic about what the new Rec Committee can bring to the town of some 489 residents in other ways.

“It’s not about sports, it’s not about arts, it’s about everything, it’s about bringing recreation activities to our town,” said O’Brien. “We have Come Home Year coming up the summer and it’s just nice to have a formal recreation committee to help out. They’re going to be doing stuff for all ages from babies to seniors.”

One of the new committee members, Heather Shannahan, is excited about the potential of the revamped Recreation Committee. Shannahan is originally from Cape Broyle and moved back last year. She wants to see the town have more opportunities for people to get together and have fun, which motivated her to become part of it.

“I think we’re going to… provide new interests for people to partake in the town and for all ages,” Shannahan said. “We’re hoping to have programming for people of all different ages, interests and abilities.”

One key thing Shannahan wants to see happen is more activities created to get the community to come together.

“We want to give them the option of, instead of on Tuesday evening going out on the road, maybe there’s an activity going on down at the hall, the community center, that might interest you,” said Shannahan.

Group activities like that help build a sense of community and memories, she argue

Southern Shore residents rally to welcome Afghani children to Newfoundland

By Patrick Newhook/December 16, 2021

During the season of giving, one group on the Southern Shore has decided to lend a hand to those arriving here from far away.

On October 26, some 116 Afghan refugees arrived at St. John’s International Airport, with the provincial and federal government aiming to help them establish new lives in the province.

The refugees have been here for a month now, and people are trying to help in whatever way they can.

A couple of women in Ferryland decided they were going to collect and give to the Afghan children this Christmas.

Annette Mooney and Mary Boland worked through and with their parish, and collected donations of activity type materials for two weeks to help give during the holiday season.

Every Christmas the pair works through their church to collect goods for groups in need. One key aim of doing this is to highlight the importance of giving to the younger generations coming up.

“We did this through our church which is Holy Family Parish from Brigus South to Cappahayden,” said Mooney. “Every year we try to have some kind of a project so that children can understand the whole idea of service and how important service is and giving, especially during Christmas, because it’s all about giving and helping the less fortunate.”

In previous years, they have donated to groups including the Gathering Place. For this year’s Christmas season, they decided they would try to help the Afghan refugees in St. John’s. Mooney got in touch with the Association of New Canadians and began to learn about what they needed.

“They told me that what they needed the most is activity type material for the children, especially when they’re in isolation and they need to occupy themselves,” said Mooney.

So Mooney and Boland went to work collecting colouring books and puzzles to help the kids stay entertained and busy.

“For two weeks, we put the notice in the church bulletin, and we put the boxes in the church and the priest spoke about it on the alter and we encouraged the parishioners to bring in items for the collection,” said Mooney “Everybody donated colouring books and markers, puzzles and games, that’s what we collected.”

After the two weeks had passed, they had received a ton of support and lots of donations.

“Thursday past we collected something like eight full recycling bags of all kinds of things,” said Mooney. “People were very, very generous.”

Alice Keough, the community connections coordinator with the Association of New Canadians, knows how donations like these can make the children feel special and welcome.

“They were so excited and they were so pleased,” said Keough. “Overall the day was filled with so much joy and happiness for these kids.”

Moving from Afghanistan to Newfoundland and Labrador is big change, especially if you’re a child, Keough said, and donations like these can go a long way in helping people out and making them feel wanted.

“It helps them by engaging them and making them feel safe and making them feel secure and special,” said Keough, “There’s a lot of people who have reached out to us and have donated things for these children, for these families. I think it certainly gives them a sense that this can be their new home and that they are welcome and the community certainly welcomes them with these gestures.”

Inside one of the bags that came from the Southern Shore was a hand written letter from a parishioner with a message welcoming the refugees to Newfoundland.

‘Welcome to our beautiful province of Newfoundland and Labrador,’ it read. “May you find love, peace and happiness in whatever part of the province you will make your home. We hope you love this place as much as we do.’

“That little gesture is just so special,” said Keough.

Ferryland courthouse makeover 'more than just a restoration project'

By Mark Squibb/December 9, 2021

The old Ferryland courthouse, home to the Ferryland Museum, is a historic jewel of the Southern Shore, its steep gable roof, wooden clapboard, and green and white colour scheme instantly recognizable.

The Town, with help from community partners and provincial government funding, is hoping to breath new life into the old structure, which was built in 1916 by the Bank of Montreal and later converted to a courthouse, complete with jail cell and police residence.

Jon Butler of Fresh Fruit & Architecture is one of the key players in the restoration project.

Back in February 2020, Butler and his last business partner Grant Genova were called in to do an assessment on the old museum building.

“Essentially, they were asking how much it would cost to demolish the building, or how much would it cost to restore it?” said Butler. “I don’t think there was ever a really serious conversation about demolishing it. It was more to set a baseline for what we would be looking at.”

For Butler, it was his first visit down the Shore in quite in some time.

“I hadn’t been to Ferryland or along the Southern Shore probably since I was in high school,” he admitted. “You see the main Ferryland sign and then it just opens up, and you see that vista. In that moment I looked at Grant, my business partner, and said ‘There’s something special here.’ And we went to the building, and stood up on the deck there, and it just reaffirmed the fact that this is more than just a restoration project.”

The partners sought input from the community and prepared a presentation for a town hall meeting at the Tetley Tea Room back in August, 2020.

“We had about 20, or 25 people show up,” said Butler, who added that, given the pandemic, he would have been glad if only three folks showed up. “It spoke to me to say that people care about this building, that there’s something here and people have something to say about what they would like to see in the future.”

Throughout the fall of 2020, the partners collected more data and conducted more research.

In January they were awarded some provincial government funding to take on the project, which he said kickstarted project planning for work in the spring.

He said he didn’t feel he was at liberty to go into the financial details regarding that funding.

Butler said he’s concerned not just with restoring the building, but giving it new purpose.

“And so, over the course of this too, what we were looking at was not just restoring the physical building itself, which is of huge importance, because from the perspective of the project, we want to make sure the historical integrity of the building is preserved… but the other side of it, the major component from our perspective, was what is this building going to function as?” said Butler. “So, obviously, structurally it needs to be preserved and we need to maintain its heritage and its history, but the building also needs to be able to support itself financially.”

The partners were trying to gauge how the building could operate 365 days of the year — not just during tourist season.

He joked that a craft brewery and Air BnB, would be the knee jerk reaction ideas, and while those would be good notions, it wasn’t what he was hearing from town folk.

“What we started to hear loudly and clearly, was that there is definitely a need, or a desire, for a local community centre space,” said Butler. “And the way we think of that is not to necessarily just to think ‘community centre,’ but a space that could be used for lots of different types of purposes, based on the needs of the community.”

He said that given Ferryland’s location on the Shore, it could serve as a creative centre for the region.

Butler has been in talks with groups including the Irish Loop Artisan Cooperative, who hosted an event in October with a pop-up café, art activities for kids and adults this fall, about the building’s potential as a community art space.

“It was quite positive,” said Butler. “We had a lot of input and feedback and suggestions and ideas… This building could potentially help provide a space for that group. And over the course of December and early into the new year we’re going to potentially open the space to folks that might like to use it and collect a little bit more information on how it functions with the things that they plan to do.”

He said that ‘pop-up’ and ‘multi-functional’ have been the crucial words, whether that’s a pop-up art exhibit or concert that can be projected out over the bay for a dory ‘drive-in theatre.’

“The intention and the goal is to treat this as more of a long term evolving project, where it’s not just the typical, fly-in by night, do the work and get out,” said Butler. “That’s part of the reason we’ve been taking a very slow pace with this… It doesn’t necessarily have to be just one thing. And that’s the idea behind it all. And the cool thing about it is if one thing is not working, or there’s a negative reaction from the community, we can say ‘Well, we tested that, but it’s maybe not for here, or maybe not for right now.’”

Butler added he hopes the community will be instrumental in shaping the building’s future, and that through a social media campaign and open houses, the group hopes to door knock to gauge folks’ interest.

“What are people thinking about?” asked Butler. “What’s missing from the Southern Shore or the Irish Loop region in general that a place like Ferryland or a building like this can fill the void or support some of that activity?”

Butler even invites residents to visit the building whenever possible to see the upgrades for themselves.

The next phase of the project will begin in the spring or summer, dependent on the receipt of more government funding.

With many hands involved, it may be confusing as to who’s in control. Butler said it’s definitely the town’s project and described Fresh Fruit & Architecture as a ‘support partner.’

“The town is taking the lead on the project per say, and we’re more or less there for support,” he explained.

Bay Bulls and Witless Bay take differing views on cleanup offer

By Mark Squibb/December 9, 2021

Bay Bulls and Witless Bay both voted on a quote from Clean Harbours Initiative  earlier this month, but while one council enthusiastically welcomed the initiative, the other passed.

The motion first appeared on the agenda for the November 8 Bay Bulls public meeting.

“This is a group that been going around Newfoundland, and cleaning up various harbours,” explained deputy mayor Jason O’Brien. “It’s a great environmental initiative.”

What council did not find so great was the $5,440 price tag.

Councilor Shannon O’ Driscoll motioned to deny, and councilor Jason Sullivan seconded the motion.

“I think we need to deny this at the moment, just for the fact that we’re still trying to burn out our budget for this next year and to this incur this cost is something that we don’t really want to take on right now,” said Sullivan.

Councilor Keith O’Driscoll noted that the port is a federal port.

“They have a harbor authority, so that’s kind of there baby,” said O’ Driscoll.

The very next night, Witless Bay council unanimously approved the initiative.

“The Clean Harbour Initiative is an initiative started by a local Newfoundland man going around to different areas of the province and taking ocean trash and other debris that has been cast to the way side for years, into our lovely oceans and beautiful scenery and onto out beaches,” explained councilor Jacob Hayden, who made the motion. “He’s going to come up and do an assessment just to tell if it’s worth him coming back in the future to do a full cleanup of the harbour.”

Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard seconded the motion and shared her enthusiasm for the project.

“I think it’s a really exciting initiative,” said Yard. “Initially I didn’t know a whole lot about it, until I looked into what he does. I think it’s really good seeing we have a globally significant seabird reserve right off our shores. I think this will be a really good news story for our town.”

Council voted unanimously in favor of the motion.

Councilor Ralph Carey added that should the clean up go ahead, it would be worthwhile to invite Mobile High School students to participate, as their studies require, they get a certain number of volunteer hours. Councilor Alex Troake added his support to the motion, saying it would be good for both the community and the seabird ecological reserve.

The quoted price was not mentioned in the meeting.

Croft says backup generators badly needed

The Town of Witless Bay called a special meeting this past week so it could get an application for federal capital works funding in on time.

The town requested money for three projects. The first is upgrades to Tuff’s Road at a cost of $400,000. That project would be cost shared at a 50/50 split, leaving the town on the hook for $230,000, including HST. The second project is upgrades to Harbour Road at a cost of $470,000. That project would also be cost shared 50/50. The towns portion would be $270,250.

For both projects, the town would borrow money from the bank over a seven-year term. For the smaller project, the town would have to pay $3,092 monthly. For the bigger job, the Harbour Road upgrades, the town would have to pony up $3,632 monthly.

Council is also requesting funds for emergency generators at both the fire hall and the Puffin Centre. Combined, the generators would cost $180,000. Cost shared at 90/10, the town would pay $20,700, which would be borrowed from the bank at a cost for $377 a month for a five-year term.

Mayor Trevor Croft said the generators are much-needed.

“If the power goes out, our emergency centres are the fire station and the Puffin Centre, and neither of those have back up generators,” he said. “So, we’re looking to get a generator for the town hall/fire station and one for the Puffin Centre so we can have warming centres for the residents in case of an emergency.”

He added the town has been experiencing a number of outages lately.

“We lose power at least twice a week in Witless Bay,” said Croft. “For ten minutes to a half an hour usually. About twice a week for the past two months. It’s getting on our nerves.

As far as he knows the only backup generator currently in town is at Alderwood Retirement Home.

“But we can’t all pile in there, so it will be nice to have something to rely on.”

Witless Bay resident says council shouldn't act on anonymous requests

By Mark Squibb/December 2, 2021

A resident of Witless Bay says council should reveal who requested council rescind four motions made by the previous council, all of which relate to blocking development off Mullowney’s Lane.

Anita Dunne said she’s concerned that council would rescind motions based on what amounts to an anonymous request, and she would like to see the community more involved in such decisions.

“What are their motives?” asked Dunne. “What is their agenda? Who is this person?”

Dunne was so bothered by it, she sent an access to information request to find out who had requested the motions be rescinded. She made the request shortly after the November 9 public meeting. She said Town Clerk Barbara Harrigan returned the request a few days later saying the town won’t be releasing the individual’s name.

“The reason given was that it would compromise the privacy of the person,” said Dunne. “So, they’re protecting the privacy of a person who made an anonymous request to change the town ordinances and rescind motions made by a previous council. In my world, that makes no sense at all. You would think that if someone wants something to happen in town that they would have to make a formal request to the town in writing or put something that would be a notice to people that are affected by these decisions.”

Two of the motions relate to 99 hectares of land surrounding Ragged Beach. Council voted to delay voting on whether to rescind them due to the heavy volume of information involved.

If the motions are rescinded, it would reinstate a 99-hectare Crown Land Reserve that would prohibit almost all development in the area.

Another request that came at the behest of the unnamed individual, which council complied with, was to rescind a motion that had given council the power to set its own road standards including for public Rights-of-Way. The change means the Town won’t proceed with an extension to Mullowney’s Lane that had been ordered by the previous council.

The final motion that was rescinded at the anonymous person’s request related to an approval that had been given for a septic system for a private property located behind Mullowney’s Lane. The previous council had made such applications contingent on approval from Service NL.

Dunne sees the rescindment of the motion as yet another attempt by certain individuals in Witless Bay to prevent several private landowners off Mullowney’s Lane from enjoying the use of their own property.

“There’s just no end to it,” said Dunne.

She said it’s been hard to contact most members of council, as their e-mail addresses and phone numbers are not listed on the Town’s website.

“I think the better way would have been for the town council to put on the meeting agenda that they had a request from this person, and say who made that request, and we should be able to ask that person why they feel this motion should be rescinded,” said Dunne. “It should have been put on the agenda to give people an opportunity to respond to it, and at the very least have an open meeting.”

Mayor Trevor Croft said the request was not anonymous, and council knows who the individual is. He said the request came to council almost immediately following the September election.

He said the town is simply following standard procedure.

“When people want to rescind a motion, they can e-mail us, or contact us in another way, and we can look into it, and put it on the agenda, and do our research on it, and find out if we can rescind it, or if we should rescind it, or if we shouldn’t,” said Croft.

As to the identity of the unnamed resident, Croft said again the town is following protocol.

“It’s anonymous to the general public, that’s just the way it works,” said Croft. “If people want to file an ATIPP request, they can get the information from the e-mail, but the name will be redacted.”

He said he understands people’s concerns, but assured council won’t rescind motions willy nilly or without doing its homework.

He said the decision to rescind two of the motions just made sense.

“We talked with the town engineer and the town planner, and that motion made no sense in their eyes, and the one about Service NL didn’t make sense to begin with, so those decisions were easy to make,” said Croft.

He argued that leaving road standards to council’s discretion can lead to dangerous situations that the town might be held liable for. He pointed out that a fire truck currently would have a very hard time trying to fit down Mullowney’s Lane.

One of the purposes of the extension of that lane, by the previous council, was to provide a turnaround for snowclearing and other heavy equipment that might need to access the lane.

Croft said it’s best to leave road standards to the provincial government.

“The Crown Land reserve, those were two of the motions that this guy had requested rescinding, and there’s a lot of information there, and it takes a long time to go through that information,” said Croft. “I’m still reading up about this Crown Land reserve, I don’t know a whole lot about it.”

He said he has three quarters of an inch worth of information to get through, and he does hope council gets to discuss the motion with folks in the area who will be affected, and that due to time constraints and busy schedules council may not be ready to vote on the issue by the December 14 council meeting.

Croft insisted he does not want to block access to any private land.

If folks have concerns about things that arise during the meeting, he said, the best thing is to e-mail the office directly, and Barb Harrigan will respond in time and get the necessary information.

Dunne, meanwhile, raised another concern relating to the votes cast for issues related to Mullowney’s Lane, and that’s the question of conflict of interest.

She argued that Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard, who has carried on a campaign against the private landowners off Mullowney’s Lane for the past decade, should declare conflict of interest and not vote on issues that relate to any development there.

“It’s getting old,” said Croft, when asked about the issue. “It really is. I do not really care much about this Ragged Beach fiasco. There’s so much more to this town than this one chunk. There are so many good things going on, there’s so much positivity going on in this town, and it just so happens that everything seems to fall back to this one area, this one problem, the one continuous issue.”

As to conflict of interest, Croft said Yard’s activism does not fall under the umbrella of conflict of interest.

“Conflict of interest means that you have a monetary gain, or someone you’re related to has a monetary gain,” said Croft. “I know there’s some issues going on because Deputy Mayor Yard voted on some stuff regarding Mullowney’s Lane, and some people are saying it’s a conflict of interest, and it’s not. People seem to like to make up their own version of what conflict of interest means to them.”

He pointed out that councilor Gerard Dunne does not vote on any tenders that Harbour Construction bids on because he works for the company, which his brother owns. That, said Croft, would be a clear instance of conflict of interest.

“But voting on something that you don’t like, doesn’t make it a conflict of interest,” said Croft.

Yard responded to the Post’s request for comment by saying media requests should be directed to Mayor Croft, as he is the official town spokesperson.

Southern Shore volunteers stand out at provincial recreation awards

By Mark Squibb/December 2, 2021`

A couple from Bay Bulls and a prominent community group in Witless Bay have been presented with provincial awards by Recreation Newfoundland and Labrador (RNL).

Rodney and Kelly Joyce, who have volunteered with the BBBAA’s Southern Shore United Soccer Program since 2015, have been named the Provincial Volunteers of the Year for 2021.

“This husband-and-wife duo have played a significant role in growing the program over the last seven years and dedicated a countless number of hours throughout the years to helping children in the region grow their skills,” said RNL president Gerry Hall. “Helping to grow the soccer community in the Town of Bay Bulls has been a tremendous feat and they continue to strive for more. Between summer camps, running the fall, winter and spring indoor soccer sessions, coaching soccer at Mobile Central High School, volunteering with basketball, hockey, and school activities, coaching basketball at St. Bernard’s School, volunteering with the school breakfast program, and lobbying for upgrades to recreation equipment – this duo are busy volunteers.”

The Kinsmen Club of Witless Bay & Area, meanwhile, have been named the Volunteer Group of the Year.

The Kinsmen Club of Witless Bay & Area are a part of Kin Canada and was established in the area in the early 1980s, Hall noted. “This group is committed to giving back in and around the community, with their official motto stating, ‘Serving the Community’s Greatest Need,’” he added.

The Kinsmen Club work in conjunction with other community volunteer organizations such as the Knights of Columbus, 50+ Club, and Witless Bay Town Council.

Over the years, said Hall, the club has organized many fundraisers, contributed, donated, sponsored, supported, and carried out countless other acts of kindness to the community and area. “Their most recent project was the Community Pantry where they provided a space for community members to donate food for those in need. They also completed a school supply drive for the pantry and plan to do a winter clothing drive before the end of the year.”

The Kinsmen Club of Witless Bay & Area has supported all age groups within the community from school aged kids to seniors and are always there when a community member or group is in need, said Hall. The club has helped improve the social, physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing of Witless Bay and the surrounding area, he added.

Four other groups and individuals were recognized in various categories during the awards presentations held last week.

“These awards recognize the contributions of professionals, community groups, volunteers, and service groups who improve recreation in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Hall. “It is an honour to celebrate those individuals and their contributions. Without such hardworking folks, we wouldn’t be able to engage our communities like we do, or help our fellow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians live healthy and active lifestyles.”