By Mark Squibb/September 16, 2021
Less than 24 hours after the Town of Witless Bay voted to move ahead with plans to build an extension to Mullowney’s Lane after a judge quashed the original motion due to a conflict of interest, the Save Ragged Beach group submitted an appeal to the Eastern Regional Appeals Board shutting down construction again.
A stop work order is in place until the Board can hear the appeal.
at least that hearing can be scheduled.
Council voted to move ahead with the work during a special meeting Monday. That meeting was held because an earlier meeting, held on Tuesday, September 7, had to be scrapped and rescheduled when it was discovered the public conference call had been accidentally muted, so that members of the general public heard only dead silence during the meeting’s entirety.
“We went through the whole meeting, and we thought we were finished and that, but some people called back in and said,’ What about the meeting? What happened?’” explained Mayor Derm Moran.
Monday’s meeting was short and called largely to appoint Kevin Kelly as both chief administrative officer and acting town clerk, as well as pass the motion on continuing with the Mullowney’s Lane Extension tender.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t know that nobody could hear us,” said Moran. “Once we realized that, several councillors were gone, so we sent out notice that we would have another meeting…. It was a public meeting, but we didn’t have the public as such,” said Moran.
The original motion to extend Mullowney’s Lane passed in May of 2020, and Moran said the new motion is virtually similar.
“The motion itself is just sort of a copycat of the motion that was before the courts,” said Moran. “It just states to extend Mullowney’s Lane in regard to those 168 metres. And also included in that particular motion was to tender the original tender, which was $58,000 plus HST. We checked with the contractor, which was O’ Brien’s Contracting, in regard to the tender and they did up a note stating that they would honour the same amount that was tendered. So, we just included that in the motion too.”
Justice Glen L.C. Noel overthrew the May 2020 motion on the basis that Deputy Mayor Maureen Murphy ought not to have voted on the matter due to a conflict of interest, as her brother Ron Harte would benefit from the work.
Murphy herself had asked council whether she was in conflict, and council voted that she was not.
Moran said the town made an honest mistake.
“We did err,” said Moran. “There was no intention of doing that. And the judge somewhat said the same thing, ‘Look, it was just one of those things where you’re only volunteers and you’re only trying to do what you can, and sometimes these things happen.’ So, he squashed the motion, and because he squashed the motion, we will have to make a new motion with regards to extending Mullowney’ s Lane. The judge has signed off on stating the fact that the town has the authority to handle roads, lanes, and right of ways, and that right of way falls under that, and he said once you make that motion, you can proceed.”
Moran said the motion approved during last week’s ‘silent meeting’ did not pass unanimously.
“There was one individual, wondering with regards to whether the judge had signed off, and I explained to her that our lawyer had informed us that that would be looked after tomorrow.”
Moran said he didn’t want to identify the councillor, as it was not a legitimate vote, as it was not made public.
Councillor Colleen Hanrahan, however, did vote against the motion during the September 13 meeting.
Councillor David Ryan did not vote as he declared a conflict because he works with O’Brien’s. Councillor Vince swain made the motion, which was seconded by Fraser Paul.
Immediately following the vote, the Save Ragged Beach group made plans to protest Tuesday morning.
Moran said that in advance of the vote there was already protesters on site.
“They have a tent pitched down there,” said Moran. “They pitched that the other night, right in the middle of the right-of-way… I noticed it there, naturally you would, and I just took it for what it was and said, ‘Okay, they have a tent there.’”
The mayor added at this point, it’s all he expects, although he hopes that protesters will honour the judge’s decision.
“I’m a believer in the law, and you just can’t shun the law as such, and if necessary, the town will take the necessary steps,” said Moran.
