By Mark Squibb/January 13, 2023
Ferryland’s scenic ocean views and rugged costal landscapes draw visitors to the historic community year after year, but Mayor Aidan Costello said the biggest single challenge faced by the community this past year was the amount of storm and flood damage caused by offshore storms.
“We had several bad offshore storms,” said Costello. “Plus, we had a couple of severe rainstorms that did a lot of damage as well.”
This past December, the town suffered $30,000 worth of storm damage to armour stone that had been placed around The Pool to try and protect the inland area.
Beach Road and Freshwater Road, as well as the Colony of Avalon parking lot, were heavily damaged as well.
Council has applied to the provincial government for emergency funding to fix the damages.
“I think that all levels, provincial, federal, and the local governments, have got to sit down and start planning for those storms in the future,” said Costello. “Because it looks like, from year to year, they’re getting worse — and happening more often.”
Sadly, the region lost a dedicated community leader when Deputy Mayor Harry Bryan passed away on March 2.
“Harry was the person that came form previous councils, and carried over the experience and the commitment,” said Costello. “Harry was a committed deputy mayor and councillor. He did a lot of finances. He was very committed and involved, and not only with council, but with several other organizations, like the Folk Arts Council, and some of the other committees. So, it is devastating to the community. And even to this day, we still miss Harry around the table. Harry is going to be missed for a long while in this community.”
The Town in this last year opened a new water treatment plant, purchased a new fire struck, and completed several hiking trail projects.
The Town split the purchase of the new truck, which came with a price tag of $367,000, with the provincial government on an 80/20 ratio, leaving the Town on the hook for only about $67,000.
For the treatment facility and new filtration system, the Town entered into an 80/20 cost sharing agreement with the provincial government on the million-dollar project. Unfortunately, that project went slightly over budget, and ended up costing Ferryland over $200,000.
The town also hosted Celebrate Ferryland Day, a farmer’s market held over the Thanksgiving weekend wherein craftspeople, home bakers, and other vendors could sell their wares and kids could play special games.
Costello said the market was a big hit with residents.
“We were quite happy with how things turned out,” said the mayor. “So already, we are talking about an event for next year.”
The summer tourism season, one of the big indicators folks have used to measure how far we’ve come since COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, was also a success.
“Just talking to the operators of the major attractions, like the Colony of Avalon, and the Folk Arts Council, I think they’re quite happy with the way things turned out,” said Costello. “I’m not sure that they matched 2019, but overall, it was a big jump from 2021. Just myself observing around the community, it was a busy year.”
Costello said the Town is currently working on restoring some historic local barking pots — large iron cauldrons that fishermen would boil water and certain tree barks in to preserve and maintain fishing gear — and updating its website.
Council is also strategizing for the future.
“We’re putting a little bit more of our budget into planning and development,” said Costello. “We’re a new council, this past year being our second year, so this year we like to put a little more thought into planning and development. As you’re probably aware, all these small communities are just that — small communities — so we need to grow our communities. We would like to be able to sit around the table, do a bit more planning and try and attract a few more people to come to our community and live here.”
Unfortunately, Costello said that council, like many others across the province, have been forced to increase taxes in Budget 2023.
“Without getting into specifics, we spent a lot of money this year, unexpected money,” said Costello. “Increases for contracted water and sewer projects, our new water treatment plant, and aging infrastructure cost us a lot of money. So, we are going to be increasing our taxes this year.”
He said the tax structure document will be sent out to residents and advertised in the Irish Loop Post within the next week or so.
‘It’s been a very expensive year in the community,” said Costello. “And as much as we hate to do it, we’ve got to increase taxes.”
Ferryland is certainly not alone in increasing taxes —Witless Bay and Bay Bulls also hiked some of their taxes for Budget 2023.
“I spoke with the Department of Municipal Affairs, and they’ve said that we’re not on our own — the whole province is suffering,” aid Costello. “It’s costing more to operate these towns and the money is not there, provincially or federally, to do much more than we’re already doing.”
