Motions exceed minutes at quickie meeting

By Mark Squibb/June 9, 2022

During last week’s specially called public meeting, Witless Bay council issued a tender to hire a new town planner, a tender for Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) site work at the playground/ballfield, a tender for road sealing, another for line painting, and approved training for town staff — all in under six minutes.

Both the road sealing tender and line painting tender were awarded to Irish Loop Driveway Sealing.

“This is just some maintenance for our town parking lot,” said councilor Jacob Hayden. “The lines need to be painted and the asphalt sealed in hopes it will look more presentable for Come Home Year festivities.”

As to the staff training, council contracted LW Consulting to provide the staff training, although the type of training was not specified.

The Irish Loop Post reached out to the former town planner, Paul Boundridge, and inquired as to when he and the town parted ways.

Boundridge would not comment and suggested the Post contact Town Manger Shawn Kavanagh for more information on the matter.

With Kavanagh being on leave of absence, the Post made a general inquiry to the Town.

Town Clerk Katherine Doyle explained that Boundridge’s contract has expired as per the agreed-upon terms.

“The Town of Witless Bay is required to allow others, who may wish to submit a tender for the specified contract inclusive of Mr. Boundridge, to do so in order to allow for fair competition and transparency within the contracts awarded for the Town of Witless Bay,” read Doyle’s e-mail.

Doyle said the contract expired in May, and that any concerns can be directed to Boundridge, as the Town is still using his services in the interim.

Sullivan votes nay to archaeological reviews

By Mark Squibb/June 2, 2022

Of the four members of Bay Bulls council in attendance at the May public meeting, councillor Jason Sullivan was alone in speaking against a new development application process that he said may stall development along the town’s coastline.

The change would see development applications along the coastline be submitted to the Provincial Archaeological Office for further review due to the Memorial University archaeological assessment currently taking place within the community.

Sullivan made the motion to “not to have to check with those people unless it’s an actual, known area where there might be some archaeological things.”

No other member of council would second the motion, and after three calls for a seconder, the motion died.

Councillor Keith O’Driscoll motioned that council require that development application in areas along the coastline within 100 metres of the high-water mark be referred to the Provincial Archeology Office for review.

The requirement, said O’Driscoll, will then be reviewed following completion of the Memorial University Bay Bulls Archaeological Assessment which is currently underway.

Councillor Shannon O’Driscoll seconded the motion.

Just as Keith O’Driscoll was saying he felt the idea was a good one, councillor Jason Sullivan was saying he thought the idea was a horrible one.

“I think this is going to delay any potential development along the coastline,” said Sullivan, himself a developer, who wondered how comprehensive the review would be and worried that development would be stalled for years to come.

Town CAO Jennifer Aspell, at the request of Deputy Mayor Jason O’Brien, explained the process a little further.

“The Provincial Archaeological Office has been asking municipalities to consider this for quite some time, and because we’re currently completing the assessment of the harbour and the coastline, it was recommended that we refer applications to them, but they have advised that they receive thousands of applications a year, and they turn them around quite quickly, within a one week period, and a really small percentage, I think it’s about two percent or less, are required to have any further work done, or an assessment of any sort,” said Aspell.

As an aside, Aspell said she was happy to note the archaeological work was underway, and folks may have noticed MUN students around town going about their work.

“At the end of this project next year, we will receive a GIS map that will note any item of significance that has been found and at that point and time council could certainly review this policy, or this motion, and say, ‘Look, we have a map, and we know in particular areas what is under the ground,’” she said. “So, we can look at individual applications, and not require them to go to the Provincial Archaeological Office.”

She added the new policy would be a precautionary measure until the Town received that map.

O’Driscoll said he thought the measure would be beneficial.

“We’re one of the oldest towns here in the province, and there’s a lot of historic recognition here,” said O’Driscoll, who added that Crown Land applications typically require such a referral anyway.

The motion passed 3 to 1, with Deputy Mayor Jason O’Brien and councillors Keith and Shannon O’Driscoll voting in favour. Councillor Sullivan voted against the motion, while Mayor Neil O’Brien was not present at the meeting.

Witless Bay agrees to accept the money for new fire hall

By Mark Squibb/May 26, 2022

A special public meeting of Witless Bay council held last Thursday lasted just under four minutes, but a motion passed during the meeting will have a major impact on the entire region.

Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard moved that the town accept a cost-shared funding offer from the provincial government and move ahead with construction of a new regional fire hall.

The total project value comes in just shy of $3 million dollars, with the Town expected to pay $815,646.

Councillor Ralph Carey seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously with little discussion.

Council also approved a request that lights in the current fire hall be repaired and replaced, and the disposal of some items no longer in use by the fire department be taken care of.

Council received approval for its application for a new fire hall, which had been submitted by the previous council, on March 9. However, it delayed accepting the funding right away in order to consider the financial implications.

Town of Bay Bulls puts new fence on hold; playground inspection a go

By Mark Squibb/May 26, 2022

The Town of Bay Bulls has put plans to fence off the town garage on the back burner.

During last week’s meeting, councillor Keith O’Driscoll moved to defer the vote on building the fence for the garage until a later date.

“We have a few other items in the hopper that I think are more beneficial to our residents,” said O’ Driscoll. “So, I think this is something that we should defer until a later date.”

Council voted unanimously to defer the motion, with no further discussion.

Prior to that decision, council voted to ask Murray’s Landscaping to complete a pre-installation inspection of equipment to be used at the new Sheldon Drive playground at a cost of $200 plus HST an hour.

East Coast Trail has been good for Bauline

By Mark Squibb/May 26, 2022

Bauline councillor Chris Palmer says he knows firsthand that the East Coast Trail has been a benefit to his town.

“I live right down in the heart of Bauline, just overlooking the harbour not 20 feet back from the East Coast Trail,” said Palmer, who brought greetings on behalf of his community at a ribbon cutting ceremony at Topsail Beach last week for the opening of a new section of trailway. “In 2000, we opened a small bed and breakfast, and in the years that we were operating, I would say that over 50 per cent of our guests came either because they heard of the East Cost Trail, or came and hiked the trail while they were there.”

Palmer entertained the audience with some recollections of past guests from every corner of the globe.

“We had one small group come from California, who heard about the trail, wanted to visit Newfoundland, and wanted to do as many miles (of the trail) as they could,” said Palmer. “Others of our guests were from central and western Canada, the US, the Eastern seaboard, and the UK, and from as far away as Australia. But our favorite guests were probably the young couple who came from Germany. They had hiked all over the world, had heard about the East Coast Trail, and wanted to come. And they did. Now, they were avid outdoor people, naturalists, and when they first came, we thought, ‘They’re going to want vegetarian meals, high fibre grains, and leaves and the lot. Well, at the end of their stay, they ate more black and white puddings, fried toutons, molasses, and Jiggs Dinner than anybody I’ve ever known.”

Palmer was on council in 1994 when the East Coast Trail, then just a group of volunteers with big dreams of converting historic coastal walking paths into a formalized trail network, brought the concept to Bauline town council.

“And from that beginning came the East Coast Trail, and this wonderful network of hiking trails throughout the region, and Bauline both appreciates it and all the volunteers who make it possible, and congratulations on the opening of this Northern section,” said Palmer.

Witless Bay approves janitorial contract after second tender call

By Mark Squibb/May 19, 2022

After a delay of some weeks, Witless Bay has approved a janitorial contract for the cleaning of town buildings including the Town Hall, fire department, and Puffin Centre.

During last week’s meeting, councillor Alex Troake made a motion that the Town enter a contract with House Cleaning St. Johns NL for a period of one year at a cost of $30 an hour.

The Town received two bidders, and awarded the contract to the lower bidder.

In a previous meeting, Troake had voted against awarding the contract to Trillium Services as it was the only qualified bidder after a second company backed out.

Troake, along with councillor Jacob Hayden, voted against awarding the contract to Trillium, while councilors Gerard Dunne, Ralph Carey, and Mayor Trevor Croft voted in favour of the motion. As Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard and councillor Nancy Burke were absent from the meeting, the vote did not pass, despite three of five members present having voted in favour of it. That led to the second call for tenders.

Bay Bulls going all in for garden celebration

By Mark Squibb/May 19, 2022

You may have head that 2022 is the Year of the Garden.

The Town of Bay Bulls is holding a garden planting event at the community pavilion on June 18, to celebrate National Garden Day as part of the year’s festivities.

Details will be released in the future. Town CAO Jennifer Aspell also noted there will be awards handed out, likely towards the end of summer, for folks who keep gardens.

The awards will fall into different categories.

“We haven’t quite worked out the details yet, but once we have that worked out it will be communicated to the public,” said Aspell.

The Year of the Garden is a joint initiative by Communities in Bloom and the Canadian Garden Council. The initiative also marks the centennial anniversary of the Canadian Horticultural Council.

The Town also officially recognized the thirtieth anniversary of World Ocean’s Day on June 8.

Mobile High shop class picks up an outside job

By Mark Squibb/May 19, 2022

It looks like a win-win situation for both the Town of Witless Bay and Mobile Central High School shop class.

During last week’s public council meeting, council voted to purchase materials for the school’s shop class so that students can do some work around town.

“We spoke with the principal, and he’s agreed that if we provide the materials, they’ll make some barriers that we can use in the winter, and we need more of them,” said councillor Ralph Carey. “This is a great way to help the kids who are in shop learn some new skills and we get some free labour.”

There was some lighthearted chuckling at the ‘free labour’ comment, and council approved the motion unanimously.

Work is nearly completed on shoring up the wall that shoulders Harbour Road in Witless Bay from the water and beach. The bolstering of the wall has been taking place for more than a month.