By Craig Westcott \ April 28, 2023
Trepassey council has managed to fill the two openings it had in the chamber, and nobody is more delighted than Mayor Rita Pennell to have a full crew.
After the latest call for nominations went out last month, former councillor Colin Cheater and former town administrator Sharon Topping both put up their hands offering to serve.
"That's a relief," said Pennell. "It's been a struggle all along (to keep a full complement). We haven't had an election in years. We're lucky to just get enough (to get acclaimed)."
As for byelections, Pennell noted the Town has often had to make several calls at times to fill even one seat.
With the full complement, the council will still have a lot on its hands. Pennell and her crew often find themselves dealing as much with provincial issues, especially health care and transportation, as they do with routine municipal business.
Just this week, crews are working on yet another repair to an area called the Lower Coast, a spit of land that juts out into Trepassy Bay connected to the rest of the town by a narrow road that keeps getting washed as climate change makes storms bigger and stronger.
"It's looking pretty good down there," Pennell said of the reconstruction. “It looks like they're doing a great job."
But she knows it's probably not a permanent solution.
"They're not putting any cribbing there," she noted. "And there's going to be nothing to stop the force of the water. So, we're just going to have to wait and see (how it holds up). I guess we're just going to have to be positive, but it's hard."
About 35 people live on the Lower Coast, Pennell reckoned, too many to relocate to the other side of the harbour in any vacant homes that might be available.
"You wouldn't resettle some of them if you put a bomb down there," she allowed, laughing.
More serious is the state of health care. Because of a wrangle over compensation between the last set of serving doctors and Eastern Health, Trepassey hasn't had a physician in more than a year. Residents of the Town and its surrounding area, including St. Shotts, Biscay Bay and Portugal Cove South, have been left to reply on part time nurse practitioners for their medical needs.
"They were here from Eastern Health on the 1st of March and they politely told us that we didn't need a doctor, that we're well looked after," said the mayor. "They just told us we don't need a doctor. It was such a negative meeting. They were so negative and (their attitude was) they were right and there was no one else right. One of them even told us they had left their family doctor and had gone with a nurse practitioner. I said you must be some foolish – I wouldn't leave mine."
Like many residents who have been lucky enough to find one elsewhere, Pennell goes to Kelligrews to see her family doctor, Dr. Heather Cuddy, the last family doctor to serve Trepassey and who felt forced to give up on the clinic because of Eastern Health's refusal to cover some of her expenses.
Pennell said the nurse practitioners man the clinic sometimes two days a week, sometimes three days a week.
On March 6, a resident showed up at Pennell's home after going to the clinic with a bad pain and finding no nurse practitioner available. "They could see one of the nurse practitioners in 15 days times, or 21 days later to see the other," Pennell said.
On March 22 a person who called the clinic looking for an appointment was told a nurse practitioner would be available on April 24, Pennell said.
"We're the furthest from a hospital on the island," said Pennell. "It's unbelievable, I tell you."
The other big issue Pennell and council has been grappling with is a looming deadline of mid-July for the withdrawal of the ambulance service by the operator, Fewer's. But in this case, Pennell is hopeful she has found a solid ally.
"I don't know if everything is going to work out or not, but the premier did call me himself on the 29th of January," Pennell said. "He told me they couldn't interfere with Fewer's while they had the contract."
But he did commit to ensure Trepassey has an ambulance service after Fewer’s pulls out.
Andrew Furey explained that Fewer's contention that it was short of staff wasn't a good enough reason for the government to end the contract early, or punish the company. But the premier promised the Trepassey area would be covered by two ambulances from St. John's.
"I kind of have to believe him," Pennell said.
She hasn't talked with Premier Furey since then but expects to see him Tuesday next week at a breakfast to which they are both invited.
Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: Pennell isn't the type to give up.
"Well, no," she admitted, laughing. "They know they won't get rid of me."
