By Jaymie L. White Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
PORT AUX BASQUES — The most recent council meeting took place on Tuesday evening, May 30, and matters discussed included an accident that occurred in St. John’s, the Bruce II energy retrofit, updates on the new salt shed, the affordable housing units, municipal plan updates, and the tender awarded for painting street markings.
Accident Mayor Brian Button opened the meeting with a message regarding an accident that took place over the weekend in St. John’s. A vehicle crashed through a Shoppers Drug Mart on Lemarchant Road around 3:30 p.m., and a woman, who was standing outside the entrance was trapped under the vehicle and later rushed to hospital with serious injuries. The woman, who Button identified as Nicole Kieley, is someone who council has built a relationship with over the years. “Nicole Kieley is more than just a friend of ours, a colleague from council. She worked for Minister (Andrew) Parsons in his department, and while we were attending a lot of the meetings that we attend, Nicole would attend meetings with us at times. She was always there to meet us, take us through the meetings. And she’s been a real friend of this community to try to help us with the issues that we’ve had down there,” shared Button. “She since moved to Minister Dempster’s department, and she was working there and she’s a big part of that. Minister Dempster spoke today or put in a news release, it’s a serious accident, she’s in serious condition and so, our hearts and thoughts are with her family, her colleagues, her friends and we’re hoping that she’ll pull through this in some way.”
Bruce II There was an update on the planned meeting for those involved in the Bruce II energy retrofit. “The contractor and the consultant are ready and willing to meet the council and give them an update on time frames. If everybody can give notice of their schedule, when they are free, we can make that happen as soon as possible,” said Town Manager Leon MacIsaac. “Our consultant is Fundamentals, and our contractor is Summit Mechanical and their last update, we had a weekly meeting, they’re still on the priority queue to try and get here as quickly as possible, but they can give you an update in person, a virtual meeting, if you wish as well.”
Salt shed There was also a minor update on the progress of the new salt shed. “The consultant indicated that they’re going to be back at Municipal Affairs by the end of the week,” said MacIsaac. “I spoke to Minister Parsons yesterday on that, and he was going to do a follow up today with the Minister, just talk to him about the urgency of it. He said he was going to talk to you today, Leon. Not sure if he got the chance to or not. I know he was at the conference so he might have been too busy, but he’s going to be in contact with you,” said Councillor Melvin Keeping.
Affordable housing units Mayor Button asked for an update on the affordable housing project on Army Hill and whether it was nearing completion. “Right now, painting is nearly complete on the second one. The first one is done. Right now the wait is just on flooring and from what we gather, it’s three to four weeks wait time, just on the flooring product itself. The landscaping and paving should be completed by the end of June,” said MacIsaac. Town Clerk Nadine Osmond, commented that it seemed like the project was back on schedule now. “It is,” said MacIsaac. “If it wasn’t for the long delays on all products, it would be finished now and ready to move in really, other than a few finishing touches outside, but they had extensive delays on pretty much everything that was ordered so far up to this point.”
Municipal recreation training A letter from the College of the Rockies in British Columbia shared their program offerings for municipal recreation training. “It has to do with training for municipal recreation departments. Their recreational professional and coordinator for recreation management program at College of the Rockies in Cranbrook B.C. are reaching out to municipal recreation departments to let them know about the opportunities for staff to complete their recreation management one-year certificate or two-year diploma.” The program is entirely online so employment can be continued throughout the formal education. “I would encourage any of our staff who want to take the course, to take it,” said MacIsaac. “It would help to improve their knowledge in the recreation division.” “Yes, because they’ve got quite a bit of extensive courses there, everything from leadership courses to risk management, budgeting. It might be something to look into,” agreed Button. The Town will first look into courses offered by College of the North Atlantic as a possible alternative.
Run the Rock Council received a letter from the Run the Rock event out of St. John’s. “This year, which is their 28th year, there is 16 members from HMCS St. John’s, and they are planning to start it from Port aux Basques on August 8, a bit later this year than last year, and the letter is a usual donation request letter that they send in every year and they usually start here at the town office with that event, and I believe, in the past, the mayor has had breakfast with them before they went on,” said Osmond. “We usually meet up with them and, I think, in the past our staff, and over in the garage, a lot of the guys at one time would make donations to them and that morning I would present them with what our staff came up with as a donation and I’m not sure if that’s still something we do or not, but I know we’ve done that,” said Button. The town previously had donated $250 to Run the Rock and the motion to donate that amount once again was passed unanimously.
Municipal plan update Mayor Button turned it over to Town Clerk Nadine Osmond to offer an update on the municipal plan. “Since it’s been ongoing for a while I thought I would let you know that it’s just about completed,” said Osmond, “The consultant that’s working on it has it registered with Municipal Affairs, and now it has to be advertised in the Newfoundland and Labrador Gazette and that will happen on June 2. We were also required to put it into a local paper, which will be Wreckhouse Press, on Monday. With that item being advertised twice, that’s the official completion.”
Painting of street markings Town Manager Leon MacIsaac had a last-minute addition to new business involving the recently closed tender for the painting of street markings. “Seeing how we aren’t going to be meeting again until the 20 of June, we had a tender close today for painting the street markings, 2023, and in the interest of getting them started and completed in the June month, over the next couple of weeks, there were two submissions received by the closing time of 3:00 p.m. today,” said MacIsaac. “One was from True Lines Pavement Markings in Corner Brook, NL, who submitted a bid of $21,735 HST included, and the other was from 3 in 1 Contracting Incorporated in Conception Bay South, NL, for $20,698.85 HST included. 3 in 1 had the lowest bid and that is in keeping with previous years as well.” Mayor Button asked if there was an estimated completion timeline for the project. “The tender was a little bit later in closing, but we typically give them until June 30 to have all street markings completed for the Town.” The tender was awarded to 3 in 1.
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