By Jaymie White Local Journalism Initiative Reporter PORT AUX BASQUES — The most recent council meeting took place on Tuesday evening, Nov. 7. Deputy Mayor Mark Andrews chaired the meeting, as Mayor Brian Button was not in attendance. Councillor Gwen Davis was also absent from this meeting. Water run off Lloyd Sheaves attended as a delegate to discuss the water run off on his property from High Street. “There’s a lot of erosion now being created because of that. Some time back, I spoke with the town and they were going to address the issue, but as of today’s date, there hasn’t been anything done. I guess my question is, when they start that process, whatever they want to do, where is the water running to? Where is it going to from there?” asked Sheaves. “Now, when the town put the main water line through my property — that wasn’t my property at that time, was property belonged to Sobey’s — I guess they created a manhole as such, and there’s a pipe running into the manhole, but nobody knows where it goes, and there’s two running out. One is a plastic one and one is a metal one, and what has happened over the years, the plastic one was put in to replace the metal one, but now the metal one has deteriorated, and my parking lot was starting to fall down. So I want to pave my parking lot and I don’t know what the town’s position is on this, if they’re willing to look at it and see if they can rectify the problem, because there is a catch basin down below the hill, just down for the sidewalk where they put in a couple of years ago, and I don’t know what runs into that.” Council decided to have Public Works visit the area and investigate exactly what is going on. Bruce II Deputy Mayor Mark Andrews asked if there was an update on the temperature of the pool in the Bruce II and if there was a date on when it would be opened. “The most recent work on the property was the excavation, new transformer pad and terminal connections. There was delay in that because there’s a global shortage of terminal connections themselves, as well as control panel components. But that was completed. There was some issue on the weekend, we found that the electrician had done an irregular connection on the pumps for the pool, which has it running reversed, so that was corrected yesterday morning and everything was operating, which is the deck drive unit and the pool system as well,” said Town Manager Leon MacIsaac. “The pool is waiting to come up to temperature now. It’s a waste of pump, so we’ve got a couple of days to pull up the temperature and be back in operation. The new chlorination system is working as it should, and the Dextron unit is running in the full motion as well.” Airbnb Town Clerk Nadine Osmond provided the latest update on the information requested by council regarding Airbnb legislation. “Municipal fears have actually put forth a revised municipal act that is being reviewed by government. Now, there is some legislation in that on short term rentals, but I still am waiting on a response back from the person that handles legislation just to get some clear direction on the process that we can put in place going forward, but I think it’s falling into place to find out all the information for that,” said Osmond. St. James Regional High St. James Regional High requested a donation toward their annual awards night ceremony. “Previously, the town has donated a scholarship valued at $250 to be awarded to a graduate in recognition of their personal and or academic achievement,” read Osmond. “This year’s award ceremony will be held on Tuesday, December 19 at 7:00 p.m. We invite you to be part of the special event and to participate in the scholarship program.” The motion was passed unanimously by council to move forward with the same $250 donation from previous years. In a second letter, St. James Regional High asked for a donation to their breakfast program. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and you can ensure school age children in our community start their day with a healthy breakfast. You can help St. James Regional High along with our volunteers and Kids Eat Smart welcome our students back again this year with the breakfast program. It’s grab as you go for the students, there are many reasons why children do not eat in the morning, including long bus rides, limited appetite first thing in the morning, Kids Eat Smart Clubs in school offer our kids the opportunity to have breakfast and socialize with their friends before class starts,” read Osmond. “We are asking your organization if you would be interested in donating to the Breakfast Club at our school. Donations can be food items, cereal, granola bars, cheese, drinks, fruit or cash. All donations from the community are matched dollar for dollar by the provincial Kids Eat Smart program. All food donations can be dropped off at the school between eight three monitor and monetary donations can be sent through the mail.” The motion was passed unanimously by council to donate $100 to the breakfast program. Eating Disorder Foundation Osmond read a letter from the Eating Disorder Foundation discussing Eating Disorder Awareness Week. “Each year, the Eating Disorder Foundation of Newfoundland board joins with similar groups across the country to observe Eating Disorder Awareness Week from February 1st to the 7th. The purpose of this week is to create additional awareness of the serious mental illness which impacts 2.8 million people in Canada and upwards of 40,000 here in our province,” read Osmond. “The week consists of educational activities, proclamation signings, landmark lightings and flag raising. So they’re in their planning now for their 2024 event year, and basically this request is asking if we are interested in participating and if so, if we’re interested in being given a flag to install during that week, we have to let them know by November 10 who are interested. The cost of the flag is $175 including shipping.” The motion was approved unanimously by council to purchase and fly the flag during that week.
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