Port aux Basques council notes

The latest meeting of Port aux Basques council was held on Wed., Sept. 23 at the fire hall.

PORT AUX BASQUES – All councillors were present at the latest meeting of council held on Wednesday evening, Sept. 23 at the fire hall.

Charlie’s Head

A resident of the Charles Head area is asking Port aux Basques council to replace the rocks that fell down after initial repairs took place for an outfalls during the winter of 2018. Public Works had previously recommended armour stone be placed to prevent further storm surge flooding, but the work has yet to take place. Council promised to get over there as soon as possible to reinforce the shoreline.

Grand Bay West Beach

At least three councillors found out during the meeting that a resident of Kyle Lane had dropped a package of supporting documents and photographs for council to examine. The residents are asking for a no overnight parking sign to prevent tourists from using the parking lot as a free campground.

Council has deferred the vote on the request until after all councillors have had a chance to go through the submitted materials.

Matthews Lane

Coun. Melvin Keeping initially moved for the town to assume ownership of Matthews Lane, but upon further discussion agreed to defer the vote until the next meeting of council so that the town manager could draft cost estimates.

While all members of council seem in favour of assuming ownership of the road so they can pave and plow it, there are questions surrounding how much it will cost taxpayers to have this done legally.

The town manager re-iterated that this would require seven separate surveys. In the meantime, council has promised to plow the road.

Rat project

In the Public Works report, Coun. Keeping shared that the town is applying for a pilot project to deal with the ongoing rat problem. The project would cover one section of town, and hopefully branch out from there.

Cost recovery

Mayor John Spencer shared that he has been in touch with Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador (MNL) about the town’s petition seeking support for cost recovery. He remains concerned that the matter is not drawing enough attention from MNL, and that communities in the province don’t realize that Marine Atlantic’s cost recovery affects all of the province’s residents, not just the Southwest Coast as is commonly believed.

Fire Department report

The Channel-Port aux Basques Volunteer Fire Department should be receiving its new pumper truck around mid-October, reported Coun. Justin Blackler. Blackler and Deputy Mayor Todd Strickland, who is also the Deputy Fire Chief, serve as council liasons to the fire department.

Also included in the report was a recommendation to form a committee made up of councillors, Fire Chief Jerry Musseau and Deputy Fire Chief Todd Strickland, and some firefighters. The goal of the committee will be to recommend specific actions to council when it comes to the department, such as drafting fire regulations or bylaws.

CORRECTION: The council recap appearing in the Sept. 14 edition incorrectly stated that to outfit a firefighter with new bunker gear costs $1,000. In fact, the cost of new bunker gear is closer to $2,100. The Wreckhouse Weekly apologizes for the error, and any inconvenience or confusion.

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