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COMMUNITY OF MISCOUCHE
By Election and Special Council Meeting
April 18th, 2017
1. OPENING MEETING
Chairperson Ivan Blanchard called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present:
Ivan Blanchard – Chairperson
Joan Arsenault – Councilor
John Gillis – Councilor
Pat MacLellan – Councilor
Ricky Myers- Councilor
Michelle Perry- Administrator
and 35 residents
The returning Officer Michelle Perry took over the meeting and started the election process.
Ivan Blanchard was nominated for Chairperson and accepted the nomination.
MOTION moved by Albert Gallant seconded by Monty MacAusland and carried,
THAT Ivan Blanchard be nominated as Chairperson.
Since there was no other candidates Ivan Blanchard was acclaimed as Chairperson for the Community of Miscouche.
Bill Casey was nominated for Councilor and accepted the nomination.
MOTION moved by Matthew Yeo seconded by John MacLellan and carried,
THAT Billy Casey be nominated as Councilor.
Robin Gillis was nominated for Councilor and accepted the nomination.
MOTION moved by Pat Hughes seconded by Jessica Gillis and carried,
THAT Robin Gillis be nominated as Councilor.
After the votes were cast and counted Billy Casey had 16 votes and Robin Gillis had 19 votes. Robin Gillis was elected as Councilor of the Community of Miscouche.
After the elections the meeting was turned back over to Ivan Blanchard the newly elected chairperson, and the discussion began about a possible donation to the painting of the St John the Baptist Church. He read the letter to the public that was sent requesting a donation to the painting project and asked the residents if thought this was a good idea.
Question: Is there money to donate to this project?
Answer: yes we do have funds put away for Capital Projects that we could use.
Question: Was there any money given out to other organizations this year?
Answer: Yes we have supported other organization that have asked and that the community gives donation to various organization through out the year.
Question: It stated that in the latter that the parish was to give a presentation about this project, have they given it and if they can give it now to the public.
Answer: Fr Greg pastor of the parish gave the following presentation.
The church is the center of the community and it has been deteriorating for the past several years. The last time the outside was painted was 2006. The parish finance committee have decided to go with painting the church and the cost will be in the amount of $50,000.00 to $60,000.00 and that includes the parochial house as well.
The Acadian Congress will be coming in 2019 and there will be thousand of people in our community. The parish is not in a financial position to pay for the project on their own and that is why they wrote to the community asking them for help. They have been doing fund-raising to save money for the project. The parish would like to start this project ASAP. Fr Greg also showed the residents the community pin which has the church on it, and stressed that no matter which way you come into the community you see the church as the land mark.
Questions were open to the floor.
Question: The difference between the painting and the vinyl siding, wouldn’t it be better in the long run to do the vinyl siding.
Answer: yes but it would cost a lot more money and this would take longer to raise the money to have this option done, so since this was more money the parish committee decided to take it off the table.
Question: How much was the parish committing to the project?
Answer: About $20,000.00-$25,000.00
Question: There was 2 letters sent around recently thought they were something to do with the Cemetery, and something to do with the church.
Answer: They were not sent around asking for money they were invitations inviting people back to the church.
Ronnie Gallant put a motion on the floor to donate $15,000.00 to the church for the painting.
Mike Nesbitt put a motion on the floor to donate 10% of the quote $5,000.00-$6,000.00
Question: This is not a Capital expense so the money should not be used for that?
Answer: If this was the inside of the church this would be different but because it is the outside and this effects our community and we want our community to be attractive to potential home buyers we want this property to look nice.
Question: This amount that is to be given should be decided by council as the residents do not know what the financial situation is of the community and what they can afford.
Answer: So can council decided between $5,000.00 – $15,000.00 with out having to go back to a public meeting as we would need to get permission from the residents for over $10,000.00
Question: I don’t think the Community should be spending the taxpayers money on the church and what happens if there is other capital expenditures that come up and you deplete all these funds on 1 organization.
Answer: The community is in a very good financial situation.
Question: I don’t think that the community should give more than $6,000.00 to the church. Don’t think that a major portion of the funds should be given.
MOTION moved by Corey Gillis seconded by Joe Casey that the community give $15,000.00.
Council will take this information to there next meeting and vote on it at the meeting.
Question from a resident on Antoinette Dr about the ditch at the end of his property and a lot of water getting in his house because of this. Highways was out after he spoke with MLA Sonny Gallant and they said that it was the community issue. And the resident wants this fixed.
Answer: Ivan informed the resident that this was the issue with Highways and that he will meet with the resident next week and they will go to the department of highways and get down to who’ issue this is and have it fixed.
Chairperson thanked the residents for coming out.
Meeting Adjourned.