[1] Email This Page [1]
COMMUNITY OF MISCOUCHE
Regular Monthly Meeting
February 10, 2015
1. OPENING OF MEETING
Chairperson, Peter Mallett called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.
Present:
Peter Mallett – Chairperson
Ivan Blanchard – Vice-Chairperson
Joan Arsenault – Councilor
John Gillis – Councilor
Pat MacLellan – Councilor
Ricky Myers – Councilor
Judy Gallant – Administrator
And: Jason Woodbury – Fire Chief
2. MAINTENANCE REPORTS
– Sewer – Kinsmen Road Lift Station – Upgrades to electric panel “cabinet”. Council to discuss again at a later meeting.
– Sidewalk Snow Clearing/salting – Council was advised that the chain in the snow blower had to be repaired. John Gillis advised that due to the extreme amount of snow on the sidewalks along Lady Slipper Drive North he had advised Monty MacAusland to leave that section for now because there was too much hard packed snow for our snow blower to handle it.
– Snow Blower Replacement – John advised that he did not feel that our current sidewalk snow blower was large enough to remove all the snow and he suggested to Council that we consider purchasing a larger, used snow blower that is designed for sidewalk snow clearing. He suggested a price could range between $10,000.00 and $15,000.00 and that we include this in this year’s proposed budget so that we would have it for next year.
3. REC CENTRE REPORTS
– Renovations Project – Council was advised that snow appears to be getting into the Rec Centre somewhere along the top of the back wall. Ivan and Peter will be meeting with Gerald Adams (GIA Limited) tomorrow morning to look at the problem.
– Summer Student – Peter has filed an application under the Federal Student Summer Jobs Program for funding and we are still waiting for a response on our application.
At this time Fire Chief Jason Woodbury came into the meeting.
4. FIRE DEPT REPORTS
– Tanker Replacement – Jason advised that he had recently went to Dunk River Industries to check on the progress of the work being done to retrofit the 2004 tanker for fire dept water use. They are close to being done with the work that they can do for now. The next step would be to take our old tanker out to them so that they can transfer some of the parts/equipment from the old tanker to the newer one and they should be ready to do this work soon.
– Quick Response Vehicle – Jason asked if Council would consider including the purchase of a “Quick Response Vehicle” (½ ton truck) for the fire department in this years’ budget.
– Recent Fire Dept annual meeting – Jason advised that he has been re-elected as fire chief for another term.
– Jr. Firefighters Brigade – Jason reported that firemen, Mike Gallant, is still working on this.
– Separate Access to Upstairs Portion of Firehall for fire department use – Jason was advised that no final decisions has been made as of yet.
Council thanked Jason for his reports and Jason then left the meeting.
5. ADOPTION OF MINUTES
MOTION moved by John Gillis, seconded by Pat MacLellan and carried,
THAT the minutes of the January 13, 2015 regular monthly meeting be
approved as presented.
6. BUSINESS ARISNG
a) Unsightly Properties – 19 and 20 Wilfred Street – Judy advised that a letter
was sent asking him to advise us as soon as possible, what his intentions are for the immediate clean up of the debris that is around his properties at 19 and 20 Wilfred Street as well as the partially collapsed outbuilding at 20 Wilfred Street. We have not had any response.
b) July 1st Celebrations – Ivan reported that around the first part of January he had checked to
see if there was any funding available to help with expenses for any July 1st activities and he only received an email back on January 17th that the deadline for Federal Funding applications was January 15th.
c) Kelly Drive – Speed Bumps – We are still waiting for a response from Stephan Yeo,
P.eng. with Dept of Transportation.
d) Annual Community Bursary – Peter advised that he was not able to obtain any definite
information on this issue. The current process is that the youths apply through Three Oaks and they select the recipient. Some Council members feel that we should have our own selection committee which could be made up of 3 to 5 people from the Community, who are not members of Council and any community youth would be eligible no matter which high school they attend. Since there might already be applications filed with Three Oaks it may be too late to make the changes this year but Peter advised that he will check into the matter further.
7. COMMITTEE REPORTS
a) Fire Dept.
– Emergency Calls – Ivan reported that the firemen had responded to 3 emergency calls during the past month.
– Firemen’s Summer Party – Ivan reported that the firemen are hoping to be able to set
something up for May.
– Old Tanker – Ivan reported that Kevin Simmons of Dunk River Industries might be willing to take the old tanker on trade to help offset the cost of retrofitting the newer tanker. He hasn’t had an opportunity yet to look at our old tanker so he has not made any official offer as to the value of the trade in. Following further discussion Ivan agreed to try and find out how much he will be offering.
– Quick Response Vehicle -Following discussion it was suggested that we do up a summary of what we are looking for and sending it off to the local car dealers to see what they have, possibly something no older than 3 – 5 years old and what their price would be for a ½ ton crew cab truck. Council members agreed.
b) Recreation – Nothing new to report.
c) Planning
– No New Permits this period.
– Arlington Orchards – Fruit and vegetable stand at Small Engine Clinic.- Judy advised Council, for information purposes, that she was advised by Barry Balsam that he is considering replacing his current fruit and vegetable stand at Small Engine Clinic, which is approximately 16′ x 20′ with one that is 16′ x 30′. He would remove the current one and replace it with the new one.
d) Sewer – Nothing new to report.
e) Acadian Purchase Trust – Nothing new to report.
f) Firehall Maintenance & St. Lights
– Heat Pumps – John reported that the heat pumps have finally arrived and would be installed in the near future.
– Staircase Access from Fire Dept to Upstairs Portion of Firehall – Ivan obtained a quote
from BG Construction to construct the staircase. The quote provided was ‘price to do renovations for putting stairs leading up to 2nd floor of firehall’ and for all materials and labor in the amount of $3,450.00 (HST included). Following discussion Council members felt that, for safety reasons, we should be provided with more detailed information about the stairs construction.
– Street Lights – Council members had been provided with a copy of a letter we had received from Maritime Electric advising that they have initiated a 10 year program to replace all their company owned street lights with LED lighting and they also provided us with a list of all the street lights and their locations within the Community. We are to list the type of LED light, based on their recommendations, and give a priority number for them. Following discussion Council members suggested that we have the main roadways done first followed by the secondary residential streets. The deadline to file our response is February 28th.
g) Community Improvements – Nothing new to report.
h) Finance – 2015 Budget & Annual Meeting Planning
Judy advised Council that she was advised by our Accountants that they hope to have a rough draft of our 2014 Financial statement ready around February 23rd. Conditional upon receiving the draft copy of the statement, Council members agreed to meet on February 24th at 6:00 p.m. to begin preparing a proposed budget for 2015.
8. APPROVAL OF BILLS TOTALING $27,434.30
MOTION moved by Ivan Blanchard, seconded by Ricky Myers and carried,
THAT the payment of the following bills totaling $27,434.30 is approved.
9. NEW BUSINESS
– Est of Donald Gillis – Property Main Drive West
Peter advised Council that we were recently approached by Edwin DesRoches, who was
acting on behalf of Della Gillis, Ex of Donald’s estate to ask if the Community would be interested in purchasing the Gillis property located on Main Drive West. The property consists of 27.5 acres of farmland with only 6.05 acres actually located within Community boundary. There is also a separate lot already zoned commercial within this property that they also wish to
sell. Council was also advised that since the majority of the farmland is located outside our boundary it falls under the Provincial Planning Act and any potential change of use of the property from its current farmland zoning would be controlled by the Province and we may be limited as to what the property could be used for. Council members felt that if we were to consider making any offer on the properties it would have to be conditional upon both the 27.5 acres of farmland and the commercial lot were both included in the sale and the price for all the property would have to be based on its limited use, and it would require the residents prior approval. Following further discussion Peter advised that he would arrange to meet with Edwin DesRoches to discuss the issue.
– Annual Miscouche Family Day (Meet Your Neighbor) events – February 14, 2015
Council was advised that the band has been booked and Jimmy Arsenault has agreed to
do sleigh rides but Jimmy would need to have a trail made through the field area for the sleigh or arrangements need to be made for some other suitable place to have the sleigh rides. Arrangements for supplies for the breakfast and children’s activities have also done. Council members discussed other details of the events to be held, including the breakfast, children’s afternoon activities and the adult dance to be held in the evening.
10. NEXT MEETING – Special Budget Preparation Meeting Tuesday, February 24th at 6:00
p.m. (Conditional upon accountants having draft of 2014 financial statement ready)
Next Regular Monthly Meeting – Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.
11. MEETING ADJOURNED