Bay Bulls mayor lining up potential work for Town lawyer

Bay Bulls Mayor Patrick O’Driscoll can probably expect a nice Christmas card from the town’s lawyer this year.

That’s because the mayor is loading up the lawyer’s firm with lots of work and potentially billable hours.

At the town’s public council meeting Tuesday night, O’Driscoll requested a number of items be referred to the town’s lawyer. The first was a copy of the digital recording of council’s February 8 meeting.

"I want to make a motion to send a copy of the digital copy of the recording of our last meeting to our Town lawyers to have on file and to be used in any future litigation that might arise," O’Driscoll said.

Deputy Mayor Harold Mullowney asked whether the mayor intends to send the recording of every meeting to the lawyers, or just the February 8 one. The February 8 meeting marked the first time that clerks with the town started recording the sessions. That followed a motion from O’Driscoll in January that each meeting be taped to help with the preparation of minutes but with the stipulation that the recording be destroyed immediately afterwards.

O’Driscoll said his new motion pertained to the February 8 meeting only.

"Why this one?" asked councillor Madonna Hawkins.

O’Driscoll said there was a reference made during the meeting about "a legal party" and he wants the recording kept "as evidence of what was spoken."

Mullowney said he had no problem with keeping a digital record of the meeting, but worried about the potential cost of placing it with the town’s lawyer. "If we send a digital record to our lawyer, that’s two and a half hours of tape or so, they’re going to charge us $300 or $400 an hour to listen to it," he noted.

O’Driscoll said he only wants to send the tape to the lawyers, not have them listen to it, unless it becomes necessary.

Mullowney suggested in that case it would be simpler to copy the recording onto a memory stick and store it in the town’s safe.

Councillor Rick Oxford said he saw no problem with sending the recoding to the lawyer as long as the town is not billed for it.

Put to a vote, the mayor’s motion passed with Oxford and councillors Jason Sullivan and Gerard Mulcahy supporting it. Mullowney, Hawkins and councillor Joan Luby voted nay.

The next item that O’Driscoll wanted referred to lawyers pertains to land on Dunn Drive.

Three years ago, the developer of the subdivision, EMA Enterprises, offered to donate a free building lot for a tot park. The donation was matched by a $15,000 grant from the provincial government and a promise of $8,000 from the town council to go towards playground equipment. Around the same time, the developer ended up in a dispute with council over the town’s handling of competing applications for land for a new subdivision. In the end, the building lot was never ceded over to the town.

"I’d like to send it to the town lawyer ... to review any legal action the town can take to move this forward," said O’Driscoll.

Deputy Mayor Mullowney pointed out it might be cheaper in the long run to meet with the developer to discuss the situation.

"I just want to send it to the lawyers, get a recommendation or get some legal opinions on it and see where it goes from there," the Mayor countered.

"What’s the problem?" asked councillor Luby. ""You’re saying you want to go after the company, is that it?"

"I’m just saying send it to the lawyer to open a file and get some correspondence," the mayor replied.

Mullowney said he is worried about the cost of getting a lawyer to "open a file" on the matter.

Luby was also skeptical of the wisdom of such a move. "I’d like to know the reason why they didn’t give the land," she said. "It’s going to cost us money and the lawyers are the ones who get rich in the end... For a lawyer to look at this, how much is it going to cost? And then how much is it going to cost to go to court and everything else? Is it worth it?"

O’Driscoll said the town is not going to court, only asking the lawyer to look at it.

"This is going back three years and to be fair the proponent has been asking to meet with us for three years too on issues and we have not met with them," said Mullowney.

O’Driscoll said those issues are separate from the one regarding the playground. "You can’t link the two together," he argued, then called the vote. His motion passed 4-3 with Mullowney, Luby and Hawkins voting against it.

"I still want to talk to these people at some point," said Mullowney.

"So do I," said Luby.

The next issue O’Driscoll moved to place in the hands of lawyers is a moratorium on all new Crown Land applications until such time as the Town develops a policy to handle such requests.

Deputy Mayor Mullowney asked what timeline the mayor has in mind for such a move. O’Driscoll wasn’t sure at first.

"We’ll have to meet with the lawyers," he said. "Whenever it gets created it will be done, but until we get one developed I think we should not accept any more Crown Land applications."

Councillor Mulcahy seconded the mayor’s motion.

"I have no problem with it, it’s an idea (that should be looked at) but it should be time stamped in some way," said Mullowney. "We should put a time limit on it. I wouldn’t want it to last for three or four or five years."

O’Driscoll said it wouldn’t last that long. The process would depend on council sitting down with its lawyers and planner, he said.

Mullowney said he would still like to know a firm timeline, suggesting the mayor’s motion was open-ended.

"I’ll say a maximum of 12 months subject to change," said O’Driscoll.

"I have no problem voting on it for a year, but realize it could effectively shut down any development by individuals who have a single acre of Crown land that they want to apply for, Mullowney cautioned. "Much of the issues we have been dealing with are larger plots of land people are applying for (for subdivisions)."

Councillor Luby said she wouldn’t like to see people stopped from applying for single lots.

"Why would you go treat one group of applicants differently than another?" said the mayor. "Treat everybody the same. Your policy applies to everyone."

Put to a vote, O’Driscoll’s motion passed unanimously. The moratorium won’t affect large Crown land applications already in the works, such as councillor Sullivan’s 50 lot subdivision in the north end of town.

Basement apartments targetted for review

In other council news, the mayor has ordered staff to compile a list of all houses in Bay Bulls that have basement apartments and to hand it over to the provincial Municipal Assessment Agency to have the property values of the homes reassessed, a move which could mean higher taxes for the owners. O’Driscoll is also ordering staff to contact Service NL to have the septic systems of the homes inspected to see if they meet capacity requirements for having two families in one home.

"We have no approval process in place for basement apartments," the mayor said, introducing his motion.

Councillor Sullivan seconded the motion.

O’Driscoll noted if someone wants to build a shed or garage they have to apply to the town for a permit, but there is no such requirement for basement apartments.

The motion passed 4-3 with Mullowney, Luby and Hawkins voting against it.

Keep on Trucking

Council has voted to buy a new five tonne truck from Royal Garage for $111,838. That’s about $1,200 higher than the lower of the two bids it received, with the slightly cheaper one coming from Hickman Group.

Councillor Sullivan said the Royal Garage truck is on the lot and ready to be picked up, while the Hickman vehicle would have to be ordered and would take some 12 weeks to come in. The Royal Garage truck also has more useful features, including a better plow, he argued. The Royal Garage truck he added, would allow the town to take over its own snow clearing if it ever decides to do so, instead of contracting it out, as it does now.

Town must pay in

And finally, the Town of Bay Bulls will have to pay the Canada Revenue Agency a little over $5,000 after an audit revealed a discrepancy from the HST monies collected and paid in for the year 2013.

Mobile Cheerleaders tops in Canada again

An unexpected chance to compete at the World School Cheerleading Competition in Florida last month saw a team of students from Mobile Central High turn the heads of judges with performances that earned them a placement of fourth overall in the non-tumbling division and an additional prize as best entry from Canada.

"We weren’t planning to travel this year at all," said coach Aprille Whelan, who started out on the team as a student cheerleader eight years ago when it was introduced to Mobile by her cousin Amanda Hewitt and has continued on as coach even now that she is a teacher herself at Roncalli in Avondale.

The invitation to Florida, which included all expenses being paid aside from air travel, came from the International Cheerleading Union and stemmed from Mobile’s capture of the Canadian national championship held in Niagara Falls last year. The union invited select teams from other provinces as well.

Some 21 cheerleaders along with coaches made the trip to Orlando, Florida, where they were housed at the Disney Resort with some 1,000 other teams. "It was crazy, there were cheerleaders everywhere," said Whelan, explaining the United States High School championships were being held the same time as the world event. Teams came from Jamaica, Mexico, Ecuador and other countries.

Why is Mobile so good at cheerleading?

"I don’t know," said Whelan, laughing. "I guess it’s where we started from the bottom and over time worked our way up."

The program has benefited, she allowed, from the fact the school runs from Grades 7 to 12, meaning students who are interested in cheerleading get seven years to participate on the team. That means the team’s composition doesn’t change much from year to year. "We lose three or four kids a year but we never have a year where we have to completely start over," Whelan said.

Though the team practices only twice a week, the sessions are crucial and members seldom miss one. The Mobile squad is undefeated in provincial cheerleading competitions.

"They just seem to be getting better and better," said Whelan.

The friendships formed by such a dedicated group of athletes are special, she added. It’s not uncommon to see Grade 12 members spending time with Grade 7 teammates outside of the gym.

The Florida trip was a nice surprise. Along with competing, the Mobile students were given four day park passes at the Magic Kingdom and other Disney venues. "It was an amazing trip overall," said Whelan, who said the team members didn’t have any trouble focusing on the competition, despite the attractions of the setting.

Not long after the team returned from Florida, Whelan noted, one of the students approached her, because she was having trouble filling out a scholarship application that included space for 50 words to describe her biggest accomplishment. "She said, ‘Of course I chose cheerleading,’" Whelan said. "’But here I am 850 words later and I can’t find a way of wrapping it up about how much cheerleading has changed my life.’ That’s the type of thing it is. They truly are die hard about it and there’s nowhere else they’d rather be than in the gym practicing. I could tell them we’re going to practice five days in a row and they’d be there, it wouldn’t matter."

Goulds powerlifter is world class

She has represented her province at national competitions in Toronto, St. John’s and Regina and won medals for Canada at world events in South Africa and Finland. In June, Janessa Ward, 19, of the Goulds, will don Canada’s colours again, this time at the World Powerlifting Championships in Texas.

Ward qualified for that tournament by winning a gold medal in the Junior women’s category at the Canadian national powerlifting championships in Regina, Saskatchewan last month.

She manages to schedule four training sessions a week around her second year studies at Memorial University and a job at the Shea Heights Community Centre where she has worked the past two years. Ward trains with the NL Kettlebells at Heavyweights Training Centre in Mount Pearl with coach Kevin Farrell.

Ward says she wouldn’t be where she is in the sport without Farrell’s coaching and the support of her family and friends. Her friendly and outgoing personality belies the determination it takes to succeed in what is an intensively physical sport.

The difference between weightlifting and power lifting is basically in the moves, Ward explains. In weightlifting, competitors perform what are called the clean and press and snatch positions where you take the weight off the ground and flip it high over your head. Powerlifting has three lifts, the squat, bench press and dead lift.

Ward got into weightlifting almost three years ago when she joined Heavyweights gym. At first it was just for fun. After she graduated high school, she got more serious about it. Before that, Ward says, she played pretty much all the sports available to her in the Goulds, including basketball, soccer, softball and ice hockey. She is also a cheerleader with Memorial University’s cheerleading team.

Ward says she has a lot of fun training. "And it makes things in everyday life a lot easier," she adds, even shopping when you happen to come across a heavy item. "And it’s also very technical. People think you just pick it up and put it down, but you actually have to think about the motions, which is kind of cool, and to see how much you can actually lift amazes people. It’s hard work, but it’s fun."

During training, lifters work out using anywhere from 70 to 90 per cent of the maximum weight they can manage, "which could be anywhere from 200 to almost 400 pounds," says Ward, who can deadlift 380 pounds and one time managed to squat 390 pounds.

"So I’m working towards 400," she says.

That’s a long way from where she started. "I could squat 150 pounds and it was really difficult and really ugly to look at," Ward says of her first efforts. "People thought I was going to get hurt because it was so non-technical."

The travel that comes with elite competition is right up Ward’s alley. She likes to travel and says the weightlifting tournaments give her a good excuse to do it. Her first world championship event was in South Africa, the second in Finland. She has won two silver and now a gold medal at national events and at her first world competition she won four gold medals. "I was in a younger age category, so it was a little bit easier then," she says. "Now I’ve moved up to the junior age category, which is 19 to 23."

But she is still winning medals. At the world’s last year, Ward captured a bronze medal in deadlifting.

Ward has never injured herself at the weights, but she does have a couple of old injuries that makes lifting a bit complicated, at least for the judges watching her. "I broke my elbow when I was eight and it is still bent," she says, explaining she has only 17 per cent of the regular movement available in that part of her arm. "So when I bench press, it causes a lot of problems, because people say the elbow is not locked," she says. "In competitions I’ve almost been disqualified for it."

Ward brings a doctor’s letter with her to events, in case she has to appear before a jury to explain her restricted elbow movement.

Ward admits to being surprised by the lack of attention paid to her sport. She points out that her fellow Goulds power lifter Gail Johnson owns a couple of national records and many powerlifters in Newfoundland have not been recognized in the media.

But she likes the sense of fraternity that the powerlifting community shares. Ward and some of the lifters she has met at competitions stay in touch throughout the year and even share training videos.

Ward is looking forward to her next big tournament, the world competition in Texas this summer.

Performance, she allows, can depend as much on an athlete’s mental and emotional state as her physical one.

"It is definitely nerve wracking," she says. "I find that if I have a good day in the warm-ups, I don’t get as nervous. But if the warm-ups are moving slow or I feel a little bit stiff, say because your hips can get a little bit tight because of flying, I tend to focus on the people watching then because I’m not as focused overall. It’s a mental game for sure."

Ward figures the combination of travel and competition will keep her in the sport for a while yet. She is thinking about possibly attending world competitions slated for Belarus in two years’ time and another one in Australia.

"I kind of put a star next to the ones I want to go to, because of the places, and let it go from there," she says.

Special group of players win Confederation Cup

Thanks to the moral support of one of the team’s biggest boosters and a growing sense of confidence in themselves, the St. Kevin’s Mavericks senior boys hockey team exceeded expectations last week at the Confederation Cup, winning the Tier Two championship and racking up a steady streak of wins in games leading up to the final contest.

The final itself was a smoker with the Mavericks and a team from Marystown ending up tied by the end of the third period, forcing a five minute overtime period and then a shootout, which St. Kevin’s won.

"I’m glad the boys pulled it out, it was a real intense game there in the end," said coach Jason Snelgrove. "It was a fun week, I must say. The boys battled hard and they had a lot of hockey... It was really a total team effort."

The Confederation Cup is the largest high school hockey tournament in Atlantic Canada, drawing teams from across this province and even the Maritimes. St. Kevin’s played two games on the opening night of the tournament, followed by three games the following day and two games on the playoff day.

The tournament is so big, games are held at rinks throughout the Northeast Avalon. St. Kevin’s was fortunate, however, to play most of its games on home ice at the Goulds Arena, though the semi-final was played at the Glacier and the championship game at the new double arena in Paradise.

The Mavericks gored Laval 7-1 in the opening game, edged Holy Trinity 3-0 then dropped a game to a team from Inverness, Nova Scotia, 8-3, but rallied in the first elimination game to beat a high school from Stephenville 4-1, then Prince of Wales Collegiate 5-2 in the crossovers and Gonzaga 3-1 in the semi-finals, which included an empty netter.

As with the teams the Mavericks face in the High School Metro league, most of the squads it grappled with in the tournament were drawn from schools with much larger student populations than that of St. Kevin’s.

But with many of the games in the Goulds, the Mavericks were able to draw a large fan base for each of the contests. Snelgrove said that support definitely helped. Large numbers of students, as well as parents and relatives and even some teachers, turned up for the games. "It was nice," Snelgrove said.

The players also benefited from having student Colin Ward as a member of the team staff in the role of motivator. Ward has been a big supporter of the team all season and was made an honourary member of the squad just before Christmas.

Snelgrove said the spirit of the team is raised by Ward’s enthusiasm and his own example of battling some health issues without ever getting down. Ward, who is set to receive a kidney transplant later this spring, attended all the games of the tournament and encouraged the players with pep talks. When the championship trophy was presented, the players included Ward in the festivities on the ice and gave him a turn hoisting the cup to the cheers of fans and other supporters. "That was a special moment for everybody at the rink," Snelgrove said. "He was a big part of motivating the players every game... He adds a tonne to the group."

The coach is hoping the Confederation Cup victory will boost the team’s confidence in the Metro League, where it is sitting in fourth place out of five teams.

"We played the last couple of months short a good number of bodies," Snelgrove noted. "Not to give an excuse. But we’ve got a pretty solid team. I’m pretty pleased with the team we’ve got this year, but they went the last number of games without a win."

For some reason, the team and a large part of the student population seemed to rally for this tournament, Snelgrove said. St. Kevin’s has a good record at the Confederation Cup: last year it made it to the final, but lost against Mount Pearl Senior High. "So I guess this year was a bit of a redemption year for the team," he added.

Some of the players even wondered why their team was placed in the Tier Two division of the tournament, instead of Tier One, since St. Kevin’s has played and beaten some of the top division squads this season. Snelgrove said he told his players the Confederation Cup was a good chance for them to start proving they have a Tier One team and then take that momentum into the remaining games of the Metro League season.

"That’s what I’m hoping, Snelgrove said, "that they can use this one as a builder and make a good run for the league championship."

Snelgrove said the team is comprised of a hard working group of players. "And that’s what the tournament was like - we had to use every single person we had," he added. "Our alternates played games all weekend long, we’ve got a team that in order to be successful everybody has to play their game. I wouldn’t say we were an offensive team or a defensive team, but when we’ve got the group going, we’re pretty solid... I don’t think there’s been a game all year where we haven’t dressed a couple of alternates."

The team is carrying 20 skaters, including four alternates, and a goalie. "This is the first year that I’ve been coaching, and I’ve been coaching the team four years, that we’ve actually had to cut people," Snelgrove said, "because usually every year you get (just) 17 or 18 people coming down to try out and basically you take everyone and name a couple of alternates. But this year we had 26 or 27 people try out."

Snelgrove said he has enjoyed many special moments with the team since he’s been coaching. "But this (Confederation Cup win) tops it as of right now," he said. "It’s a really good group of boys and they deserve it."

Goulds students pound the pavement in name of science and prizes

   A bid to develop a better kind of pavement that will prevent potholes has launched students in two Grade 9 classes at St. Kevin's High School into the late rounds of the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow Challenge.
   The students have already won $1,500 worth of Samsung technology for their school and are in the running to win further prizes of $20,000 and $50,000 worth of Samsung tablets, computers, cameras and other electronics.
   The project started when teachers Mike Schulz and Caitlin O'Brien saw the contest announced by Samsung and decided their students could give it a shot.
   "What Samsung wanted to do was encourage schools to find a problem in the community and find a way to use STEM - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - to solve it," Shulz said.
   "Prior to submitting our application we met with and brainstormed with some grade 9 classes over what they thought were issues facing our community," said O'Brien. "They came up with a lot of great ideas. We then asked them how STEM could be applied to solve the problem. This narrowed down our 'problems,' and at the end of several sessions we took a vote in the class to decide which problem would be the basis of our application."
   The students' idea impressed the judges enough to make the first cut into a list of 55 semi-finalists across Canada, including four other schools in this province. The successful application earned the Goulds school a Samsung camera and tablet.
   "Basically we wanted to look at how pavement deteriorates, is it our climate that's the factor, is it the type of vehicles on the road - studded tires, that kind of thing," said Schulz.
   The students have been studying the composition of pavement and the conditions that cause deterioration and potholes to see if they can find a better way to make asphalt. Local contractor Leon Howse visited the school and gave a presentation on how pavement is made. He brought along a core sample of pavement that the students have been studying in the lab where they are learning how the freezing and melting of water inside the cracks of pavement affect its integrity. The theory is that the repeated freezing and thawing cycles in this province during winter leads to the creation of potholes.
   "Now we have to make a video demonstrating how we're going to solve our problem," Shulz said.
   "This video will then be used to determine the winners of $20,0000 in Samsung technology and a chance to win $50,000 in Samsung technology," said O'Brien. "Eleven of the 55 Semi-finalists will win $20,000 and two of these 11 will win $50,000. Our school and the grade 9 classes are really excited to have been chosen as one of the five semi-finalists in this province and are working hard towards completing our video with hopes to move on to the next round."

Scientist gauging wear and tear on Mistaken Point fossils

   Experiments slated to be carried out over the next two years at the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve by a researcher from Oxford University may give the province and local custodians of the ancient fossils a better idea of how to protect them from weathering and foot traffic.
   The research is being led by Jack Matthews, very soon to be a newly minted doctor of paleontology, who has been coming over from England for years to study the fossils at Mistaken Point as well as similar fossil beds near Port Union on the Bonavista Peninsula.
Matthews, who will be working with researchers at Memorial University and several other institutions, is planning to make at least two trips to Mistaken Point this summer.
   Though he’s only 27, Matthews has been studying the fossils here since his undergraduate days at Oxford. He recently spent weeks hiking through the barrens and brush from Mistaken Point to Cape Race and also the Port Union area to develop detailed new geological maps, including the ages of the rocks, which will soon be published in a scientific journal for peer review. The last geological mapping of the Mistaken Point area was done in the 1970s and '80s and from a boat navigating the coastline. Matthews took time to serve as guest speaker at the annual general meeting of Mistaken Point Ambassadors Inc., last month in Portugal Cove South. About 25 people attended the session.
   While people in the Port Union area are also working to promote their fossil beds and obtain "geo park status," Matthews said he doesn't see the two areas as being in a conflict or a competition from a tourism or scientific research perspective. "They've got some really interesting fossil finds over there," Matthews allowed. "I think you both support each other and the better that one does, the better the other one does (too) and everyone helps each other out."
   Matthews is planning some unique experiments, including with a foot ware manufacture in Great Britain that will involve the use of robotic equipment to assess the effect that walking has on rocks collected at Mistaken Point. But he will also closely examine the effects that weather and climate may be having on the fossil beds at Mistaken Point and surrounding area.
   "We're here because you have such superb fossils," Matthews said. "So what's the problem? Well, there's damage happening to the fossils and that is just a fact."
   To give a sense of the damage, Matthews displayed two sets of photographs on a large screen. The pictures depicted the exact same fossils and surrounding rock, but separated by a timespan of some 20 years with the first photographs taken in the 1990s by a prominent geologist and the second set by Matthews in 2008. It's clear from the images that the quality of the fossils on the rock surface is degrading. In a couple of cases, "hold fasts," or the material that anchor a fossil to the rock bed, have been "bashed out." The thin layer of ash that surrounds, and protects the rocks on surface, is also receding. 
   "We don't know why," said Matthews. "I am not at the moment talking about whether it's a natural process or a human process. We don't know... but damage has happened, that is beyond doubt… We need to figure this out so that we've got a management plan to ensure that this has some long term sustainability.".
   Matthews has also developed a diagram that succinctly summarizes the various government agencies and laws that exist to protect the fossils. The work will help compare the laws and governance regimes here with those in other jurisdictions to see if improvements can be made.
But Newfoundland already seems to have a better system than exists in his native United Kingdom, Matthews admitted. Mistaken Point also has the benefit of interested local residents.
   "There is a passion here and a sense of ownership and that's so important in making sure that these vital resources are preserved," Matthews said. "You've got community engagement here."
   Matthews said Mistaken Point is a globally significant scientific locality. “People want to come here from all around the world, from universities to study your rocks," he said. "But even more than that, people, whoever they may be, want to come here and see these rocks where you are seeing the origin of animal life and they want to pay a few dollars on the way and they want to stay somewhere and they want to buy some food and that's all good for the local economy. And the simplest way to put what my project is for the next two years is to ensure both as scientists and as a community that we work together to make sure that we use this resource sustainably."
   Without a plan to ensure that sustainability, Matthews argued, the fossils could erode to the point where they lose much of their value and UNESCO, which is weighing whether to accord the site World Heritage Status, could decide to take the status away down the road.
   "What I want is that you can have a Mistaken Point that you can hand on to your children and I have a Mistaken Point that I can hand on to the people who take over the research from me whenever I move on to whatever I do next," Matthews said. "That's my passion and what I want to see happen and I want to work with you to get that. So it's all about developing a sustainable resource. I'm going to be looking at these rates of erosion, looking at the weathering patterns on the different rocks... And I'm going to be gathering scientific evidence on what is controlling the erosion - is it natural, is it human? And from there we will work together to build recommendations so that we've got a management plan… There is so much (tourism) potential here it's unbelievable - but we've just got to make sure there's something there to hand over to the next generation."
   After his presentation, Matthews spent some 45 minutes inviting and fielding questions about himself and his work.
   “Community engagement is a really important factor for me," Matthews said. "I want you to feel that you can say your views to me and your opinions, and I have known from the support in this community and Trepassey and up around Port Union that having community support makes a lot of difference and makes my life a lot easier and it makes this so much more enjoyable. I want you to know that if you have questions, you can ask them.”

Council dismisses conflict charges in Bay Bulls

   Bay Bulls Mayor Patrick O'Driscoll had the RCMP evict a woman from the Town Hall this month after she tried to address council about her application for Crown Land during a public council meeting.
   Linda Furlong-Coles had contacted council before the meeting requesting permission to speak under council's delegation policy, but was turned down. After several warnings, and a demand that she apologize to council, O'Driscoll adjourned the meeting and asked the RCMP officer who was stationed near the door, to remove her from the chamber. The officer, along with two other Mounties who were called in, escorted Furlong-Coles from the building. Afterwards, the mayor returned to the chamber with an RCMP escort and called the session back to order.
   Furlong-Coles has been trying for months to get council to decide one way or the other on her application. Previous councils approved it twice before but she could not proceed because the area wasn't zoned for houses. After the new Town Plan came into effect last year, which changed the zoning, Furlong-Coles applied again. However, this time she found herself competing for the land with councillor Jason Sullivan who has applied for 34 hectares of Crown Land to build a 50 lot subdivision. Sullivan's swatch encompasses the acre that Furlong-Coles is seeking.
   After Furlong-Coles was evicted from the meeting, council voted on Sullivan's application to further rezone the area to allow half acre lots instead of the larger sizes required under the current zoning. But Mayor O'Driscoll wouldn't say whether the vote was an approval or not. The motion, which O'Driscoll made himself, was cryptically worded.
   Councillor Gerard Mulcahy suggested council defer a decision Furlong-Coles' application pending a legal opinion. It was seconded by Deputy Mayor Harold Mullowney, but couldn't get enough support to pass.
   "I'm not sure we should be spending taxpayers' money on an opinion," said councillor Rick Oxford.
   Mayor O'Driscoll observed that while a Crown Land applicant can reapply every year to keep an application current, "that wasn't the case (here)."
   Oxford, who is a real estate agent, argued against Furlong-Coles' bid.
"I'm just trying to get my head around as to why we need to go get a legal opinion when we've already approved action (for Sullivan) on the same parcel of land... Does anybody want to discuss that, or add to that?" Oxford asked. "Which is the most beneficial to the town? Council has a responsibility for positive, responsible growth to the Town of Bay Bulls and I'm not convinced that approving a one acre lot and gaining a tax base of a single family residence is to the town's benefit over a multiple family subdivision. That's just common sense reasoning when you look at the tax base."
   Oxford then moved to reject Furlong-Coles' application. After three calls from the chair, nobody would second it meaning her application was neither formally approved, nor rejected, but as good as rejected.
   Council then turned to Sullivan's application to rezone the land, with Sullivan, Oxford and councillor Joan Luby leaving the chamber citing conflict of interest.
   "I make a motion to follow the legal advice outlined by our legal and send a letter to the applicant," said Mayor O'Driscoll.
   "I'll second it," said councillor Mulcahy.
   The motion passed unanimously. Asked to clarify whether council had just approved the application or not, the mayor was unclear. "Council is not making a decision on whether to approve it or not, it's sending a letter with its opinions. That's the decision council is making on the request."
   Earlier in the meeting, meanwhile, council finally moved to address longstanding conflict of interest allegations against Sullivan, councillor Joan Luby, Deputy Mayor Mullowney and Oxford, voting to dismiss all the claims.
   Luby had been accused of being in a conflict of interest by Oxford's brother-in-law, developer Fraser Paul, who had complained that she voted on his application last spring which involved land adjacent to one of her family members. Sullivan had accused Mullowney of being in a conflict of interest after the Deputy Mayor had argued council should stand by its minimum lot sizes because of the boggy ground in the area that Sullivan wants to develop. The charge against Oxford was a new one that had not been disclosed prior to the meeting.

Minister promises to move Witless Bay Town Plan forward

   Municipal Affairs Minister Eddie Joyce will meet with the seven members of Witless Bay council this week to discuss implementing the long delayed Town Plan.
   The move follows the completion of a Commissioner's report that was ordered by the previous Municipal Affairs Minister following a plebiscite last fall that heavily favoured an earlier incarnation of the Town Plan over one that was altered by the current council. The earlier version, call Plan A on the plebiscite ballot, protects the traditional development rights of property owners near Mullowney’s Lane and several other parts of town. Plan B would see those areas zoned as Conservation. It also calls for larger lot sizes in several places in the community.
   For now Joyce is not tipping his hand as to which way he will move on the report. However Mayor Sébastien Després served notice last week that he will challenge the decision if the minister endorses the will of the voters and moves to register Plan A. Després maintains the plebiscite was illegal.
   "The plan is to meet with the Town and give them a copy of the Commissioner's report and then release the report to the public," Joyce said. "And once we release the report to the public and give the Town a chance to mull it over... government then is going to make a decision with whatever feedback we get and however it goes."
   Asked whether the results of the plebiscite will carry a lot of weight since as many people voted in it as did in the last council election, Joyce said, "Everything is going to be looked at, absolutely everything... We're going to take everything into consideration when we make a decision."
   Joyce is aware that council is deeply divided over the issue. "I think the whole issue is complicated," he said. "That's where towns have to come together and try to compromise. I did get a briefing and I did go through the whole scenario and the whole sequence of events, dates and times and most of the things that happened with it, so I'm well aware of the whole scenario with it. And so what I'll do is wait until I meet with the town and release the copy of the Commissioner's report and we'll take it from there as to what we're going to do. But definitely it makes a difference and I know that there's been a lot of things said to each other and a lot of things happened."
   Joyce is anticipating the matter will be decided "in the very near future. I don't mean in the next two or three days, but this will not be dragging on for the next year or so or the next six months,” he said. “There will be a decision made and then we can take it from there. I understand what the people went through - I understand all that - but there will be a decision made on it in the next little while."
   As for complaints by both sides that the Department of Municipal Affairs has been unclear and wishy washy in it's handling of the dispute, which is dragging into its fourth year, Joyce suggested there is an onus on members of municipal councils to try to come together and he if can help that process, he is willing to do it.
   "I won't shy away from decisions that have to be made and the department won't shy away from trying to help municipalities," Joyce added. "This is a prime example this Witless Bay one. This has been going on (for a while) and it's causing a lot of tensions in families and a lot of households. I'm inheriting this (issue) in Witless Bay and no matter where you go, there are certain people who are going to be upset with the decision. But there has to be a decision made and I hope there is some compromise, but if not, a decision has to be made. There is an active council there now with seven members and I hope all of the issues are resolved with conflict of interest and the other things, and I hope they will make a decision. But if they don't, there has to be closure to it somehow so the town can move on."