The Our Town - Clarenville Blog by Paul Tilley

Clarenville has had a lot of great community building activities during 2012 that we can all be proud of.     There were two common elements in each one of these activities:   They were led by people who saw the opportunity and “dared to do”.    And secondly, the people of Clarenville – the essential ingredient - got involved in making the ideas a success. As people who are out there looking for a place to live and grow their families see this sort of community spirit in Clarenville our reputation as THE PLACE to live will only grow.   Kudos to you all.          

Today, the concept of dressing up to disguise one’s identity and then barging into other people’s houses as a Mummer, is something that most law abiding people would simply no longer do.   But it was fun.   Almost all of us who grew up in here in Nl have seen the classic Mummers episode from Land and Sea .   If you have not seen that episode you have certainly heard Simini’s Mummers Song. T he episode and the song that inspired it arguably  saved mummering from extinction.  Three years ago, The good folks in St. John’s hatched a plan that captured the fun of mummering while at the same time keeping people from being arrested.   The St. John’s Mummers festival has been a phenomenal, family friendly success.     http://mummersfestival.ca/ This was just enough inspiration for Lisa Browne to dare to try it here in Clarenville.   She convinced Rotary, me and many others that this could and would work here, so we decided a f...

It's budget time again in Clarenville. Here is my account of the budget presentation: Here's the Packet's link to AUDIO of the Budget Council meeting What is a Budget anyway? Each year, governments and organizations plan their expenditures and their revenues for the coming year.    The budget process forces the planning process and, in theory, it improves how and where money is spent.    On December 11, Con. John Pickett, Chair of the Finance committee of Council for the Town of Clarenville presented the 2013 Budget to a public meeting of Council.   What follows is an unofficial   summary of the 2013 budget presentation.     The Opportunities and Challenges of Growth: Clarenville Statistics ·          Clarenville’s population has grown by 14% in the past 5 years.   This makes us one of the fastest growing towns in the province with an official 2011 population of 6,036 people.   See: ht...

It was a beautiful pre-winter morning, perfect for the 48th running of the Lion's Clarenville Santa Claus Parade. This parade has grown with the town, this year's featuring almost 50 floats/vehicles.  The work and dedication that goes into the Parade each year is clearly demonstrated as the parade rolls by.   Most importantly, I am always impressed with the number of people who are actually in the parade!  The Clarenville Volunteer Fire Department,  Nancy Stanford's Dance Studio, Newfoundland Power, the Salvation Army are just a few examples.  They seem to have every member of thier respective organization's there - that is fantastic to see and it speaks so highly of their dedication to the event. The members that make up the Clarenville Lion's Club, have done an outstanding job at growing the quality of the annual event.  For almost 50 years they have been the ones who have organized i...