The Our Town - Clarenville Blog by Paul Tilley

On Tuesday September 24, townspeople in the Province's municipalities will vote for new municipal councils. Nomination Day is Tuesday, August 27.  In Clarenville there will be two votes; one for the position of Mayor and another for the 6 other councilors who will constitute our Town's government for the next 4 years.   If you are interested in running, Municipalities NL and The Department of Municipal Affairs have created a great resource called MAKING YOUR MARK - it has lots of useful information for would-be-councilors. Here in Clarenville, I expect there will be a lot of interest from people considering running.  I’ve been there and I have some insights on what a new Councilor should know about the town.  Here is a summary of publicly available information on our Town. THE MUNICIPALITY THAT WE CALL CLARENVILLE Population Serviced Clarenville has one of the fastest growing populations in the province.  With an official 2011 population of just over 6000, up

On Tuesday September 24, townspeople in the Province's municipalities will vote for new municipal councils. Nomination Day is Tuesday, August 27.  In Clarenville there will be two votes; one for the position of Mayor and another for the 6 other councillors who will constitute our Town's government for the next 4 years.   If you are interested in running, Municipalities NL and The Department of Municipal Affairs have created a great resource called  MAKING YOUR MARK  - it has lots of useful information for would-be-councillors. Here in Clarenville, I expect there will be a lot of interest from people considering running.  I’ve been there and I have some insights on what a new Councilor can expect in his or her role. MEETINGS General Meetings: Structure and Schedule If you like meeting lots of people with great ideas, Council is the place for you.  Clarenville’s Council meets every second week on Tuesdays.   The work of Council however is done in Committee and th

Arts Under The Stars (AUS) is a free evening in-the-park concert series on held on Thursday evening's in Clarenville throughout the summer.  This summer's series marks the 8th year for Ats Under the Stars and each year hundreds of people from Clarenville and surrounding communities come out to take in the shows. We've had notables such as Ron Hynes, Hey Rosetta and Rising Tide theatre. This year, the series starts this coming Thursday evening and have/will feature(d) such acts as Craig Young & Leeland Wareham, Shawn Wiseman, Gavin Simms, Katie Baggs, Sweet Voices of Youth, Morgan Davis, and the Quidi Vidi Dirt Band (See attached Brochure) -- Thursday's @ 7:00pm at Elizabeth Swan Park Juno Award winning Morgan Davis - Aug 15 Sweet Voices Of Youth - Aug. 8 KATIE BAGGS  www.katiebaggs.com  - Aug. 1 PAST SHOWS Past Year's Shows

On Tuesday September 24, townspeople in the Province's municipalities will vote for new municipal councils. Nomination Day is Tuesday, August 27.  In Clarenville there will be two votes; one for the position of Mayor and another for the 6 other councillors who will constitute our Town's government for the next 4 years.   If you are interested in running, Municipalities NL and The Department of Municipal Affairs have created a great resource called MAKING YOUR MARK - it has lots of useful information for would-be-councillors. Here in Clarenville, I expect there will be a lot of interest from people considering running.  Here's my take on what I perceive to be the key issues a new council/mayor/councillor will face...   Immediate Issues Municipal Waste - Clarenville is one of the only communities in eastern NL to have twice a week, all you can throw away, garbage collection. We have no curbside recycling and no composting (These make up about 50% of garbage by we

Shoal Harbour Drive is well travelled, there is no doubt about that.  The road itself was never designed for the load of traffic that is on it currently - let alone into the future.  Some arguments have been raised regarding if the road should or should not be the main road - the fact of the matter is however that regardless of what should have been, Shoal Harbour Drive is now the de facto main artery for traffic from the Bonavista peninsula and Shoal Harbour valley to upper Clarenville. Traffic volumes will only continue to increase over the next few years and the road must be made to meet this challenge.  Something must be done NOW to make that road capable of more safely handling the traffic on it.   With the reworking of lower Harbour Drive owing to problem pavement (see my blog post COUNCIL DOOVERS -   http://ourtownclarenville.blogspot.ca/2013/07/councils-overdue-do-overs.html  ) , and the development ongoing in the Parkview subdivision, now is the opportune time to fix some bi

After a three week hiatus, Council meet on Tuesday, July 8 and a lot of positive things got done - some of which have been visited before.    Here's a quick overview of key highlights and how the decisions could affect you: (the PACKET recorded the meeting for everyone to listen to and I encourage you to listen.)  VANDALISM There is a great look-out on the Shoal Harbour trail and seven years ago I was involved in helping get interpretive signage put on this lookout.  I was dismayed last week when I saw one of the signboards vandalized.  Since then vandals have done their utmost to destroy the works.  All four poster  boards and their mounts have now been damaged.   They will have to be redone at considerable expense to taxpayers. This was raised in Council and they agreed to issue a $500 reward for information leading to a conviction of the culprits.  Further Council will look at installing cameras on these problem areas. NEW PAVEMENT for NEW ROAD Owing to it

I firmly believe more people should go for a walk in Clarenville.   Walking gives you a much better perspective on our surroundings and it gives you time to think about – on one hand - just how lucky we are to live here – and on the other hand – some of the challenges we face. Take, for example the Harbour walk around the inner Shoal Harbour.  Each evening, this trail is full of walkers enjoying the views – the ocean, the occasional eagle, ducks etc.  This trail was not an accident.   Some visionary people saw the potential for this trail walk and about 10 years ago through a well-organized effort, they turned their vision into the reality that we enjoy today.  Those are the things and the people that make our town a very livable community – and we are lucky for that. But as you walk, you will also notice a very worrisome trend that is not being addressed.   Traffic volumes have jumped exponentially in the past decade and most worrisomely, the average speed of traffic h

I first met Fred Best on my front lawn in during the 1997 Municipal Election campaign.  He was running for Mayor – again - against an up-and-comer municipal politician by the name of Frazer Russell.  Fred had the energy of a wild horse back then as he ambled from house to house meeting the residents with a passion and vigor that a mayor needs.  He’s a consummate politician and someone I admire for his dedication to Clarenville – not just since 1997 but since he entered Council in 1970’s.  He has been in those chambers ever since, 36 years serving as Mayor of Clarenville.  It’s thanks to Fred that I ran for Council in 1995.  His call of encouragement was the push I needed to stand for election.      I know from my one term that it is is a great experience and privilege to serve but it is a never ending and sometimes thankless job where, as a general rule, you don’t make a lot of friends, you pee some people off, and all topics of conversation that you get involved in eventually

The average person here is such that we ought never to have had self-government; we are not fit for it."(St. John's businessman Eric Bowring in testimony to the Amulree Royal Commission 1933) It's a good thing that the number of Communications people in government has grown extraordinarily in the past few years. Experience has shown time and time again, that Ministers of the government sometimes say the most inept things.  These Ministers really need someone holding their hand (mouth) to prevent "Open-Mouth Insert (swallow)-Foot" and to make them look good. Obviously, such was not the case when the current Minister of Municipal Affairs, the Hon Kevin O'Brien suggested to Randy Simms in this month's edition of MNL's Municipal News - on the eve of the next round of municipal elections in September - that allowing too many uninformed voters to vote using a computer would be wrong. “People who don’t know what’s going on,  voting for people

From: The Packet (www.thepacket.ca)  June 6, 2013 Perspective is everything.  Seeing I am not originally from Clarenville, I feel that I have a slightly different perspective on Clarenville than people who are born and bred here – a better appreciation for what it is to be an objective outsider looking in.   After 22 years residency and being pretty involved in the community, I do sometimes feel as if I am loosing that perspective.  This was brought home to me this week when I read Jayme Gough’s column in the Packet “A mini United Nations in Clarenville”.  In her piece she talks about the verity of people that she has met since she moved here – not so much locals but more so people who now live here from Greece, Italy, the United States and elsewhere in Canada – literally from all over the world!    Jamie’s perspective was quite an eye-opener for me.  I suppose I knew that people had been moving in for projects like the GBS build in Bull Arm,  and I have met a couple – but I

A community's Fire Department is called “The Fire Department” for a reason.   They fight fires and save our lives. Our fire department is made up of 30 or so volunteers who came forward from our community to give up their time and energy to willingly put themselves in harm’s way to save us and our families in the event of a fire or emergency. The did sign up for the fire rescue business; they did not sign up to be in the hazardous waste business. In this past week’s Council meeting, a small but important tidbit was raised by Councillor Pickett regarding the Clarenville Fire Department’s / Town of Clarenville’s refusal to take part in this year’s reformatted  Hazardous Waste Disposal Program.   (see this week’s PACKET " No Hazardous waste collection in Clarenville this year: Fire department chooses not to volunteer " May 29, p1 ) This year over 30 volunteer fire departments across the province will be hosting their own communities Hazardous Waste Day(s