The Our Town - Clarenville Blog by Paul Tilley

On October 8, 2013 Clarenville's new Town Council was sworn in at a public ceremony held in the Clarenville Events Centre.  Outgoing mayor Fred Best officiated the event.  Please click the video to start. Council Sub-Committees Community Development and Communications Tilley/Avery/Monk Finance and Administration Smith/Tilley/Avery Public Works Bailey/Harris/Smith Recreation Harris/Monk/Bailey

START YOUR ENGINES? Next Wednesday’s running of the TARGA road rally through the streets of Clarenville sure seemed like an afterthought in the discussion yesterday’s Council meeting.    To be fair, this end of meeting information item did turn into a 15 minute discussion that unfortunately,  left me feeling more concerned than I should given the unequivocal guarantees that Council said it was looking for before it finally approved the running of the Clarenville leg of the Targa race for 2012.   It was a discussion that heard Councillor Rodway proclaim that “It’s is much more safe event  (this year) and I think that this group has a good control over that.  It seems like Targa has done a lot more work in training this year.”  From there the discussion was further peppered with talk of safety tape placement and with words and phrases like “we’re getting”, “will be posted”, “I think”, “hopefully”, “not official yet”, “don’t have the budget” & “seems”.   Let’s just say

Several months ago, I wrote a post on my blog about development in Clarenville. In the post, I referenced the importance of communication with residents to alleviate any concerns that they might have about a neighbouring development. The development that I wrote about in February 2011 referenced concerns about flooding and timelines for completion. The development is still ongoing and today there was evidence of concern of potential flooding and impact that the development will have on those people who live on Prince and Viking Streets.  Culverts on those streets are almost full today after last night's rain. In fact, work had to be done early in the morning to divert water away from houses. While it looks like there are plans in place to divert water, it's not done at the moment and those who live in the area are not aware of future plans. It's very disconcerting, particularly with Hurricane Igor still in peoples' minds and hurricane season upcoming, to see culver

This photo is of the former Clarenville Primary School.  You can't quite make out the graffiti on the door which says Welcome to Hell.  Perhaps the artist doesn't realize that it's no longer operating as a school. As I passed by it today, I wondered about the status of the building. It has been closed for over a year now. I assume it is considered an asset of the provincial government but I wonder about its future. It certainly can't be left to rot or left to be the target of vandals. While travelling through Ontario recently with the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference , I toured the Rexdale Community Hub . The community of Rexdale is a priority neighbourhood of the City of Toronto.  The Hub is housed in a renovated school. It houses about 11 social agencies, including a women's centre, medical clinic, family resource centre and employment centre. It also includes a gym with hopes to soon include a community kitchen. It was a pricey ventur

Paul's post about a community centre for Elizabeth Swan Park reminded me of  this article by Taryn Sheppard I read in The Scope about a community centre in Denmark.   The community centre pictured here serves a neighborhood of 600 families. The bottom of the structure has a half-pipe skate ramp and going up one side there's a climbing wall.  Herstedlund Community Centre in Albertslund, Denmark. Photo by Adam Mørk The inside includes multi-functional spaces that could serve many different groups at the same time. With spaces on various levels with many entrances, there's lots of ways to access various rooms and to create different spaces with moving walls and hatch doors. A kitchen can transform into an outdoor patio or bar. A performance space has a stage that can be divided into smaller stages by sliding walls. The top level of the facility is an open roof terrace and basketball court, which can be accessed without crossing paths with other groups.  Pretty creati

Co-contributer Paul Tilley wrote an excellent posting about the issue of the Clarenville Fire Department providing fire protection services to the Local Service District (LSD) of Milton/George's Brook. I didn't think there was much to add to the topic until I read this week's Packet . The story doesn't seem to be posted on the website, however, the article is about the request of the LSD for a tanker truck from the provincial government. The LSD had requested that Clarenville Fire Department provide them with services and one of the conditions was a tanker truck to be stationed in the area to ensure adequate water supply. The Minister responsible indicates that should Clarenville become the regional fire department, an analysis would then have to be completed to determine the necessary resources required.  Fair enough. What caught my eye, however, was the last few paragraphs. The article indicates that "while the final decision to negotiate comes down to council