The Our Town - Clarenville Blog by Paul Tilley

The 9th Season of Arts Under the Stars is underway! Here's a video selecton of the acts as they play Thursday evenings this summer in Clarenville.  Artists this year include Goowiddy/Ches March and Leland Wareham, Three Shades of Grey, Scalliwag, Quickdraw, Terry Penney, Sweet Voices of Youth and The Dimmagios. You can see photos of each night's performance at  http://goo.gl/nom8y0 August 7th Performance Terry Penney is a fantastic storyteller in song.  Below is a selection from the performance that includes not only the song but the always fascinating background story behind it. Give them all a listen...    July 31st Performance This week's performance featured the four man band Quick Draw from Clarenville.   Quick Draw is Kip Strong, Frank Newcomb and Jason and Dave Saunders. The band plays country, classic rock and Newfoundland Irish tunes for all to enjoy. Check them out on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/ quickdrawnl/timeline  — at Claren

On June 17,  Minister of Health and Community Services, Paul Davis; MHA Ross Wiseman, Mayor of Clarenville Frazer Russell and CREST chair Larry Reid announced the launch of the local senior's bus service in front of a crowd of over 70 people - many of whom were seniors. The Clarenville Region Extended Seniors' Transportation (CREST) is a Clarenville based pilot project under the Age-Friendly Newfoundland and Labrador Transportation initiative. The CREST bus service will operate within Clarenville and travel as far as North West Brook, Harcourt and Elliott's Cove on a shared-ride door-to-door basis. The service is intended for people age 60 or over and for people confined to a wheelchair.  The volunteer enabled service will commence July 7, and will operate on a scheduled route that covers the majority of a 20-kilometre radius of the town of Clarenville.  The 16-passenger/wheelchair accessible bus will operate Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Passengers should 

This is the script to my address to the Regional Meeting of the Odd Fellows where I was invited to represent the Town and to be the guest speaker...  Many thanks to the local Odd Fellows organizing committee. I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity to speak. Making a Difference Thank you… Newfoundland and Labrador delegates of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows., On behalf of Mayor Frazer Russell, Council and the entire town, I would like to wish you a warm welcome to Clarenville.   I trust your meetings over the course of this weekend will be productive and you fellowship inspiring. It always gives me great pleasure to see people from all over the province come to Clarenville because I know that the people in this town, especially the people who make up this lodge locally are some of the same people who have contributed to making Clarenville such a great home for me.   I also know these people embody the ideals of the IOOF within our community (Friendship, Lov

Almost three years ago Greg Pittman, Winter Games Host Committee Chair, approached me about being part of the organizing committee for the 2014 Winter Games that would be held in Clarenville in March of 2014. During that same conversation, in a very enthusiastic voice, Greg said - "and I'd like us to make a video of Clarenville...". That was the start of a project that would boil down two years’ work into three minutes. It encompassed shooting over 250 shots of Clarenville through its four seasons, at every imaginable event - in High Definition. I took Greg's proposal to my colleagues here at the College. Deidra Strowbridge is an expert at design and crafting ideas. She has been behind our award winning Enactus team. Shannon Oake is an extraordinary visual designer and expert photographer, and Jody Locke is a master at video production, editing and photography - Shannon and Jody's work is behind a lot of the new media production that the find in several Distribu

Les Stanley played for the Clarenville Caribous senior hockey team for many years. His number was retired in a ceremony held on Saturday, January 11, 2014 at the Clarenville Events Centre

This past weekend, Clarenville's tourism community celebrated two significant milestones.  First, White Hills Resort launched its new season with an open house in the beautiful main building at the Resort.  2014 marks the 25th year of the resort and with newly appointed manager Jason Crawford, coupled with some major events planned for the resort over the winter, it is shaping up to be a great year for the Resort's Silver anniversary.  Take this opportunity to see a short video of the event here: Second, the Resort, the Town and their Partners launched a "one-stop" web space that will be promoted to tourists and residents alike. GottaLoveOurWinter.ca reflects the fact that there is a lot to love about winter here in Clarenville and we want to share its joys with others. Below is a video of the launch.  Be sure to check out the website at  http://gottaloveourwinter.ca/ . Historical White Hills Resort The Resort operated as a private business for m

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

Ever wonder what Clarenville looks like from the air? Here's a bird's-eye-view that gives you an idea of just how great we look and how much we're growing. Thanks to Newfoundland Helicopters!

“Help Wanted” signs adorn our town.   If you're a teenager, and looking for a job, odds are you’ll be in luck. What’s good for youth and for people looking for retail type jobs however is not so good for the businesses that are busy trying to recruit for them.   Last week’s edition of THE PACKET told the story of how a shortage of retail labour in Clarenville is challenging some businesses, and how one business has taken advantage of the Foreign Worker Program to hire staff from the Philippines ( Local businesses recruit foreigners to fill the gaps Sept 26)  .   This situation is not unique to Clarenville.  In Happy Valley-Goose Bay over 200 foreign workers are employed in the fast-food/retail industry.  These stories come as a prelude to the Province launching a Discussion  road-show to discuss the challenges being faced by communities and business as baby boomers retire/die while and fewer young people enter the workforce/communities to replace them.( See :  http://www.g

Over 100 residents came out to the Clarenville Chamber of Commerce sponsored Candidate Forum on Tuesday, September 17.   10 of the 11 candidates for council spoke for 7 minutes each on what her/she could contribute to the leadership of Clarenville over the next four years. Frazer Russell has been acclaimed the Town’s new mayor, and he was also in attendance. Forum Chair: Susan Hollett Timer: Adrian Power Photo/Video: Harrison Tille Representing the Chamber:   Richard Power The Candidates: Candidates were assigned their turn in the order by draw  Jill Russell-Monk      David Harris Rod Nicholl Heber Smith Ashling O’Mahony Avery  Bill Bailey Paul Tilley Brian Smith Graham Bursey Add caption  John Pickett Candidate Jeff Bursey was unable to attend the forum Election Day is Tuesday, September 24 – P

We are in the middle of some boom times in eastern Newfoundland and Labrador.   With Hebron and Vale in full swing and on our doorsteps, the demand for housing has shot up in Clarenville and prices have risen as accordingly.   This has meant that far too many people who have limited financial means are getting squeezed and squeezed pretty hard.  We know there is a real problem because volunteer organizations, like the REACH Board ( Regional Action Committee on Housing)  have been formed to help address some of the problems associated with affordable housing, and the demands on the Clarenville food bank have never been greater.  These should be natural and powerful partners with the Town in addressing the problem of affordability. The Town officially acknowledges its role in helping to provide affordable housing in its Municipal Plan (p7). Towards this end the Town has adopted some low maintenance,but equally low effect, measures towards addressing affordable housing.   Senio

Join me in this light hearted placement of election signs around Clarenville...I call it Electionsigneering

I was glad to see Town workers painting the crosswalk on Huntley/Harbour intersection this past week – just in time for school.   There are several key crosswalks on high traffic roads in Clarenville and in this past week’s Council meeting I see that there was a decision to add another on the heavily travelled Memorial Drive route as it runs past the Seniors gathering centre. (listen to the Aug 22 meeting on THE PACKET's website at  http://www.thepacket.ca/media/flying/1208/cville_council_130820.mp3  ) Noble for sure, but even Council admits that these crosswalks give a rather false sense of security seeing that most drivers in Clarenville seem to be oblivious to them -and the pedestrian's ready to use them - as they zoom past.   We really need crosswalks that work better. If there is an admission of a problem – as indicated in the Council discussion – then measures must be taken to solve that problem before someone is hurt and before the town is held liable for ne

Over the past few years, Clarenville has budgeted quite a few dollars for what has been dubbed as Economic Development activities.  The focused goal has been to spur business development in the town and generate money.  This has been met with varying degrees of success (depending on who you talk to)  (see my previous post on this  http://ourtownclarenville.blogspot.ca/2013/04/economic-development-or-community.html  ) I would like to propose a radical rethink of this approach. First and foremost, the term Economic Development is much too narrow and too focused on money rather than the people it is supposed to benefit.  What we really need to talk about is Community Development .  The goal of community development is to take efforts to improve the “livability” of our town by making it a better place to live for its citizens and by creating a positive experience for its visitors.   This is known as “Placemaking” and has been the subject of much research as of late.  Placemakin

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