AGM 2007-08-18
Huntsville Lakes Council
Minutes of Annual General Meeting 2007
Date: August 18, 2007
Location: Robinson Independent Grocer Community Room
Present: Elaine Jackson - Co-Chair - Fox Lake Association
Mary McCulley - Co-Chair - Chub Lake Property Owners Association
Bill Somers - Secretary - Lake Waseosa Ratepayers Association
Bruce Howlett - Director - Lake Waseosa Ratepayers Association
Burr Atkinson - Director - Walker and Pells Lake Association
Mike Greenfield - Director - Mary Lake Association
Dan Kerr - Director - Mary Lake Association
Jeanne O'Neill - Director - Harp Lake Association
Dan McKeon - Director - Peninsula Lake Association
Rob Zingel - Director - Fairy Lake Association
Barb Stronach - Director - Federation of Cottagers Association
Dwayne Verhey - Webmaster - Lake Waseosa Ratepayers Association
Regrets: Yuri Zadoroznyj - Director - Bittern Lake Association
John Kenny - Director - Lake of Bays Association
Ted Mercer - Director - Otter Lake Association
Guests: Don Baker - Member - Ad Hoc Environment Committee
Wendy Gibson - Member - Lake of Bays Association
Tonia Di Sabatino - Member - Oxbow Lake Cottager's Association
Cathy Lloyd - Member - Oxbow Lake Community Club
Heather McLean - Member - Walker and Pells Lake Association
Roberta Green - Librarian - Huntsville Public Library
Special Guests: Barry Young - President and CEO - Lord and Partners
Ron Goltz - Chemist - Lord and Partners
Leah Shore - Associate - Lord and Partners
Lynda Lynn - Real Estate Agent
- Call to Order: Co-Chair Elaine J. opened the meeting at 9:35 AM welcoming all members and guests.
- Approval of Agenda: Motion by Dan M. and seconded by Mary M. that the agenda be approved. Carried.
- Co-Chair's Remarks: See Appendix 1.
During the Co-Chair’s remarks, Burr A. made a suggestion regarding the newly acquired display board. He suggests that each association donate a photograph depicting activity on their lake and that each of these identified photos could be displayed on the display board as an incentive for others to have their photos posted. This was thought to be an excellent suggestion.
- Approval of Minutes: Motion by Barb S. and seconded by Bill S. that the minutes from the HLC AGM held August 12, 2006 be accepted. Carried.
- Treasurer's Report: This position remained unfilled since vacated by Lynda Howe in December 2006. Secretary, Bill S. reports a bank balance of $1,713.07 as of July 31, 2007. The HLC proposed budget for 2006 was $2,343.18. The actual Expenses for 2006 was $1,166.83. The proposed budget for 2007 is $2,136.00. This report was reviewed by the HLC Review Committee of Bruce H., Burr A. and Dan M.
Motion by Bill S. and seconded by Elaine J. that the Treasurer's report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007 and the budget for 2007/2008 be approved as received. Carried.
- Guest Speaker: Bill S. introduced Barry Young, President and CEO of Lord and Partners Ltd., a Huntsville businessman dealing in industrial cleaners world wide. For 35 minutes, Mr. Young entertained the room supplying information about himself, his family, his company, his partnership and his products. Although Lord and Partners Ltd. deal mainly with industrial companies, they are prepared to sell their concentrated products in smaller quantities to the public. As you might expect, many questions were presented to Mr. Young which were quickly and easily answered. Due to a time constraint, Bill S. had to cut off Barry Young's presentation, thanking him and his associates for taking the time to attend our AGM. For information concerning Lord and Partners Ltd, visit them at their website at http://www.lordandpartners.com/.
- Nominating Committee: Chair of the Nominating Committee, Bruce H. presented the slate of Directors for the 2007/2008 year. They are
Mary McCulley - Chub Lake Property Owners Association
Rob Zingel - Fairy Lake Association
Barb Stronach - Federation of Cottagers Association
Elaine Jackson - Fox Lake Association
Jeanne O'Neill - Harp Lake Association
John Kenny - Lake of Bays Association
Bruce Howlett - Lake Waseosa Ratepayers Association
Bill Somers, Lake Waseosa Ratepayers Association
Dan Kerr - Mary Lake Association
Mike Greenfield - Mary Lake Association
Ted Mercer - Otter Lake Association
Dan McKeon - Peninsula Lake Association
Burr Atkinson - Walker and Pells Lakes Association
Tonia Di Sabatino agreed to be a Director representing Oxbow Lake Cottager's Association. Motion by Burr A. and seconded by Mary M. that the Nominating Committee's slate of Directors be approved. Carried.
Co-Chair Elaine J. thanked the committee for all their hard work.
Prior to calling a 10 minute recess, Co-Chair Elaine J. acknowledged the presence of Roberta Green of the Huntsville Public Library, thanking her for her display of literature. The HPL receives and files correspondence submitted by various associations. These files are located in the Muskoka room and available to all, to read. Roberta G. stated she was glad to have been invited and was impressed with the conduct of the meeting.
The meeting recessed for 10 minutes following which, the Directors present gathered to form the Executive.
- Elections: The Board elected the following Directors to the following executive positions.
Position Director Nominator Seconder Confirmed
Chair Bill Somers Dan Kerr Tonia DiSabatino yes
V-Chair Burr Atkinson Bruce Howlett Dan McKeon yes
Secretary Burr Atkinson Jeanne O'Neill Mary McCulley yes
Treasurer Bruce Howlett Dan McKeon Burr Atkinson yes
Following is a list of Committee Chair appointments -
Position Director Committee
Chair Bruce Howlett - Budget
Chair Elaine Jackson - Communications
Chair Dan McKeon - Advertising/Promotional/Social
Chair Jeanne O'Neill - Newsletter
Chair Rob Zingel Newspaper
Chair Dwayne Verhey - Website
Chair Tonia DiSabatino - Contact List
Chair Barb Stronach - FOCA Liaison
Chair Jeanne O'Neill - Fund Raising
Chair Bruce Howlett - Membership
Chair Elaine Jackson - Nomination
Chair Mary McCulley - Policy
Chair tba Special Projects
Chair Bruce Howlett - Stewardship
Chair John Kenny - Taxation/WRAFT/CAPTR Liaison
- Adjournment: Motion to adjourn by Elaine J. at 12:05 PM
Appendix 1.
HLC AGM, August 18, 2007 - Co-chairs' Remarks
Elaine Jackson and Mary McCulley
Review of year:
Due to her move out of the area, we said goodbye to Lynda Howe and thanked her for all her efforts while treasurer and as our first webmaster.
Yuri remains in poor health and was unable to attend meetings.
18 lake associations were members this past year.
Elaine, with a teeny bit of help from Mary, organized the Muskoka Watershed Council's launch of its 2nd Report Card on watershed health in Partner's Hall at the Algonquin Theatre on July 27th. Together, with photos provided by Bill and display panels donated by Jim Harper, they created an initial HLC promotional display for use at this event. We hope to improve on the display over the next year with the help of others.
Committees:
Policy: Although some work was done on the Development Applications Flowchart, this was not completed this year. It will be an objective for 2007/08.
Representatives attended the OMB hearings on the Pen Lake quarry, with Bill presenting at the public meeting. We also attended the Lake Waseosa hearing with Elaine presenting our position. We will be involved again if the OMB decides to hear one or both of these again in full hearing.
The committee has responded by contacting each lake association when an application is received respecting development on a lake providing comment on each and whether the lake would be supported by HLC if it wishes to oppose the application. Elaine and Mary met with Terry Sararas, Director of Development Services at the Town, to discuss recently imposed fees for incorporating lake plans and conservation land trusts into Huntsville‘s new Official Plan. A letter has been sent to the mayor outlining our concerns, noting that lake plans and land trusts can only benefit Huntsville and that these fees are a severe deterrent to both. This matter has yet to be resolved.
Taxation/WRAFT/CAPTR: John Kenny kept us informed of the activities of WRAFT/CAPTR over the year.
Fund raising: Once again Bill organized the BBQ which was extremely successful raising $896.45! Thanks to Robinsons YIG for allowing us, and other groups, the opportunity to fund raise in this way, and to the volunteers who helped to staff the booth. Thanks also to Claude Doughty, Norm Miller and Tony Clement for their attendance at the BBQ.
Communications: Through calls to our associations, Bill developed a contact list for all our lakes to be used by Cathy Nunn at Town if she needs to refer callers interested in a specific lake.
-Newsletter: Jeanne did an admirable job of getting us to submit reports on our various endeavours and we were able to send out three newsletters in November, May and August.
-Website: Early in the year, Dwayne Verhey presented the Board with a review and cost analysis for the development of our own website to be set up and supervised by Dwayne. His proposal outlined the ability to offer website services to any of our lake associations for the minimal cost of $35.00 (including domain name registration). HLC's costs are just over $114.00/year (including costs for any additional websites). Bruce Howlett contacted all HLC members offering our website services and provided a report to the Board re his survey. Several lake associations have indicated their interest in linking up with HLC. Many thanks to Dwayne for all the work he continues to put into this.
-Advertising/Promotion/Social: We had two excellent socials: our Christmas one was a potluck held for Board members at Elaine's house and our second was a very well-attended BBQ at Bill's.
-Forester articles: This project did not have its own committee. Mary suggests that it be set up as a separate committee for the next year. We sent in an article each month. Most made it into the paper with only 2 not being published. Thanks to all who supplied Mary with articles.
Stewardship: Bruce has been trying to get in contact with MWC personnel regarding helping the MWC with its inventory of lake data.
Special Projects: -Candidate questionnaire: Mary, Elaine and Mike Greenfield developed a candidate questionnaire which was sent out to all the candidates in the municipal election. As it was too cumbersome, the Forester did not publish the results but they were put on our website.
-Mary Lake dam walkway: Due to the MNR stating its intention to close the walkway over the dam, Mary Lake held a public meeting in November which HLC reps attended. We also sent a letter to MNR supporting Mary Lake's position. MNR, the Mary lake Association and Town are negotiating the construction of an alternate walkway.
-Lake levels: As Fox Lake and Mary Lake are concerned about their fluctuating lake levels, Mary, and later Elaine, are co-ordinating these and other affected lakes in their approaches to MNR. Mayor Doughty and Councillor Bill Beatty also see this as a problem. In addition, MPP Norm Miller has expressed his concerns.
-Lake plan funding assistance from Muskoka Community Futures: When it approached MCF requesting grant assistance for its lake plan, Fox Lake was told that MCF would only consider assistance if the request was from all our member lakes requiring it. We have found that folks are having problems finding the time for this initiative this year but we will continue to keep in touch with lakes still in the process of developing plans so that a request can go forward when they are ready to proceed.
-Navigation buoys: Lake Vernon requested Town's assistance with the purchase of new buoys but was told to seek assistance from the HLC so that all lakes needing markers could be identified. We polled our members and then together presented a request at a meeting with the mayor in May based on the costs to purchase from the company recommended by the Canadian Coast Guard. Mr. Doughty felt that the costs were prohibitive and suggested that we see if any local company might become involved in the development of markers. Pipefusion agreed and Rob Laver of Lake Vernon is co-ordinating with Pipefusion. Hopefully, prototype buoys are currently in place in two sites. If these seem appropriate, we'll make another effort at funding assistance when Pipefusion provides us with costs.
-Private road maintenance: Mary developed a paper on two examples of private road maintenance that are working successfully. This was in our August newsletter and will be posted to the website.
Membership: Bruce, with Bill's help, did a lot of telephone work this past year to find other associations in our watershed and offer them the benefits of participation in the HLC. As a result, Otter Lake has joined with us and other lakes are in the process of forming associations.
-Dan McKeon suggested at the September meeting that a separate committee be formed to dig deeper to find folks who would be willing to assist in the work of the Board. Burr and Bill assisted Dan on this committee and Jeanne was found for us. The committee added a second mandate in January to look at the perception of lack of worth of the HLC by lake associations outside Huntsville (especially in Lake of Bays Township).
Liaison Committees:
-FOCA: Barb Stronach has kept us informed of the many initiatives FOCA has undertaken this year.
-Muskoka Watershed Council: Mary and Elaine have attended these meetings over the year to keep us working closely with this very worthwhile group.
-Environment Committee of Town: HLC made it known that it did not support the mayor's decision to dissolve the Environmental Advisory Committee of Town and did not feel that individual committees could manage environmental aspects adequately, especially proactive measures. Subsequently the mayor did see that too many hours were being spent by Town staff on environmental concerns and he constituted an Environment Committee with Councillor Mary Jane Fletcher as chair, himself as deputy-chair and Councillor Fran Coleman as member and he requested representation from both the HLC and the Ad-hoc Environmental Advisory Committee. Mary was selected to represent the HLC with Burr acting as alternate. This committee has been active since dealing with such issues as dark sky lighting, the old tannery site and SoundSorb.
-LOBA: Bill and Mary represented HLC at most of the general meetings of this group over the past year.
-Comprehensive Zoning By-law Sub-committee: This committee was constituted to work with Planscape on drawing up the new zoning by-laws based on Huntsville's new Official Plan. There was no request for public representation but Scott Aitchison and Debbie Kerwin (of the Accessibilty Committee) were appointed as the public reps. After we sent a letter requesting representation on the committee, we received the mayor's agreement to let Mary (for HLC), Don Baker (for the Ad-hoc Environmental Advisory Committee) and Kathy Hunter (for Fairy Lake) attend meetings and contribute albeit without voting rights. The first draft is now ready for public comment. The Policy Committee will develop a review of this document for submission to the Sub-committee by the end-date of August 30th.
General Issues:
-the old tannery site: Our new mayor recognizing the potential for tannery chemical leaching into the Muskoka River, called a meeting of the Environment Committee of Town, an environmental consultant hired by Town and KWH personnel to discuss the issue. Apparently, results of tests done on drainage holes on the KWH property show no untoward results. Mr. Doughty has said that Town will fund testing on the part of the old tannery site which it owns.
-SoundSorb use at the Madill Church Road Rd. Gun club: The mayor initiated contact with the Madill Community Association due to its concerns about leaching of the chemicals in the SoundSorb used as a berm at the gun club site into the groundwater and private wells. He called a meeting of this group, gun club reps, Town's Environment Committee and the environmental consultant. MOE is monitoring the results of testing on the site. Burr has provided his expertise to help us keep a more knowledgeable eye on the situation.
-Deer Lake Trailer Park: Residents of this park approached the HLC in late 2006 regarding an unsafe sewage disposal situation. We suggested contact with Town and eventually with the MOE. MOE visited but did not request assistance in finding the specific site referred to. The e-mail address of our contact has since changed with no new address provided. Mary advised Mike Gooch who asked for further information on the siting of the tank in question so he could go to the site with the MOE. Since our contact is lost, we can only hope that another contact comes forward. -Crown land use and abuse: Several of our members report having crown land on their lake which is being abused by the public and/or campers. A poll of all our members is being undertaken to see how many others are having problems so that concerns can be forwarded to MNR.
-Mail-in Vote: Bill did a lot of work with Katie Gilchrist on this issue and Elaine submitted an article on this for the September Forester. Despite our efforts, the use of this option was poor and agreement to use this method did not pass.
Prepared by: Bill Somers, Past Secretary August 20, 2007
