HLC Board Meeting-2007_05_12
Huntsville Lakes Council
Board Meeting
May 12, 2007 Location: Robinson's Independent
Grocers Community Room
Present: Co-Chair, Mary McCulley, Co-Chair, Elaine Jackson, Secretary, Bill Somers, Directors, Bruce Howlett, Burr Atkinson, Dan Kerr, Mike Greenfield, Rob Zingel, Ted Mercer, Dan McKeon and Webmaster, Dwayne Verhey.
Guest: Don Baker, (Ad-Hoc EAC).
Regrets: Directors, Yuri Zadoroznyj, Jeanne O'Neill, John Kenny, and Barb Stronach.
1. Call to Order: - at 9:15 AM
2. Approval of Agenda: - Amend the agenda by adding to item #6 - c) Pen Lake Quarry. Approved.
3. Approval of Minutes of March 31, 2007: - Under 7(c)-Website, Bruce H. was to contact association presidents regarding available webspace and under 7(e)-Stewardship, the MWC Report Card launch is July 26, not 27. On a motion by Mary M. and seconded by Bill S., the minutes were approved.
4. Treasurer's Report: Mary M. reports the HLC's bank balance as of today, is $1,508.05.
5. Committee Reports:
a) Membership/Nominations - ‘Helper Committee' - Chair, Dan McK. Reports that no meeting was held lately due to his being away but that he will set a meeting of his committee for next week.
b)Communications:
i)Website - Bruce is working on contacting association presidents to see if any wish to share our webspace.
Webmaster, Dwayne V. presented the Board with a multi page tutorial on how to create an "Event" on the HLC website. His report follows - Currently 12 registered users, including 2 test accounts. Top search phrase is "LAKE PLAN" or variation (53%). Being hit regularly by Google. No sign yet of Yahoo.
Most popular section is the photo gallery! Next most popular are the Calendar and Minutes. Directors can preview unapproved minutes and suggest corrections in advance of the meeting.
Otter Lake website originally set up temporary test site within HLC domain space for trials. Own space set up now (http://www.otterlake.info/) and running but still in preliminary stages of development. Working with Chad Schoppel to create content.
Each web partner has been allotted 20gb for now out of 181gb total disk space. Total usage is 0.05% between all sites. Allotted space grows 1gb per week -- allotted space is growing faster than we are currently using it.
Present users of the HLC webspace are HLC, LWRA and OLA.
ii)Newsletter - Our thanks to Jeanne O. for getting our newsletter out last week. Our next newsletter should be out by July 31, 2007.
i)Advertising/Promo/Social - summer social?- Last year's summer social cost the HLC approx. $150.00 excluding the meat. Following a short discussion, it was agreed to host a second summer social in mid-July. Dan McK. and Bill S. will form the committee.
v)June Forester article - Rob Z. agreed to prepare an article on Green Building Technology to be available to the Forester by Friday, June 1, 2007. Dan McK. suggested that member associations who have experts around their lakes might be in a position to contribute newspaper articles.
c)FOCA - Barb S. gave Mary M. a CD and DVD on Dock Talk. A Dock Talk representative will come to your lake, dock by dock, to assess your property and answer your questions. Contact MWC at mailto:www.watershed@muskokaheritage.org.
d)Stewardship - Bruce H. will contact Barb S. and prepare a report for the next meeting.
The MWC's Report Card launch is July 26, 2007 at the Algonquin Theatre. The HLC has agreed to help.
e)Fund Raising - BBQ sign-up - Bill S. reports that he will have the sign-up sheet available for the next meeting.
f)Budget - Bill S. presented last years committee budgets to the various committees. The committees are requested to have their 2007/2008 budgets available for the next meeting.
g)Special Projects:
i)Navigation Buoys - There is a meeting here at 11:00 AM with the Mayor. We are hoping the Town will be able to support this endeavour.
ii)Lake Levels - Elaine J. reports that she e-mailed representatives of Mary Lake, Lake Vernon, Fox Lake and Councillor George Young who have indicated an interest in the lake levels. Elaine is pleased that Councillor Young wishes to be involved and she feels that the group should be more politically involved and include Mayor Doughty and MPP Norm Miller. For years, Fox Lake has been after the Ministry of Natural Resources to control the level of their lake with little success. Since Judi Brouse of the MWC has been told by some that the lake residents should get used to the new lake levels as the water is needed to create more hydro at the various dams, Mary M. wondered if data could be obtained on increased hydro output as a result of the Muskoka River Water Management Plan.
iii)Lake Plan grant - Elaine J. has sent information to the lake associations (Otter Lake Association, Walker and Pells Lake Association and Bella-Rebecca Community Association) that indicated an interest in preparing a lake plan for their lake. Fox Lake had submitted a request to the Muskoka Community Futures for a grant to assist in their costs. MCF is interested but prefers to consider a grant to a number of lake associations collectively and not individually. Burr A. requests a cost estimate as he feels with the work that has already been completed, the request for grant monies for their association would not be that great. Dwayne V. and Bruce H. report that there are additional costs associated with lake plans should an association wish to have parts of it amended to the Town's Official Plan. An application for an OPA requires a $1,500.00 fee plus the costs of hiring a planner should the need arise. Bill S. suggested that the Town's Planning Department be invited to a meeting to explain the costs of an Official Plan Amendment. Elaine J. will find out more about this and report at the next meeting. Shelved for further consideration.
iv)Lake of Bays Members - Mary M. requests that the committee look into ways of meeting the needs of our Lake of Bays members, particularly in regards to application notification as the Township Council will not notify lake groups or the HLC when a planning application related to a lake is made. Following a short debate, it was decided that the committee would look into this matter.
v)Private Road maintenance report - Mary M. reports that she has information on Chub Road and Hunts Road and will post this on the website.
h)Policy:
i)Application Flowchart - Deferred.
ii)Zoning By-law Review Cttee - Mary M. reports that she, Don Baker and Kathy Hunter were invited as spectators, with speaking rights, to the zoning bylaw review committee. She, Don and Kathy H. attended the last meeting on urban policy. Mary M. was please that environmental concerns were apparent from many members of the committee. Rick Hunter, from Planscape, has been hired to draft the new Comprehensive Zoning By-law and act as an advisor to this committee.
6. Old Business:
a)Issues: Mary lake Dam - Mike G. reports that the MNR has agreed that a structure can be attached to the down river side of the dam, that they will provide 1/3 of the cost with the Town providing 2/3s. The walkway will be decorated with historic pictures. The two sides are debating the ownership issue.
b)LWRA, OMB - Bruce H. reports that a tentative date for the OMB review is August.
c)Pen Lake, OMB - Dan McK. reports that their OMB hearing is scheduled for August and that a membership meeting on this issue is set for June 9, 2007 at Hidden Valley.
7. New Business:
a)Environment Cttee rep. - Mary M. reports that the Town has reinstated the Environment Committee with Councillor Mary Jane Fletcher as its Chair, Mayor Claude Doughty as V-Chair and Councillor Fran Coleman as a member. The Ad-hoc Environment Advisory Committee and the Huntsville Lakes Council have been asked to have a representative sit on this committee. Motion by Mary M. and seconded by Burr A. that the Huntsville Lakes Council appoint a representative to the Environment Committee. Carried. Mary M. agreed to be the rep while Burr A. agreed to be the alternate rep.
b)Crown Land Camping - Deferred
8. Directors' Association - updates - Deferred
9. Remarks from co-chair - Due to a time constraint, the Co-Chair's report was not read at the meeting.
Co-chair's Report - May 12, 2007
Mary McCulley
As requested at our March 31st meeting, I sent out a draft letter showing our opposition to the use of Garlon 4 to all our members and, after receiving agreement from three lakes and no disagreement, sent the letter to Hydro, with copies to District chair, Gord Adams, Town councillors, the Muskoka Watershed Council and the Forester (published in the April 11th issue). District sent the issue to the MWC for consideration. At its April 20th meeting, MWC recommended that District turn down the proposal. District voted to agree with MWC's recommendation.
Also at the April 20th MWC meeting, a scary presentation on pharmaceuticals in water lead the group to suggest increased education of the public (such as in newsletters of groups like the HLC) as to safe disposal of unused medication and more research into what chemicals are present, in what amounts and the effects of these on wildlife. A second presentation was on ‘green' building technologies. The group again recommended education to increase the public's awareness of steps that can be taken to reduce energy use in the home. A visible pilot project was suggested and encouragement of local contractors to become certified by the Canadian Green Building Council. Judi Brouse presented on the climate change area of the MWC Report Card due for launch at the Algonquin Theatre on July 26th. The focus will be on how to deal with changes to try to keep the effects under control and maintain the health of our ecosystem.
MWC's Best Practices Series has its "Manage the Stormwater on Your Property" in print now and its Technical Bulletin on "Dark Sky Lighting" was recently sent out to all our member associations.
Barb Stronach and I attended the April 28th Information Session on Lake System Health. It was well attended and you'll be happy to know that our lakes are still in good health. Phung Tran reported on the Muskoka River Watershed Inventory which I summarized in my March 31st co-chair's report. Since Phung's data is more area-wide, a suggestion was made that lake associations could help her by setting up monitoring programs so she could input data at a property/lake specific level. I have been in touch with Judi Brouse about this and she would love us to help. John Brenciaglia of Pen Lake has suggested a meeting to discuss the sort of data needed. Assuming we have more information, this will be discussed at our June meeting. Judi told us that, although District already has in place very restrictive development criteria, it intends to develop a natural resource strategy based on Phung's data. Another presentation at this meeting was on Three Mile Lake's algae problem. This lead to septic inspections and it is hoped that remediation in this area, coupled with the sense of stewardship the problem engendered, will lead to no further occurrences.
The Ad-hoc Environmental Advisory Committee, which might change its name at its next meeting, is still going strong with its main focus on ‘green' technologies. It has been asked, along with us, to appoint a representative to the Town's new Environment Committee. It voted to do this at its last meeting. HLC's involvement is on the agenda for to-day's meeting.
I was to have talked to Sara Brown, Town's director of Public Works, on the safe disposal of fluorescent lights. Lucille Frith, with the Ad-hoc EAC, has taken on this chore.
And lastly, the Muskoka Sustainabilty Coalition has published its second newsletter. It is again excellent with lots of helpful hints on how to go natural in gardening and in our lifestyle. It contains a good article on the issue of plastic bags.
10. Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 11:00 AM
Prepared by: Bill Somers, Secretary. May 22, 2007.
