Huntsville - Lake of Bays Lakes Council

HLC minutes 07/6/9. 09h30 Robinson's Independent Grocer.

Present: - Co-Chair, Elaine Jackson, Co-Chair, Mary McCulley, Directors, John Kenny, Jeanne O'Neill,
Ted Mercer, Dan Kerr, Dan McKeon, Burr Atkinson and Bruce Howlett and Webmaster, Dwayne Verhey.

Regrets: - Secretary, Bill Somers, Directors, Mike Greenfield, Rob Zingel and Barb Stronach.

3) Minutes: - sent by email and posted to website .
Motion to accept minutes. Seconded by Ted Mercer.

4) Treasurers report: - Balance of $1,442.40 includes 7¢ interest. Move to accept by Bruce Howlett and Burr Atkinson.

5) Committee Reports:

a) Budget report for AGM: - Bruce and Mary: To be prepared this week
Discussion about details. Report to be prepared for next Board meeting.
Each committee head to provide budget details to Bruce ASAP

b) Nominations: - Bruce to produce draft list of prospective candidates for July meeting.

c) Fundraising: - BBQ coming up. Spaces on list for volunteers. Friday OK.
Saturday Tony Clement, Claude Doughty, Norm Miller all coming 1pm-ish. Need 1 person for morning and 2 people in afternoon. Need lots of warm bodies in afternoon just to show support for VIPs
News paper will have photographer, Cogeco will have videographer.
Bill Somers will have HLC ball caps as gratuity for VIPs. Caps available for around $12 for everyone else. Sunday afternoon, 2 people needed for afternoon.

MHF Raffle Tickets - Elaine reports from Muskoka Watershed Council meeting. They asked us to sell raffle tickets in support of the upcoming report card. $5 each for queen size hand made quilt. Draw on Oct. 24. Suggested tickets to be offered at BBQ and social.
Questions about make-up of MWC raised and answered by Mary.
Discussion about appropriateness selling MWC tickets at BBQ -- division of priorities. Decided not to sell at BBQ but willl at social.

d) Helper committee meeting report. Meeting was held June 6th at Tim Hortons (to help their camp fund).
Objective: Contact LOB associations to meet with all people regarding website, contact information.
Recommendations
1. Speed meetings by sending out reports prior to meetings by sub-committee meetings.
2. All member associations should provide contact info to ensure stakeholders have input. The HLC should proactively contact them on a regular basis and ask if they have any issues. This should be a priority.
Discussion about putting minutes and reports out there in advance to allow people to get to be aware. Difficulties with time pressures for volunteers. Information has to be out well in advance. Could use website posted by Secretary. Dwayne Verhey to investigate Cron job to send out reminder to each association in advance of meeting to contact person. Bruce to contact each Association to ensure correct contact person is identified. Suggested that notice could highlight an issue that the HLC will be discussing this month to stir interest. Discussion about on-going issues eg: Tannery lands dragging meetings out. Suggestion that such issues be moved to subcommittee level or website reports to remove them from the agenda and shorten meetings while still keeping members updated.
Discussions about lack of response from Deer Lake residents. Should issues like this be dropped? Mary will give them yet another opportunity to respond.

Township of LOB will send out notices (adjustments, etc.) to us for a fee of $130 per year. Available on their website for free, but often only 10 days notice. Issue to be added to next agenda. District councillor Ginny Burgess has been helpful contact for LOB.

e) Communications reports.
i) Discussion about who can post what on website. Dwayne handed out list of current permissions and explained general public has very controlled access to public areas only. Private areas can only be accessed by special permission which can only be assigned manually by Administrator. Registered users may comment on some types of items, but comments not published until approved (and/or edited) by administration (similar to a "Letter to the Editor" of a newspaper). Association reps have limited ability to post information (eg: can add items to Events Calendar). Directors have ability to post or edit on most areas of website. His reasoning is that the Directors are responsible, mature adults. Discussion about appropriateness of allowing individuals to post and/or edit site content. Comparisons made to newsletter where articles are submitted and vetted by committee. Mary and Jeannie and Elaine and Bill to study and report back next month with recommendations.

ii)Promotions of upcoming events
Social: Bill suggesting all council from LOB and Huntsville, and the Press be invited. Bill working on e-mails to membership.
BBQ: Suggestion to put together Public Service Announcement for radio stations. Suggestion for box ad in Forester. Too late for newspaper article. Past events have had posters made up for community bulletin boards. E-mail version of poster to go out to contact list.

Mary and Elaine getting set up for promotion of report card launch. Thought that a permanent promotional display stand for HLC should be developed for display at these types of events. Mary and Elaine to design something for Dan to take to his son's company for a permanent display. Probably not enough time to do if for the BBQ.

iii) Jean to have newsletter for late July. Committee heads to submit articles ASAP for initial submission. Nagging is encouraged. Mary to do article on disposal of Pharmaceuticals. Elaine to do MWC report card summary.


iv) Rob did article in Forester this past week. Suggestion for experts around the lakes to make contributions for future articles. Need an inventory of specialized skills and experts -- not just for newspaper articles but that might be willing to offer advice or services to other member associations in need. Need section on website for experts to sign up. All Associations should put request in newsletters for members to come forward.
Suggestion for article about OMB rulings.

f) FOCA report deferred as Barb unable to attend for personal reasons.

g) Stewardship: Discussed inventory of lakes. Awaiting response from Judy Brouse.
Distribution of CD/DVD to Lake stewards in Bruce's hands.

h) Special projects
i) Navigation bouys. Mary reports Pipe fusion contacted regarding local manufacture. No costs determined yet.
ii) Lake Levels.: Elaine reported on Lake Associations that want to participate in negotiations with ministry. Indicated that Judy Brouse had made comment about "maybe lakes have to get used to new reality" and dodged questions about why levels are higher. Patricia Arney took interest and has made contact by e-mail with people in MNR. She says there are 2 issues: actual lake level problems and communications issues. Patricia needs feedback from each association addressing each of those two issues. She will take these concerns forward.

Lakes controlled by power generation companies seem happy.
Lakes controlled by MNR are the ones complaining.
Discussion about involving local politicians. confusion about Paul Johnson vs Doug Johnson. Discussion about article in local paper -- Elaine prefers to hold off until "all ducks in a row"
iii) Lake plan status: (Joint grant request)
LOB not sure if they will proceed.
Otter Lake not ready yet as they are still trying to get established.
Walker lake AGM next weekend. Directors in agreement. Will probably not proceed until next year.
Harp lake not currently in position to proceed.
Fox lake still recovering from other devisive issues. Not ready to proceed.
Terry Sararas advises fee has risen to $2100 in Huntsville to add lake plan to OP.

h) Policy: -

i) Zoning bylaw review committee: First draft ready June 15 will be public draft. This is the planning by-law and should follow the OP philosophies.
ii) Environment committee meeting. 2 meetings so far. 1st meeting was a general introduction and familiarization. 2nd meeting HLC and ad-hoc EAC brought forward concerns:
- Pesticide use
Sara Brown discussed clauses in by-laws that have been overturned in courts. Wording is crucial.
- Anti-idling bylaw to be reviewed.
- KWH, Soundsorb and Tannery site. Mayor to arrange public meetings on these issues. Environment committee to be included. Date uncertain as KWH could not commit.
- Tree planting will be done by July.
- Bruce Howlett suggesting by-law regulating boat density/recreational carrying capacity. Mary to investigate further but not sure if it is appropriate for EAC to consider.

6) Old Business:

a) Crown land camping was raised March 31 meeting. Becoming more of an issue due to growing use and abuse. Was an article in FOCA newsletter. Not much help from MNR. Some associations have gone to OPP but they don't have resources in marine patrol to be effective.
Does HLC want to become involved in this issue and if so, what can actually be done by HLC. May be able to partner with Town efforts with MNR. Burr and Dan to investigate and report.

7) New Business:

a) Location of FOCA award plaque - Foca plaque to be hung in Town Hall as HLC has no permanent space. Mayor's offer of space not likely to be realized due to other organizations needing space too.

8) Director's Associations - updates

Penn lake meeting regarding quarry. Next OMB hearing this Dec.

9) Adjournment: - Next Meeting: July 5th, 19h00 (Thurs night) Robinson's Independent Grocer, Community Room.

Prepared by: Dwayne Verhey