Athletes from the Pearlgate Track and Field Club made their presence known at the Atlantic championships held in Prince Edward Island last weekend, winning 22 medals and finishing as the fifth best club among 22 groups competing at the meet.
“The whole event was a perfect step up for us from the competitive level that we typically see in out track meets,” said one of the coaches accompanying the team, Mark Miller. “It’s a perfect warmup for our athletes to get ready for the Legion National. It was a really competitive event and I think we surprised a lot of people up there.”
Surprisingly, the weather in PEI was as bad as that home. “It was like 15 degrees and drizzle most days,” Miller said. “And the wind was actually pretty strong on Sunday.”
The inclement weather was an advantage of sorts for the Newfoundland athletes, because they are used to running in it, Miller admitted, but cold, wet weather isn’t a boon for performance times.
Nevertheless Pearlgate runner Levi Moulton ran times that were enough two set two new records, at least for runners from this province, while teammate Jennifer Boland also set a Newfoundland provincial record. Moulton’s records were in the 1,200 metre and 2,000 metre events, while Boland set hers in the 100 metre race. “The weather definitely played a factor,” said Miller. “I would say their times could have been even better, but ultimately we’re still pretty happy with the times, obviously.”
Along with Moulton and Boland, the Pearlgate medallists included Julia Kawamoto, Amanda Wilkins, Chantal Barnes, Joey Pittman, Emily Foley, Michael Boone, Camryn Bonia, Victoria Healey, Noah Gullage, Eric Knight, Evan Knight and Mykenzi Harding. Max Baker Pike and Oliver Phillpott also won medals at the Atlantic Run, Jump and Throw Championships for athletes 13 years old and under, which was held at the same time. Other members of the team Pearlgate team included Caitriona Bonia, Chloe Dawe, Allison Whelan, Ruth Shelton, Skye Barnes and Gerard Power, all of whom turned in strong performances as well.
Miller said the members of the Pearlgate contingent really enjoyed the tournament. “Everybody loved it,” he said. “It was a well-organized meet. It’s just nice to get out and see some different competition. Everybody had a good time, it was a great group… The running community is still relatively small here, so it’s always nice to not have to race the same person you’ve raced all summer.”
The next big meet for the club’s members is the Legion National Yoyth Track and Field Championships set for Sainte-Thérése, Quebec later this week. Most of the 17 athletes on the Newfoundland and Labrador tream are members of the Pearlgate Track Club.
O'Flaherty's flair shows well in memoir and biography
Patrick O’Flaherty has been a mentor of sorts to me for many years. No, I never sat under his teaching as a professor of English at Memorial University. But I have profited immensely from his many books. I return time and again to his The Rock Observed as I continue to read the literature of Newfoundland.
At this moment, he stands in the enviable position of having two books published at virtually the same time.
“This was not intentional,” he explains to me in a recent email, “but this is just the way it is.”
One is Scotland’s Pariah: The Life and Work of John Pinkerton, 1758-1826, published by the University of Toronto Press earlier this year. A revision of the author’s doctoral dissertation, it is the first book to examine the Pinkerton oeuvre.
I was torn as I read it, for I wanted desperately to like the subject of O’Flaherty’s biography. Pinkerton was all and more of the following: antiquarian, poet, cartographer and historian. On the other hand, he epitomizes less noble characteristics as forger, serial adulterer, bigamist and religious skeptic.
“He was,” O’Flaherty summarizes, “an ornery character.”
Pinkerton knew and was admired by literary masters such as Edward Gibbon and Horace Walpole. Pinkerton himself was a man of letters, who left an astounding array of writings.
O’Flaherty follows this remarkable life from his youth in Scotland to his exile in Paris.
I finished reading Scotland’s Pariah with keen appreciation for the man O’Flaherty dubs “a neglected, deeply flawed, but intriguing human being.” For who among us would dare to deny his fallibility as a creature of Earth?
O’Flaherty’s second book to be released this year is an autobiography, Paddy Boy: Growing Up Irish in a Newfoundland Outport, published by Nova Scotia’s Pottersfield Press. In the same way that the author seeks in Scotland’s Pariah to untangle the skeins of Pinkerton’s life, he sets out in Paddy Boy to recall the disparate threads that make up his own life. And in this he succeeds admirably.
My friend, the late Benjamin W. Powell, Sr., of Charlottetown, Labrador, an author in his own right, often told me that a good writer takes his readers on a journey. If this is true, then O’Flaherty is a writer par excellence and a faithful guide to his personal journey, from his birth in 1939 to the end of his childhood in 1954.
O’Flaherty grew up in Northern Bay, the midpoint of the Northern Shore which, he explains, “was and to some extent remains a place apart,” despite the scant heed written Newfoundland history pays to it.
Meanwhile, he refuses to sentimentalize what to him is a special place. The Irish of his generation, he writes, resemble “the Galapagos turtle, an evolutionary oddity, a mutation developing in isolation from the rest of its species.”
Children sang songs like “The Wearin’ of the Green” and “Kelly, the Boy from Killanne.” They were aware of Ireland’s existence, which, O’Flaherty adds, “was more than what the Irish knew or cared about us in Newfoundland, which was zero.”
Paddy Boy is imbued with many flashes of humour. One example will suffice.
O’Flaherty’s Uncle Eddy Howell was a “dirty” berry picker. Businessman Philip Johnson, disgusted with the detritus among the berries, quipped, “Keep on pourin’, Eddy. I see another blue one comin’.” There should be an exclamation mark after this sentence!
The topics under the author’s purview are broad ranging, from history to geography, history to religion, politics to business, fishing to farming.
He was influenced by an all-pervasive religious sensibility which, he recalls, “intruded into everything we did and gave a meaning to life.” He was patently aware of “a distinct consciousness of religious difference.” His entire being was informed by the Catholic faith. Not surprisingly, after having divested oneself of the trappings of religion, one laments, “Who can say...that he does not feel a sense of loss?”
Much of Paddy Boy is given over to describing a Shangri-La-like childhood, a lost idyll, untrammeled by undue restraint, a life of glorious freedom, whether swimming, attending school, playing games, reading, or performing in plays and recitations at concerts.
Patrick the Professor is never far from the surface. There are 30 footnotes, though Paddy Boy is not intended as an academic treatise. There are judicious quotations from, among others, Philip Henry Gosse, Webster’s Dictionary and Francis Fukuyama. There are allusions to Mark Twain, John Kenneth Galbraith, T. S. Eliot and James Joyce. All serve to anchor O’Flaherty’s unique journey.
O’Flaherty bridges the old separate country of Newfoundland and its new status as a province of Canada. He remembers his father taking a “valiant stand” in the 1948 Confederation debate.
“What mattered to him was the opportunity to make money for his family, and he saw in Canadian union the prospect of an end to hard times.”
O’Flaherty himself adopted his father’s pragmatic view.
The end of childhood morphed into “a strange new world.” Here’s hoping O’Flaherty has at least one more book in him, a sequel to Paddy Boy, recreating his post-childhood life and times.
I have to ask, though, where are the “snaps”? There’s nary a one between the covers. As I read Paddy Boy, I tried to visualize how specific people looked. Photographs would have brought the author’s word pictures into sharper relief.
So there you have it, two lives of note representing two different centuries – Pinkerton and O’Flaherty – brisk reads both and well worth the investment.
Burton K. Janes lives in Bay Roberts and can be reached at burtonj@nfld.net
Clothes, textiles to be added for curbside recycling pickup
Mount Pearl residents will soon be able to add another type of item to the recycling bin – their old clothes.
The City plans to pick up household textiles at the curb, and offer a central drop off point, as part of its recycling program, with the material being sorted for donations or converted to rags for use in the depot and public works department.
The provincial government’s Multi Materials Stewardship Board is giving the City $10,000 towards trying out the idea.
The MMSB is giving the City an additional $10,000 to evaluate its existing curbside recycling program, educate residents about its environmental benefits, and reward and enforce participation through random curbside audits.
Council’s Infrastructure and Public works Committee chairman John Walsh acknowledged the grants during last week’s public council meeting.
“The textiles one was really interesting to me,” Walsh said. “These are great initiatives and the money will be well spent.”
Walsh noted the plastic garbage boxes used for residential trash collection makes it harder for operators to see what is being thrown away and sometimes “problematic” items end up in the bins. The random audits may counter some of that.
Deputy Mayor Jim Locke said two such problematic items, namely a couple of 20 pound propane tanks, were recently discovered in the garbage. Fortunately, he added, workers were able to identify the tanks during screening so that they didn’t up in a compactor and possibly explode from the pressure of crushing them.
“I wanted to bring this up publicly because people have no idea what they’re doing when they’re throwing this stuff out,” Locke said. “They’ve got to dispose of that type of material in the appropriate way. You can’t put that in a black garbage bag and throw it out because we could have a massive fire, potential health effects, a death even. So I like this initiative where we’re going to do some auditing to see what we’re putting in the black bags right now… We do have to do a better job of educating people about the importance of what not to put in these bins for the safety of the residents and our collectors.”
Walsh added that other problematic items are ending up in the trash too, such as tubular fluorescent lighting bulbs, car parts, cellular phones and paint cans. “There are all kinds of things that should be recycled through other means that are now hidden,” he said.
One of the goals of the spot auditing and education program, Walsh pointed out, is to get the City’s diversion rate for recyclable materials back up to where it used to be. The diversion rate has decreased from about 15.5 per cent of the household garbage being put on the curb to about 9.5 per cent.
As for the textile recycling program, Mayor Randy Simms noted textiles make up some four per cent of Mount Pearl’s garbage stream. “And we’re going to be able to take probably all of that out,” he said.
The City and MMSB are hoping to divert some 170 tonnes of textiles annually from the regional landfill as a result of the program.
Admiralty House gets into the 'spirit' of things
The operators of Admiralty House, Mount Pearl’s official museum, proved last week that not everything about history and exhibits has to be deadly serious. In a spirit of fun and a bit of adventure, the 100 year old former British navy wireless station was used to host local ghost hunter Jonathon Mallard of the Life After Death Society. About 30 or 35 people showed up, and if you believe the sounds heard by the guests, a couple of ghosts may have been present too.
The event appears to have transpired as the result of a bit of serendipity. Museum Manager Carla Watson said Mallard happened to drop by the museum one day to kill time before taking his daughter to a nearby park.
“It just so happened that we came upon the topic of him being a paranormal investigator,” Watson said. “And he asked if we would be interested in having an investigation done. We all thought it would be a laugh, we didn’t really expect anything to be found, but then when the reveal came we were all kind of blown away by how much he was able to hear.”
Mallard used the presentation to present evidence from a paranormal investigation he conducted at the museum on June 12. Using “electronic voice phenomenon” equipment, essentially a hacked radio that runs through frequencies at an accelerated rate to pick up fragments of speech by paranormal beings, Mallard recorded two voices.
One of the voices seemed to have a connection to an exhibit at the museum, Watson said. “We have a gift box here from 1914 that has some original 1914 tobacco,” she explained. “I was talking to him about it while he had the Spirit Box running and he heard, ‘Where’s the snuff?’ And we heard a female voice saying, ‘This is Anne,’ followed by ‘Our house burnt down.’ So we’re wondering if that might be Lady Anne Pearl, whose homestead actually burned down.”
The snuff box, which is on load from The Rooms, belonged to a Royal Navy reservist and was a gift of Princess Mary of England, who during World War I established a gift fund for British servicemen and their families.
“She gave all of the Allied troops a gift box,” said Watson. “On it was a picture of her and inside there would either be a pen and some candy, if you weren’t a smoker, and if you were a smoker there would be tobacco.”
As for the fire, it occurred in August 1840, less than a year after Sir James Pearl died. Following the fire, Pearl’s widow, Anne, lived with her sister in St. John’s for a while before returning to England. The Pearls had been granted some 1,000 acres of land in what they came to name Mount Pearl in 1829. It was a gift from Governor Thomas Cochrane in recognition of Pearl’s naval service. He had been a member of the Royal Navy since being a boy. At 15, he participated in the historic Battle of Trafalgar as a midshipman aboard the HMS Neptune, one of the key vessels in the fleet of Admiral Horatio Nelson.
Watson said Mallard also came up with “a visual he got of some sort of black shadow orb.”
The whole event was meant in a spirit of fun, she noted. “People sometimes say they get the heebee jeebies (at the museum), a feeling like you’re being watched,” she said. “We have a volunteer who sometimes opens up on the weekends for bookings and she says she’s smelled smoke and seen things move and heard things, stuff that we can’t really explain.”
Watson said Mallard is convinced Admiralty House has some “residual” paranormal activity going on “where these entities kind of exist and do their day to day things and may not be aware that we exist and if they do know that we exist they’re only commenting on what they see, they’re not actually trying to directly interact with you. It’s not like the scary movies where things are flying all around the room. It’s more subtle and more subdued.”
Mallard’s findings will probably be used for a special event at the museum at Halloween, Watson said.
This is a big year, in fact, for the museum. The building which the museum is situated in turns 100 years old on September 16. It was built as a Royal Navy wireless station.
Museum chairman John Riche said special events are being planned for the centenary. In the meantime, the board members who oversee the facility are not averse to having a little fun, especially if it draws attention to the museum.
“Admiralty House is doing fantastic,” Riche said. “Over the last two years we’ve really stepped it up a notch, re-evaluated all of our exhibits, re-evaluated all of our programming and we’ve got a great new manager in Carla. She’s just a superstar. She’s young, fresh out of university, she did some work at The Rooms, moved to Saskatchewan, but we knew about her, heard about her and brought her back and she’s done a fantastic job.”
Riche said the City of Mount Pearl is also really supportive.
“They saw that we were making a real serious effort, not only at increasing the profile of the museum, but the exhibits,” he said. “It’s a legitimate museum, it’s got some pretty darned cool stuff in there. We’ve got a great Florizel exhibit, we’ve got a replica Marconi kite, we’ve got some charts in there that Captain Cook used.”
Riche too had heard the rumours and rumblings of spirit activity around Admiralty House. There is one tale, he said, that has Lady Anna Pearl riding around the property on her horse at night. Haunted Hikes founder Dale Jarvis has done some work on that legend. Riche noted that you can hear his presentation on the museum’s radio station, CICQ, which is located at 92.3 on the FM dial.
As for Mallard’s presentation, Riche said it was enjoyable.
“He’s a ghost hunter. He tells you to bring your scepticism with you and I brought a good deal of it,” Riche said. “And so did a lot of the people there. But he’s a great showman and a great guy and very entertaining. He made some legitimate arguments during his presentation and found some voices. It’s not going to be an exhibit for us or part of the museum profile, but we’re going to have some fun with it around Halloween.”
Waterford River flood plain study will lead to new development rules
The City of Mount Pearl has agreed to comply with any new flood plain management plan for the Waterford River as part of a major new study being conducted by the Department of Environment and Conservation.
Director of Planning and Development Stephen Jewczyk told council during its public meeting last week that the province needed a quick decision on the request so that it could start the work shortly.
The request actually arrived at City Hall just minutes before the regularly scheduled council meeting.
“The intention is that the study will start in October,” said Jewczyk, but the request for proposals for companies interested in doing the work was set to close on July 20 with a deadline to respond by August 20.
“This is something that we’ve been asking for the past two years,” Jewczyk added.
The completion date of the $350,000 study is March 31, 2016 and will affect all three municipalities through which the Waterford Rivers runs, Jewczyk said.
“We’re not just talking about the river, we’re talking about the actual watershed,” Jewczyk pointed out. “It’s a very expensive study, it involves a lot of modelling, it involves a lot of special geo-data, and is an update of our current flood risk mapping… And the important piece is that it will now include climate change factors. And that’s what we’ve been asking for.”
Mayor Randy Simms welcomed the news, noting Mount Pearl has been working in conjunction with the Town of Paradise and City of St. John’s to promote the health of the Waterford River.
“You’ll all recall that one of our goals was to have the cleanest urban river in Canada,” he said. “And one of the things we wanted to do is a study on the health of the river, which is a study that we’re negotiating and writing a terms of reference for now.”
That study is in addition to the one about to be carried out by the province.
Simms said in order to achieve the goal of having the cleanest urban river in Canada all three municipalities must employ a consistent approach in regulating the activity around it.
“And one of the ways to build that consistent approach is to actually know the river,” Simms said. “One of the things we don’t know about the river anymore, and we’ve heard that comment from our own residents, businesses and others, is that we don’t actually know where the flood plain really is anymore, we don’t know what’s impacting the river beyond what we’ve done ourselves. You’ve got to know where you’re coming from to know where you’re going. This is a very important piece of work.”
Simms said having the Department of Environment take such an aggressive approach to getting the study done is great for all the municipalities connected to the Waterford River.
Councillor Dave Aker asked whether developments that are already approved will be impacted by any new regulations that will be developed as part of the study.
“The way we work legally is that if there is a permit issued, they will be able to continue, if the permit was issued prior to the new flood plain mapping coming into effect,” Jewczyk said.
Once the plan comes into effect, Jewczyk added, the City will change its zoning regulations to accommodate it.
“I think what you will see if the flood plain has dramatically changed as a result of climate change and everything else, development that once existed outside (the flood plain) is now inside,” Mayor Simms said. “Encouraging those businesses to take mitigating action… is to their benefit.”
Leak finder is money well spent
A new piece of equipment for finding leaks in water lines is “working out tremendously,” says Mount Pearl Deputy Mayor Jim Locke.
He made the observation at last week’s public council meeting.
Like all municipalities drawing water from the Bay Bulls Big Pond system, Mount Pearl is contending with huge water bills that are projected to grow even steeper next year.
That makes the detection and stopping of leaks important dollar wise.
Locke said the correlator “is allowing us to identify the leaks as accurately as possible. There’s less digging, less resource time spent.”
At less than $40,000, Locke said the correlator is one of the best investments he’s seen since becoming a councillor.
According to the City’s Director of Infrastructure and Public Works, Gerry Antle, the correlator uses computer software to track the acoustic 'footprint' of leaks along a water line, helping workers to locate the source of a leak faster.
Council hears renewed call for speedbumps
Mount Pearl Deputy Mayor Jim Locke is renewing his call for the City to install speed bumps on some streets.
“We all said this during the last election campaign and for me this was the number one issue,” Locke reminded his fellow councillors during their public meeting last week.
The issue arose during a discussion of the Transportation and Public Safety Committee report.
The chairperson of that committee, councillor Paula Tessier, noted the City has been getting complains from some residents about speeding and staff are monitoring the situation and analyzing data collected from street monitoring signs.
“I’m not sure everybody realizes that, but those solar powered street monitors actually collect data and we use that data when we start to get complaints,” Tessier said. “Also our MEOs (Municipal Enforcement Officers) are going to be ticketing violators. They do it, we’re going to continue to do it, and there may come a point, depending on how problematic an area is, when we might actually have to concentrate on that.”
That’s when Locke weighed into the debate, saying he’d like to know how many tickets have been issued.
Locke said residents are asking about speed bumps. When he raised the subject during his first days as a councillor, he noted, he was told speed bumps are problematic for Metrobus and for city plows during winter snow clearing operations.
“And someone said, ‘If you put one on one street, you’ll have to put them on 50 streets,” Locke added. “Well, my view is if 50 streets need them, you put in 50 speed bumps to reduce any particular casualties.”
Locke urged the committee to consider installing speed bumps on those streets where the data indicate speeding is a problem.
“I’d suggest we could put them in temporarily and then take them up,” Locke said, arguing speeding isn’t as bad during the winter months. “We could keep them down say until November, and then take them up so that our snow plows don’t have to worry about them. I’m just throwing it out there as food for thought so the committee can have a look at it.”
Tessier agreed that the argument in the past was that speed bumps were problematic for Metrobus, snow plows and emergency vehicles. “But now we’re seeing that there are different styles of speed bumps that may be available temporarily,” she said, adding the committee is looking at different varieties.
While the data indicates that in some places speeding isn’t as big a problem as some people think, there are “hot spots” Tessier said where some kind of action is needed.
“We need the data to back it up,” Tessier said.
“I like the idea of more research on it,” Mayor Randy Simms said. “I am not a fan of speed bumps at all, but having said that, there may be places (where they are needed). There is one thing for sure we can say about them: if you want to slow people down, they slow people down. Of that there is no doubt. I just sometimes think that some things are overreactions… But I am glad to see that you are researching it.”
Councillor Dave Aker said the City must be careful to target only those streets that have speeding problems, but agreed with Locke that speed bumps should be part of the “arsenal” when it comes to combating problem driving.
Youth hockey team recognized for enthusiasm, commitment, giving back
The 2014-2015 Mount Pearl Atom ‘A’ Blades hockey team has been recognized for its enthusiasm, leadership, respect and commitment as young athletes on the ice and off. As well as capturing three championships, this special group of young boys played an active part in the Blades’ annual food drive and understands its importance.
According to Sport Alliance Business Manager, Mike Bugden, the Recognition Award is presented to young athletes and volunteers who exemplify the values of good sport - kids who stand out for enthusiasm for their respective sport, teammates and club. Simply put, it’s all about young people celebrating the joy of the sport experience and demonstrating values like fairness, dedication, respect, and enthusiasm for the fun of playing the game and giving back.
These young players had a phenomenal hockey season, capturing the Don Johnson Hockey League Atom A Division Championship to go along with their 1st place finish during the regular season. During the annual MPMHA Christmas Tournament, the team also captured their division title, and wrapped up the year with the Provincial Atom A Championship title.
Head coach Trevor Murphy explained that each of the 17 players on the hockey team has contributed in some way to its success. They are a great group of young people. Over the course of the year these boys have played 46 games and amassed a record of 40 wins, 4 losses and 2 ties. This achievement is impressive, but the fact that the team has played well as a group and overcome various adversities is what makes the coaching staff proudest.
Most Memorable
Achievement
While the team’s accomplishments are indeed memorable, the most impressive accomplishments of this special group of boys are seen off the ice. They have each grown and matured over the season showing leadership, respect and commitment whether that be representing the association at various team events or helping in the community. One particularly memorable event took place at a local food bank. The team was proud to be a part of the MPMHA Annual Food Drive and this was a very special day for our association and community. But more than just participate, the boys stayed behind and met with staff to ask questions and learn why this was such an important community event.
Meet the players
and volunteers
Goalies – Avery Loveless, JT Tobin. Defence – Travis Badcock, Evan Kennedy, Liam Marshall, Ryan Murphy, Nathan Nolan, and Jacob Payne. Forwards – Jaden Dyke, Nathan Frelich, Reegan Hiscock, Michael Kielly, Noah King, Cameron Pennell, John Randell, Braedy Walsh, Evan Wicks. Coaches – Trevor Murphy, John Kennedy, Jim Hiscock, Colin Pennell. Manager – Brian King.
“Our staff is incredibly proud of this group of young players. They had a wonderful season on and off the ice,” stated Trevor Murphy. “Certainly, the team’s on ice performance was impressive, but the way that they conducted themselves during team events, and developed as young people over the course of the season is something which makes this team special. Mount Pearl Minor Hockey is dedicated to developing minor hockey players, but the association is also dedicated to community involvement and assisting in the overall development of young people.”
The Mount Pearl Sport Alliance and Recognition Award sponsor, Mount Pearl Dental are proud to recognize the 2014-2015 MPMHA Atom ‘A’ Blades for enthusiasm, leadership, respect and commitment as young athletes.
Heritage house given more options
Mount Pearl council has given the go ahead to an application to expand the possible commercial uses of what may be the oldest building in the city.
Planning and development committee chairman Andrew Ledwell reminded his colleagues on council last week that there has been some interest lately in the vacant property at 906 Topsail Road, which is for sale.
“It is one of only two heritage properties within the City of Mount Pearl, the other one being Admiralty House,” Ledwell noted.
The two storey property at 906 Topsail Road was built in the late 1890s or early 20th century as a summer retreat for his family by Patrick McGrath, a noted journalist, senior bureaucrat and politician.
“We’ve recently receive two enquiries, both for commercial purposes regarding 906 Topsail Road, one for a clinic, the other for a salon,” Ledwell explained.
Neither use is permitted in the City’s Heritage Use Zone. But Ledwell noted both of the parties who have enquired about the property have indicated they intend to maintain some of the heritage aspects of the property.
A briefing session was scheduled in May, Ledwell added, but when the City advertised it in The Telegram, nobody responded, so it was cancelled. At first the development committee members were prepared to add the salon and clinic uses to the list of activities that can occur within a heritage property, but after some further discussion, opted to make them discretionary uses.
“That will allow council a bit more flexibility and the ability to try to retain some of the significant heritage aspects of these properties,” Ledwell added.
Put to a vote, council approved the recommendation to amend the development regulations to allow a salon or clinic in the building.
Simms proposes ‘fix it and bill them’ policy for utilities
Mount Pearl Mayor Randy Simms says he is ready to ‘go to war’ to get Newfoundland Power and other utility companies to clean up their utility boxes and other infrastructure that has been tagged by graffiti artists.
Simms didn’t mince words when he delivered the message at last week’s public council meeting. The issue came up during discussion of council’s ‘Out of the Box – Traffic Box Project.’
Deputy Mayor Jim Locke, who chairs the council committee that oversees the program, noted some 10 to 12 traffic boxes, which house the equipment used to operate traffic lights, were painted by local artists last year, including Councillor Paula Tessier, who painted a traffic box at the corner of Ruth and Commonwealth. “And they look great,” Locke said.
The City and the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl, which coordinates the program, are taking proposals from artists interested in participating this summer. “We have a lot of talent here and so we’re looking forward to beautifying all these boxes,” Locke said. Not only does it dress up the neighbourhoods, it also cuts down on graffiti “tagging,” he noted.
Simms, who has been a big proponent of the program, agreed. “It’s really good,” said the mayor. “We need to expand on it where we can. But I have to say one of the things I am particularly frustrated with – and I think we have to bring in a strategy on it – are all of the boxes that are not ours. I’m thinking to the utility boxes that are owned by the Newfoundland Powers and the telephone companies. They are in a disastrous state. It’s the only word to describe it.”
Simms said he recently received an e-mail from a resident complaining about the state of two boxes near his property. “I believe if there is a mechanism available to us as a City to reach out to our corporate community and tell them ‘Paint these now,’ we should do it. And if they don’t, we should have the power to do it and to bill them. There is no hesitation on my part.”
Evidence shows, Simms added, that if you remove graffiti right away, it helps to quickly end the spread of more graffiti. The mayor acknowledged that it’s probably impossible to have artists paint every utility box in the city.
There are a couple of utility boxes on the corner of Ruth Avenue and Michener Street, Simms pointed out, “that are so unbelievably disgusting and they’ve been that way forever. And I believe it’s time for us to tap these people on the shoulder and say ‘If that’s not painted by Thursday, the City is going to paint it by Friday and we’re going to send you a $2,000 bill - your choice.’ And get it done. And it’s all over the city now. I doubt if there is a single one of these boxes that hasn’t been vandalized in this manner.”
Simms said he loves the Out of the Box program and the artistry is amazing.
“They (the utility companies) should do the same,” said Tessier.
Councillor Dave Aker said he is bothered by the number of super mail boxes in the city and the graffiti being sprayed on them. “The problem with Canada Post,” he said, “is that we probably don’t have as much clout.”
Aker said when the corporation was “selling” the idea of super mail boxes, one of their supposed attributes was that they are hard to spray with paint. Aker said it would be worth the while of city inspectors to look at the mailboxes on Michener Avenue. The corporation should be given a list of boxes that have to be cleaned and held to the same standards as the utilities, he added.
“I’m with you,” said Simms. “I just believe that we need to put a deadline on it. And we need to be prepared to do it ourselves. It’s not enough to just go to them and say we want you to do it and have them pay lip service… We need them to know that they’ve got four days or five days to get it fixed and that they need to work in partnership with us because they’re going to get tagged again and the first people to see that will be us – the people who can fix it first. And we almost need to dedicate some resources to it that they pay for.”
Locke said his understands the frustration and his committee will reach out to the “corporate partners’ about the issue. “Once they’re painted (by the artists) they are generally left alone,” Locke repeated.