Time capsule passes mayor by

It looks like Mayor Randy Simms’ hope of seeing a time capsule buried in a vault in the centre of a compass rose at St. David’s Field as part of a new park honouring the city’s veterans won’t be achieved after all.

"Tell me I’m wrong," said Simms, reviewing a photograph of the construction that was tabled during last week’s public council meeting. The picture showed no evidence of a vault in the middle of the giant round concrete platform that will eventually house bubble jets as part of a water fountain that will serve as a centre piece of the park.

"We were going to put a time capsule there in the heart of that compass rose," the mayor noted. "If we’re not going to do it, I guess that’s fine, but I understood we were."

"I remember the discussion on that," said councillor John Walsh.

"I remember the discussion (too), but I don’t think there was anything ‘concrete’ on it," quipped councillor Paula Tessier, twisting the mayor’s tail.

"Let’s talk about it in committee," suggested councillor Dave Aker.

"Wouldn’t it be neat to get the kids and some people to put some stuff together to put in a time capsule for the City, and ask our local groups to add something to it?" said Simms. "In 30 years or 40 years somebody will open it."

Simms allowed that maybe he leapt to the conclusion there had been an agreement to include the vault and time capsule and perhaps there was no such consensus at all. "So are we going to make a decision or not?" he persisted.

"Maybe we can talk about it later," said councillor Walsh.

"Oh oh. I’m not going to get my time capsule, am I? Simms said.

"You might be in it yet," joked Tessier.

Hall of Fame inductees attest to sports special memories

   The Mount Pearl Sport Alliance's Hall of Fame grew by four more members last month as two "builders" and two athletes were added during a banquet which also honoured the City's best athletes from 2015.
   Joining the Hall of Fame were long time soccer referee, coach, tournament convenor and executive member Dave Legrow; long serving baseball, hockey and soccer coach Dave Randell; soccer, hockey, basketball, swimming and volleyball start Jennifer Andrews; and standout Mount Pearl Blades goaltender Wince Taylor, who also backstopped provincial and senior hockey teams.
   The event drew a packed gymnasium for a banquet style presentation at the Reid Community Centre where the warm feeling inside was a strong contrast to the weather outside that was whipped with snow, rain and high winds.
   LeGrow was deeply touched by the induction. He started volunteering with the Mount Pearl Soccer association in 1994. Along with coaching, refereeing and helping to convene major tournaments, he also served in key executive roles, including treasurer and secretary and was part of a task group that helped obtain new field lighting, a new club house and new turf. LeGrow is a former Executive of the Year with the soccer association, a member of its Hall of Fame, and has been presented with a lifetime achievement award by Mount Pearl Men's Slo-Pitch Softball.
   In accepting the latest honour, LeGrow joked that he knew he wasn't being inducted for his playing ability. "But it's still an honour," he said.
   "I received through soccer a lot of rewards," he added. "There is a difference between rewards and awards - one is more tangible than the other... I have a lot of good memories ... My induction here tonight is another memory that I will remember for a lot of years to come."
   Randell, who began coaching in the mid-1980s when his children started playing sports, was also grateful for the recognition. Randell spent two decades coaching in various sports in Mount Pearl, helping four baseball and hockey teams to provincial championships and serving in a number of top executive capacities, including as treasurer for major soccer tournaments hosted in the City. Randell is also a former treasurer of the Sport Alliance, the 2000 provincial Summer Games and the Frosty Festival.
   Randell said no one achieves anything in sport on his or her own and he was fortunate to work with "some amazing groups of individuals, highly capable and committed board members and executives, dedicated officials, and top level volunteers… We had the confidence that we could take on pretty much anything and we very often did. Along with the athletes, these people made my involvement a pure pleasure."
   The same is true of the many sponsors who have contributed to the sporting community over the years, Randell noted.
   "Our City itself has taken sports seriously since day one," Randell pointed out. "It's been a lot of give and take and some raised voices at times, but the City and its staff have always come through and the youth of Mount Pearl are the beneficiaries of that cooperation."
   Randell saved his "most important" thanks for his wife Marg and their sons Mike, Mark and Ryan "for their patience, support and understanding over the years."
   The next two Hall of Fame inductees were enrolled in the athlete category. Jennifer Andrews excelled in a number of sports, including basketball, swimming, hockey, softball and volleyball and was a three time Athlete of the Year during her school days.
   But induction ceremony emcee Trevor Murphy said her real passion was soccer, a sport in which she had great success from an early age. “She was a key player with Mount Pearl’s provincial championship teams every year from the Under 12 division in 1987 right up to senior ladies,” he noted. “During her time as a minor player, she represented the province at 10 national championships and the 1993 Canada Games.”
   Andrews also played five years with the Acadian University varsity team where she was a First Team All Canadian and in 1995 was named Mount Pearl’s Female Athlete of the Year.
   In accepting her induction, Andrews congratulated the other people getting the same honour. She also thanked her parents. “Without them I would definitely not be here today being inducted,” she said, citing their love and support, and unselfishness when it came to driving her to practices and games and meeting the costs of participating in sports.
   Andrews also thanked the many others who support amateur sport in Mount Pearl and called attention to the special relationships that grow from it. “My best friends have come from playing sports in this community,” Andrews said.
   Fellow athlete inductee Wince Taylor also cited the wonderful friendships and experiences that come from participating in sports.
   Though he was regarded as a talented ball hockey and baseball player, and even a ‘Top Scorer’ one year in basketball, Taylor is best known for his prowess guarding the net in ice hockey. 
   During his minor hockey days, Taylor was named Top Goaltender and MVP in Pee Wee, bantam and midget and again in junior play. He played with a Select Team which hosted a touring Russian midget squad, served as a pick up net-minder for the Brother Rice Celtics in their hunt for the Atlantic Junior B championship in 1982, played a year later on the Canada Games team and later served between the pipes for the Herder Trophy winning Stephenville Jets, one of five senior hockey teams that tapped him for duty. Taylor was also named top goalie four of the six years he played in provincial ball hockey tournaments, while also earning medals and all star selections in several national ball hockey championships.
   Taylor said he was honoured to be on the same induction list as LeGrow, Randell and Andrews.
   “All I wanted to do was play sports, from a very early age,” he said. “My parents encouraged me every step of the way… Sport has played a major role in my life from a very early age.”
   Taylor noted that athletes often lose far more contests than they win, but sport has given him much to be thankful for. “Sport has helped me pay for my education,” he said. “Sport has provided me the opportunity to meet people and creat sustaining friendships for many years… Sport has provided me the opportunity to travel this province and this country and beyond. And sport has provided me the opportunity to learn how to conduct myself in victory, but more importantly, in picking myself up in defeat.”
   Taylor said there are far too many people to name to thank them all individually. But he singled out his mom, who kept a full time job and raised three children, and his wife Cindy and their children, for their special support.
   “I feel like I am returning full circle and again joining a team,” Taylor said, referring to the honour of being inducted with his fellow nominees. “Looking at the names in the Hall of Fame, I know many of them and witnessed their achievements. I also had the privilege of competing against them and being their teammates over the years. I look forward to being teammates once again.”

Mayor forecasts a year of challenges and opportunities

   Mayor Randy Simms sketched out challenges and opportunities on Tuesday during his annual 'Outlook' on the year ahead to members of the Mount Pearl - Paradise Chamber of Commerce.
In an upbeat but frank State of the Union type presentation, the Mount Pearl mayor outlined steps the City is taking to foster business growth.
   Last year was a good year, Simms said. "What I have to say about 2016 might be a little bit different. The current state of affairs, both in Canada and in Newfoundland, will have an impact on what happens in the local area and everything you hear about in the news every day is something that we also deal with at the local level. We have some challenges going into 2016; some of them existed before now, some of them are relatively new to us, but as a result it kind of changed the way we go about doing our business in this community."
   Among he challenges, Simms pointed out, is an aging demographic. Newfoundland, Mount Pearl included, is not only older, per capita wise, than any other province, it is also "aging in place faster," said Simms. "That's a challenge provincially and believe it or not it's also a challenge at the municipal level. It means that our service mix probably has to change as times go by."
   The low Canadian dollar is also having an impact, Simms said, because much of the economic activity in Mount Pearl is tied to supplying and servicing the oil industry. And low oil prices are also affecting the local economy.
   "We're already having higher vacancy rates than we're used to having," said the mayor, noting the vacancy rate now stands at 13.5 per cent. "It looks like it's probably going to go a little higher."
   All these factors influenced the City's budget preparations for this year, Simms explained. "We decided that what we should do is adopt a strategy of renewal - let's take the money that we have and spend it on the things we've (already) got as opposed to 'Let's try to expand, let's build something new.'”
   At just over $49.5 million, the City's budget is the highest it’s ever been, Simms said.
Some 13.3 million this year will go towards capital improvements, Simms said, including upgrades to "one of the busiest streets in all of Atlantic Canada," Commonwealth Avenue.
Only a portion of it will see new pavement this year though. "We're kind of doing it in sections as we go along," he said. "So there's going to be some traffic interruption this year on Commonwealth Avenue, but hey, if you want to clean up, the first thing you've got to do is make a mess."
   Sunrise Avenue, a major collector street that leads onto Commonwealth, will also see work.
"Probably the biggest thing we're going to do this year from the point of view of traffic is the intersection of Blackmarsh Road and Topsail Road," Simms added. "The opening the Team Gushue Highway, we believe, is going to lead to an increase in traffic coming into the city off Blackmarsh Road… We recognize that if there is going to be an increased traffic load, we're going to exacerbate a problem that already exists at that intersection... We'd love to put in one of those traffic circles like there is in Paradise, but there's not enough land there to do it for a four lane highway."
   Instead, the City is going to install traffic lights there.
   In other capital developments, the $4.5 million Campia Gymnastics facility will be finished this year. The City is covering the construction cost and will lease it to Campia, which has some 900 young people from all over the region as members, Simms said.
   “Mount Pearl's strategic plan says that from the point of view of tourism as an economic development driver, sport is where we're going to build it," Simms said. "So we can't just build it for Mount Pearl. If we're going to be a sport centre, we've got to build it for the region, we've got to build it for the province. This will be the newest, most modern competitive gymnastics centre anywhere in Atlantic Canada."
   Another major investment this year is taking place at St. David's Field, said Simms, where some $1.2 million is being spent redeveloping it into "a passive leisure park" that will include a new cenotaph for the Royal Canadian Legion.
   Admiralty House Annex, which got some $600,000 in work last year, will get an additional $350,000 in upgrades this year. "We want to get the Annex open, get it being used, both by our arts community and by the museum itself to make that museum a little more lively, a little more active, to give it a little more gravitas in the historical community and hopefully the tourism community as well," Simms said.
   Donovans Business Park, meanwhile, is in for a $3 million face lift this year. "Donovans remains the largest business park in the province," Simms said. "Now it's one of the older ones."
It also has more competition, he noted, from a new industrial park in Paradise, two in St. John's, and one that the Town of Conception Bay South is developing.
   "We don't want to be the business park that is like the house that needs painting or new shingles, so we're investing in the park every year for the next five years to see to it that we maintain our status as modern, new, and aggressively planned with all the right business mixes, because it generates income for our city," Simms said. "And it's important that all of these business people here, who actually pay all of these taxes, see a little bit of it flow back."
   One prime piece of real estate that will open up for future municipal development is the old Smallwood Arena. Simms said the storied old hockey rink will be torn down this year. "It has outlived its life, it has asbestos and things in it, we're not even allowed in it anymore without a Hazmat suit," he said. "So it's going to be demolished this year and will become an empty lot."
   But it probably won't be empty for long. Simms said an architectural firm has been hired to look at what might be put back there. “I believe in 2017, 2018 we're going to be able to put back a new building," he added. "What we really need to talk about is what kind of recreational mix should it be. I champion the idea of having a little theatre there, others on council have said we need a big place for our seniors - we have the largest seniors club in the province."
   Simms said other possible uses include an indoor tennis court or an indoor soccer field.
   “That's going to be a challenge this year, trying to determine what we're going to do with that empty lot," said the mayor. Something could happen even sooner, he suggested, if new federal infrastructure money starts flowing to the province this year.
   Other development opportunities lie between Topsail Road and Kenmount Road above the 190 contour, Simms said. A comprehensive development plan is being compiled to govern how the area will be developed.
   Several years ago, the province and City of St. John's lifted their restrictions on building more than 190 metres above sea level. The restriction had been in place for years because of the extra costs and infrastructure required to pump water that high.
   "Now you can build to the 220 contour," said Simms. "That has opened up a lot of opportunity in the City of Mount Pearl."
   Some 59 acres of such land on the north side of Mount Pearl, “the bulk of it fronting onto Kenmount Road,” will be available for development, Simms said.
The mayor is also encouraging council to explore the possibility of using public-private partnerships to lower the cost of municipal government.
   "If there are services that can be provided by somebody else more effectively or more efficiently and maybe even cheaper, why not do it?" Simms asked. "We're going to do a little exploration of that because frankly, the innovation and expertise of the private sector has not been used as effectively in our jurisdiction, at all government levels, as it should be and it's time that we opened that door.
   “So while we face what we call a fiscal challenge or a crisis or a cliff or whatever terminology you want to use, nobody should forget that it also represents an unbelievable opportunity, because it opens the door to doing all things differently. And we wouldn't do that if the oil money was flowing and everybody was happy and we could spend what we want; everything would stay the same forever. So while this is going to be unbelievably challenging for everyone, there's also going to be tremendous opportunity in it for us, particularly in places like Paradise and Mount Pearl. I think we're just big enough that we can be of interest enough to the private sector to say, 'Yes, we can do some work for you.' The question is how?”

O'Donel students go to bat for nature project

   They may be creepy and even mythologized in horror fiction and movies, but night flying, insect eating, web winged bats have friends at O'Donel High School where students in an industrial arts program have built nesting boxes for the fabled, fanged, flying mammals.
   The idea came from Level III student Elizabeth Tuck and was picked up by technology and science teacher Joe Santos, who saw it as a learning opportunity for his students. They spent about a month researching, planning, designing and finally crafting seven bat houses and nine houses for Boreal Owls. The structures are being donated to Memorial University's Botanical Garden.
   Christine Gillard, who works in environmental education at the Botanical Garden, was delighted to accept the gift.
   "We have Oxen Pond on our property and we do have a few bat nurseries, very large bat houses, but any more that we can set up, any more habitat that we can create, that's pretty much what the Botanical Garden is about," she said.
   A safe sleeping habitat is important for the bat population. Newfoundland’s Little Brown bats are about the only population of the species in North America that is not under threat from a disease called White Nose Syndrome.
   "We've actually been pretty lucky that we haven't had the problems that are on the mainland with the White Nose Syndrome, which is a virus that spreads from bat to bat and sometimes disturbs their hibernation process," said Gillard. "Eventually, if they wake up a lot during hibernation, they end up not being able to keep enough energy to stay alive. In Newfoundland we've been lucky that we've actually not had that problem. But that still doesn't mean that there's not a constant threat on their habitat. There are places where they like to sleep in the daytime. In the summer, it's in old dead trees. Well, we have a bad habit of cutting down old dead trees."
   That's why Gillard appreciates the initiative of the O'Donel students. "We always like to say, 'If you build it, they will come,'" she said.
   Little Brown Bats are great to have around, Gillard added, because they can each eat up to 600 mosquitoes a day, about half their body weight. "They're the true vampires, they're the ones drinking your blood," she said of the flies.
   Gillard said many people see bats, but just don't realize it. "I'm a soccer player and I like to play down at Quidi Vidi at King George V field and I see them all the time," she said. "And I'm always pointing them out to people. It's by a lake and there are big lights on the field, so they're flying around catching all the moths and insects that are flying around the lights and sometimes you'll see them dashing across the field after insects, but people look up and just think they're birds."
   The wingspan of a Little Brown Bat is about the width between your thumb and pinky finger when you splay the fingers on your hand. "They are relatively small, their body size is about the size of an adult thumb," Gillard noted.
While a number of schools have industrial arts programs, O’Donel is the first in the province to develop this project.
   "This is great," said Gillard. "I was thrilled when I was first called and told about it... Any sort of donations like this we'd love to have, anything that helps us create that habitat."
Gillard said the workmanship on the houses is fantastic and actually better than the ones that were erected at the Botanical Garden back in the 1970s, which ended up being taken over by birds.
   "These ones are perfect," Gillard said. "The entrance is on the bottom, because bats don't need a floor in their house, they want to be able to let go quickly and fly out. The ridging along the bottom they will use for climbing. Bat wings are just like our hands, they have all five digits, they just also have a membrane in between them. So on the top of every wing they have thumbs and they use those little thumbs for crawling up things.
   O’Donel’s skilled trades program is one of the most popular in the school. Some 120 students take technology courses. That’s as many as the workshop can accommodate during a school week, said the head of the department, Rod Lundrigan. But it’s only a quarter of the number of students interested in taking the programs.
   "There's not a period that the shop is not in use," added Santos.
"We have great support from our administration," said Lundrigan. "They believe in this program."
   Two separate classes of 22 students and 23 students, drawn from all three high school levels, worked on the project, with one class building the bat houses and the other the owl houses.
   Santos and his students took the time to research the bats as part of the process of developing a design for a house that meets their needs; hence the ridge lines cut horizontally along the wall for crawling and the inch wide slots at the bottom to allow the bats to get in while keeping larger predators out.
   "Hopefully it will work," said Santos.
   The project started when Tuck came to the workshop looking for scrap wood, because the Girl Guides unit she was working with were contemplating a similar project.
   "She was the impetus for this," said Lundrigan, who was delighted with the request, because it met another need of the shop.
   "I teach Skilled Trades and when we go through the material in here and cut things up, we have no use for it afterwards," he explained. "And this concerned both me and her. We don't burn it because of the glues and resins in plywood."
   Tuck’s idea to build bat houses from scraps that would otherwise have ended up in the landfill seemed like a great solution. It also met Santos' requirements to expose students to a project that required research, an examination of indigenous life, as well as design and construction.
   "Everybody's happy and that was a big selling feature for us," Lundrigan said.
The bat and owl houses turned out so good, some of the teachers at the school have expressed an interest in buying them.
   Gillard, meanwhile, is eager to see the houses put up and then watching what happens.
   "I'm looking forward to seeing something actually move in," she said.
Santos said the project may be repeated. "It was very successful," he allowed. "And it's a feel good project. It excites the students that something is actually going to be living in something they made... It's a win-win for everybody."

All for a special coach and Dad

   An annual basketball tournament that was organized to honour the memory of a great family man and coach has grown in just three years to become the largest hoops tourney in the province.
   The Keith Keating Memorial Tournament is also a major charity event with some $21,000 raised by the 28 teams participating in the event this year. That brings the total amount raised for the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Treatment centre to some $50,000 since the tournament was started by Keating's wife Eileen and sons Adam and Alex.
   The November tournament has grown so big it has to be played across four gymnasiums, including O'Donel High, and has become as large as the annual Sweet 16 high school tournament organized by the Newfoundland and Labrador Basketball Association.
   "It was perfect," Adam Keating, 21, said of this year's event. "We actually had to turn down seven teams, just because of logistics. All the games went super smoothly, it was a huge fundraiser and just a really great experience."
   The first time the family staged the tournament was in the middle of Dark NL, when most of the province lost its electricity because of a failure of Nalcor to properly maintain and back up its transmission system and some of its generating assets. "It was a very testing time," Keating admitted. 
   But Keating and his brother Alex, now 19, and his mom Eileen persevered and managed to keep the tournament going. Keating said organizing it has given him an appreciation for all the work his late dad did. Keith Keating, an engineer by profession, was a highly regarded volunteer in Mount Pearl and Newfoundland minor basketball circles, playing major roles with teams from St. Peter's Junior High, O'Donel High and provincial squads. He handled everything from coaching to and opening gyms for practices at odd hours, to running the score clock when nobody else was available. Even after a cancer diagnosis in 2009, Keating continued coaching for the next three years.
   "Behind the scenes he did all, so you didn't know all the planning that went into it,” Adam said. “So it's kind of funny, when I'm doing all this stuff now I'm thinking, 'This is the stuff that Dad used to do.' And when I first did it I actually found a list that he had in one of his clipboards that had all his notes of what he used to do for tournaments. Three years later it's still going on. I've got my own ritual now, but it stems from what he was doing. It's a good way of kind of connecting with him. This is what he liked, he liked having games. The donation part I'm sure he would appreciate, but he liked the basketball part, getting teams out and the kids playing. That's what he was biggest into, just giving kids a chance to play. If he could have scheduled a tournament every weekend, he would have done it. That's the kind of guy he was. He loved basketball and baseball and just being around the gym and setting stuff up and giving kids a chance to play."
   Both Keating and his brother are engineering students at Memorial University and this year’s tournament fell right around the critical end of semester study and exam preparation time. Keating said the tournament wouldn't be possible without the help and support of many people, including the cooperation and interest of the many teams that participate.
   "My mom spent a few pretty late nights (working on it) as we got close to the tournament to get stuff done," Keating said. "And we had a good volunteer staff. I think in total we had 50 or 60 volunteers, a dozen sponsors, 20 volunteer referees. I had kids from Gonzaga, O'Donel, and Waterford Valley High stick around after school each day and help set up the gyms and do the score clock and all that stuff. In total the number of people who made this happen was a pretty substantial number and it's pretty cool to see it all come together like that."
   Keating admitted part of the draw for the teams, especially the first year, was his dad’s connection to the other coaches. This year, Keating even managed to recruit a dozen or so teams for a girls division. "If I can get more gym time or figure out a way to get the system to work out, it might be even bigger next year," he ventured. "There's pretty good support."
   There is even a team of "alumni" players, whom Keating's dad coached. They approached Keating before the first tournament asking to put together a squad. A game between the alumni and an all-star team picked from the various high school rosters participating in the tourney has become a tradition.
   The objective of the tournament, said Keating, is to give high school students a basketball game and an opportunity to have fun.
   "I'd just like to give a super ‘Thank You’ to all the volunteers and sponsors," Keating said. "There are so many people with me doing all that work and making it happen and it's just as much theirs as it is anyone else's.”

Chamber celebrates Best in Business

   Reefer Repair and Coffee Matters were among the big winners at the Best in Business Awards held last week by the Mount Pearl - Paradise Chamber of Commerce during a gala evening at the Reid Community Centre.
   Mek's Salon of Paradise won the Best New Business Award, which was sponsored by RBC’s Mount Pearl and Paradise branches. GG landscaping, Novelty Engravers Plus and Ooh La La Pet Spaw were the other nominees.
   The Community Spirit Award for Mount Pearl went to Mount Pearl Dental, while Body Quest took the Community Spirit Award for Paradise. The awards are given to businesses which support community activities such as amateur sports, arts and culture, education and charities. In the Mount Pearl division, Marks, Munn Insurance, Newfoundland Power and Young Drivers of Canada were also nominated.
   The Employee Equity Award went to Coffee Matters, which has stores in Mount Pearl, Paradise, Conception Bay South and St. John's. Sponsored by Reddy Killowatt Credit Union, the award goes to a business that has demonstrated a commitment to the principles of employment equity and a spirit of inclusion, particularly for persons with developmental disabilities.
   Co-owner Scott Hillyer and his staff, who joined him on stage, were clearly delighted with the honour.
   "Employee equity to us is very important," said Hillyer. "And it's not just words. To me it's about caring and understanding. More importantly it's about giving a person or individual the same rights and privileges or opportunities as everyone else."
   Hillyer said his passion for employee equity developed when he was much younger and working in a restaurant where a fellow employee, a young man with Down's Syndrome, was working as a dishwasher. "He was always so happy to come to work, and always did a great job," said Hillyer.
   When he started to grow in his own carer and manage businesses, Hillyer said, he looked for chances to hire people with developmental disabilities. "As a dad and as a business owner, I see the importance of two things: independence and the need of each individual to feel needed and wanted. This leads to huge individual self-worth."
   Hillyer said from the many discussions he's had with employees provided through the Vera Perlin Society, he knows that they feel proud to earn their own money and want to feel needed and appreciated.
   Coffee Matters employs six people referred by Vera Perlin, making it the biggest employer in the province of the society's clients.
   As an example of the high quality workers the society recruits, Hillyer pointed to employee Megan Hounsell, who started with Coffee Matters four years ago. "She started in our downtown store and she would get the bus to work every morning, whether it was snowing or stormy, she never missed a day," he noted. "When I opened the store in Mount Pearl, she came to me and said, 'Boss, can I please move to the Mount Pearl store? I can walk to work.' I said, 'Yes Megan, that was part of my plan.'"
   Hillyer saidHounsell told him the other day that before she got hired at Coffee Matters, she had gone to many places looking for work, but people thought she wasn't capable and that the rejections and lack of faith didn't make her feel good. "But she said, 'All I needed was someone to give me patience to show me what to do and I'll understand it.' Well, here she is, next month she will be with us five years," said Hillyer.
   Another young girl, now a former employee, said Hillyer, came looking for a job even though she couldn't read and could only count to five. "I thought okay, there's a challenge for me, how am I going to get this girl to work?' Hillyer recalled. "I said, 'Well, what else do you know?' She said, 'I know my colours.' So I took the recipe book - and everything we do is in very large large batches - I reduced everything to five ingredients and started colour coding: An orange measuring cup was one cup, blue was flour, red was half a cup and from there we started doing recipes... Two weeks later she was baking chocolate chip cookies, tea buns, rice crispie squares and biscotti. She taught me something - you just have to adapt and work with the skills that we're given."
   Hillyer said he does a lot of speaking on behalf of the Vera Perlin Society. "For anybody here, I challenge you: If you're looking for great employees, you'll get nobody who will be as loyal and as dedicated and as willing to show me more than they do. When I walk into my stores, it's 'How are you today?' There are no people complaining, they're just so glad to be able to come to work."
   Coleman's Supermarket, Costco and Dicks & Company were the other companies in contention for the award.
   For the Graphic Design Award, four companies were in contention: the Graphic Arts & Sign Shop, Newfoundland and Labrador Credit Union, Staples and TC Media. It was sponsored by Epic Engagement & Consulting and went to Graphic Arts & Sign Shop.
Brenkir took the Innovation Award sponsored by the BDC. Newfoundland Power, Reddy Killowatt Credit Union and Shred Guard were the other nominees.
Reefer Repair won the award for Outstanding Business of 25 Employees or less. It was sponsored by TD Bank. The other nominees included Ches’s Fish & Chips, Ohh La La Pet Spaw, North Shore Roofing, Pinnacle Office Solutions and Winsor Coombs.
   The Award for Outstanding Business of 26 employees or more went to Steelfab Industries of Paradise. It too was sponsored by TD Bank. The other nominees included Akita Equipment and Auto Transport, PF Collins, PricewaterhouseCooper and Rosemore Homecare.

The little parish that grew

   As parishioners prepared this summer to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mary Queen of the World Church in Mount Pearl last month, they didn’t know it would be bittersweet, marked by the deaths of two people who had a profound impact on the life of the building and the parish. Artist Gerald Squires, who painted the beautiful and moving Triptych of the Death and Resurrection of Christ that hands over the altar and the equally compelling Last Supper above the entrance way doors, passed away on Oct. 3. Less than two weeks later, Josephine, or Jo, Barron, died at the age of 85. She had been a devoted member of the parish and had formed the parish's Council of the Catholic Women's League in 1978.
   So what was planned as a celebration of one of this province’s most unique church buildings turned into an appreciation as well of two people who helped make the building, and parish, special.
   Dianne Gulliver, who put together a 12 page booklet on the 30th anniversary of the building, was fortunate enough to have spent a considerable bit of time with Squires just before his death. With so many visitors to the church remarking on Squires’ work and asking questions about the unique series of 14 paintings that compose the Stations of the Cross, Gulliver thought it would be good to chronicle the thoughts of the artist himself.
   "I didn't know he was as sick as he as," Gulliver said. "But he agreed to sit down with me and two other people from the church to give us a synopsis of where he was mind was at the time."
That led to further interviews between Gulliver and Squires, including at his studio in Holyrood. From those conversations, the booklet was created. "He was so gracious and so sweet," said Gulliver.
   Squires’ work is the key reason Mary Queen of the World is unique among churches in Newfoundland. All Churches have art. Few have the unique perspective and landscapes of Newfoundland painted into the art that Squires provided.
   “Those Stations of the Cross are so valuable and they are so pertinent to Newfoundland culture and history," Gulliver said. "It will go down in the history books. “
   The 14 stations depict Christ on his journey to the Cross, though in landscapes starkly different than seen in most such works. These landscapes are all Newfoundland. Squires used himself as the model for the face of Christ, a surprising decision given his deep humility, but an obvious sign of his own deep spirituality. Some of his friends modelled for the hands and feet of Christ, which are prominently captured in the agonies Jesus endured. The Cross is a spruce pole, the crown of thorns modeled on one Squires had formed from a Hawthorne tree in his backyard. The people who appear with Christ in the Stations are modeled on people Squires knew and the road to Golgotha was based on a real road that runs through Portugal Cove. Similarly with the triptych, which is composed of three panels forming a mural 18 feet long by five feet high. It shows Christ crucified and resurrected with a barren, coastal Newfoundland scene for a background that includes a longliner fishing in a rough sea. The faces of the disciples in the Last Supper are taken from Squires’s friends and fellow artists. Their names are listed on a plaque below the painting near the front doors.
   The decision to ask Squires to compose the art for the Church was made by the parish priest at the time, Fr. Adrian Kimenai, a Capuchin from the Netherlands, who served at Mary Queen of the World from 1974 to 1986. At the time, the decision was controversial. Fr. Kimenai alluded to the debate it stirred in a message he contributed to a booklet prepared for the 25th anniversary of the parish's founding in 1987.
   The decision to build a new Church had been made in the early 1980s. The parish, which was founded in 1962 to serve people in Mount Pearl and Newtown who had previously had to trek to St. Thomas of Villa Nova Parish in Topsail or Corpus Christi in St. John’s for Mass, was growing rapidly like the town, soon to be city, around it. The growth was so fast that a second parish was created in Mount Pearl with the moving of high school students from Mary Queen of the World School to O'Donel, in Newtown in what is now St. Peter's Parish.
   Though the remaining parish was now smaller, Kimenai wrote that the plans for a new Church at Mary Queen of the World proceeded anyway. It would be a move out of the school into a building that would set the stage for more growth in the future.
   "We didn't have the money to build a monumental building," Fr. Kimenai wrote. "It is a very simple Church, but it is at the same time a liturgical building, although not exactly according to many people. I was instrumental in building the church and also aware of the different ideas and feelings in the parish... I must admit, however, that with all the hurt feelings you never let me down. Only the people who were there at the time will understand these lines."
   What some considered a radical departure from church norms back then is now considered a crowning jewel of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland.
   "Fr. Kimenai knew Gerald and he knew his artwork and how Gerry would always incorporate the Newfoundland landscape into everything he did," said current parish priest Fr. Pat Power. "Fr. Adrian was attracted to it because it would resonate with people. The story is, that's why we have chairs and not pews, because it came down to the cost of paintings versus pews and that's why we ended up with chairs. So the paintings were very much a part of the church."
   Squires' beautiful and striking art wasn't the only feature that made the new building different. The Eucharistic Tables and other furnishings were designed by local artist George O'Brien and built by Jo Barron's husband Larry Barron. The Baptismal font, a simple fishing boat perched atop a globe of the world, was built by John Barron of Prince Edward Island.
   Sometime after 2000, when Fr. Pat Kennedy was parish priest, funds were obtained to install the church's beautiful stained glass windows. “People donated to them," Fr. Power said.
   The stained glass was made by local artist Brendan Blackmore, based on designs by Squires.
   "These are true stained glass windows," said Fr. Power. "Sometimes in churches now you see coloured glass, but this is actual stained glass."
   The building, which can seat 550 people, feels airy and bright. It still looks and feels new, both inside and outside.
   "I think people like it here," said Fr. Power. "We kind of keep it as a warm atmosphere. People find it very inviting here, I think, and they like the chairs."
   The Sunday morning and evening Masses attract good sized crowds, Fr. Power said.
   The building and the nearby parish office serves as a good base for the busy work of the parish.
   “Mary Queen of the World was a very small parish when it started out,” said Gulliver. "From there, St. Vincent de Paul was developed, which helps feed the poor, and then we got little organizations like Stewardship and Liturgy and Parish Council and the Knights of Columbus and before you knew it, we had all these committees. And now our Church is a strong church. It is financially okay and we've been doing wonderful."
   Gulliver chairs the Stewardship committee. "Stewardship is all about time, talent and treasure," she said, three qualities, that particularly apply to Squires and his contribution.
   "He wasn't paid a large amount of money for the paintings,” said Gulliver. “The replacement cost today would be in the millions, but what Gerry was paid was only a fraction... But he felt he had charged a fair price and I just marvel over his goodness…. He really touched me, I have to say… I look at the paintings so much differently now. He was a great artist and such a great person and I could really see how the Stations of the Cross affected him."
Squires was an extremely spiritual man, said Gulliver. "He was the right person to do those stations."
   Squires’ wife Gail, one of his daughters and his grandson attended the event held to mark the church’s 30th anniversary. Gulliver was touched that Squires’ family felt touched by the appreciation the parish felt for him.
   Gulliver, like the other parishioners, is also grateful for the bold decision Fr. Kimenai made to engage Squires and others in the creation of the church.
   "He was such a good man," Gulliver said of the parish priest, who retired about a year after the church was built. "He was the one who enlisted Gerry and got the St. Vincent de Paul Society started and those kinds of things. He was the founding father of that church for sure… It's such a great church and the Newfoundland history that Gerry Squires has added to it is second to none. We've got huge churches in our province for sure, but this is an historical church that needs to be recognized as many times as we could possibly have it recognized."

Reddy Killowatt Credit Union shines at Pearl Awards

   Two bright, airy looking businesses that have brightened a drab section of Topsail Road were among the winners at the 2015 Pearl Awards held at City Hall in Mount Pearl last week.
   Reddy Killowatt Credit Union at 885 Topsail Road was the big winner, collecting both a Pearl Award of Excellence for Urban Design and a Pearl Award of Excellence in the Green Lens category for its environmentally friendly features which include geothermal heat pumps, LED lighting, and energy efficient glazing.
   Across the street at 912 – 924 Topsail Road, the O’Neill Motors building, owned by Discovery Holdings, won an honourable mention in the Green Lens category. Built on the site of what was a derelict building, the judges noted the builder managed to utilize parts of the old structure while creating a comfortable working environment for staff using “innovative design solutions” such as LED lighting and sensors and integrated systems for disposals of wastes.
   Commonwealth Court, at 50 Commonwealth Avenue, which was extensively renovated last year, won an honourable mention for Urban Design. Its narrowed parking lot means less asphalt was needed, the judges noted, and the widened, covered sidewalks in front of the mall, with lighting on the building’s façade, encourages pedestrian activity.
   Deputy Mayor Jim Locke said the unique design of the Reddy Killowatt building “positively contributes” to the city’s landscape. “The unique building form stands out amongst other buildings along Topsail Road,” he noted. “There is excellent attention to detail in design throughout the building… The development enhances the overall visual quality of the area. The high quality of materials utilized represents a dedication to long term sustainability.”
   As part of the award, a certificate of recognition was issued to the design team behind the Reddy Killowatt building, Lat 49 Architecture Inc.
   Locke pointed out the innovative design includes an angled drive through lane, and terraced parking lots adapted to the slope behind the building. A “rip rap” basin captures run-off from the sloped roof and vegetable oil is used to run the hydraulics of the building’s elevator.
   While any individual or company can enter the Pearl Awards competition, it’s up to the various panels of judges as to whether to accord Awards of Excellence and Honourable mentions or not. But everyone who does enter is recognized for the effort that goes into making a property viable for an award. Some nine properties were evaluated in the Urban Design and Green Lens categories this year, said the City’s Director of Planning and Development, Stephen Jewczyk. The judges included Shirley Boone of the Seniors Independence Group, Lysa Ivey of the Chamber of Commerce, and Youth of the Year Noubahar Hasnain. They were assisted in their work by Richard Kenny of the Newfoundland and Labrador association of Architects, Reg Garland of the Atlantic Planners Institute and Matthew Mills of the Association of Landscape Architects.
   The Garden Awards category, which features the efforts of householders who beatify the gardens and landscapes surrounding their homes, saw three nominees: 9 Chancery Place owned by Clarence and Yvonne Tobin, 32 Hounsell Avenue, belonging to Ellen Murphy, and 13 Rideau Place, owned by Mabel O’Quinn.
   Corrina Dawe of the landscape architecture firm Tract Consulting and Dr. Norman Goodyear of MUN’s Botanical garden helped with the evaluation of the residential properties.
   Both 32 Hounsell and 13 Rideau won Honourable Mentions. The Pearl Award for Excellence in Gardens went to 9 Chancery Place. “This garden beautifully combines aesthetics with function,” said councillor Andrew Ledwell, who hosted the ceremony. “Every inch of space is attractively designed, with areas dedicated to evening entertaining or daytime relaxing.”
   The property features extensive ornamental beds of flowers and a variety of fruits and vegetables, Ledwell added.
   Randy Simms, who along with Mount Pearl North MHA Steve Kent, was a guest speaker, used the occasion to mark his last formal duty as mayor before taking a leave of absence to campaign for provincial office.
   "It was back in 2005 as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the incorporation of Mount Pearl that the City launched the Pearl Awards for urban Design," Simms said. "In 2007, the program was expanded to include local gardens. Since 2013, the City has been pleased to partner with the MUN Botanical Garden to coordinate a gardening workshop component attached to the awards, which is planned to be offered to all 2015 participants early in 2016."
The introduction of a Green Lens component last year, Simms added, is in line with the City's strategic plan for developing Mount Pearl. Simms said the Pearl Awards not only acknowledge the quality of design that exists, but “hopefully encourages even higher levels of commitment by individuals and companies to urban design, the design of gardens and to green initiatives in our city in the future."
   Kent said he looks forward to the awards every year. “When I drive around the community I’m always amazed by the effort that goes into landscaping and design of both residential and commercial properties."

Smart and socially conscious

   The flock of politicians competing for public office this month might well be thankful that Brian Peach is not yet in the race. The 23 year old Mount Pearl native is too busy working on a master's degree in mechanical engineering and teaching first year students at Memorial University to contemplate a run this time around. But he's not ruling out a role in public office in the future.
   The O'Donel High graduate recently received a Global Engineering Certificate, just the latest honour in a long line of accolades and scholarships, but indicative of his interest in using engineering to make the world a better place.
   How smart is Peach? During his undergraduate studies in engineering, he maintained a 96.2 per cent average over the five years of study. His best year of university saw him earn a 98.8 per cent average.
   Those marks were good enough to garner the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador's Award of Excellence for being the highest achiever in his graduating class of some 200 engineers. He's also been on the Dean's List, and is the winner of the 2015 Governor General's Academic Medal for the highest average in his university, bringing him into the ranks of past medal winners at other universities including Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas, Robert Stanfield and Robert Bourassa. Peach, who is the son of City of Mount Pearl Chief Administrative Officer Michelle Peach and Memorial University engineer Don Peach, also won the $15,000 A.G. Hatcher Memorial Scholarship for having the "highest academic merit" at MUN. Peach would no doubt have collected a small fortune in other scholarships and prize money, but his winning of a $25,000 alumni entrance scholarship when he finished high school pushed him to the limit of the $5,000 per year cap that the university imposes on scholarship recipients.
   And while, Peach enjoys investigating the mechanics of what makes things tick - his thesis is examining how ice builds up on windmill turbines - he is a big picture guy with an avid interest in using the benefits of engineering for larger purposes. Not too surprising perhaps, since his first inclination was to become a teacher.
   Peach noted that to become a teacher, you have to get a degree in just about anything first and then top it with a teaching certificate. He decided to follow the lead of his high school physics teacher, Dave Furey, who had obtained a degree in engineering before doing his teaching degree.
   "I knew too that with the engineering program you get all of these co-op work terms and stuff so you'd have a good idea by the time you finish engineering if you like doing engineering," he added.
   It turned out Peach enjoyed doing engineering just fine. And being a student in the graduate program qualifies him to teach undergrads. "So it's funny how it all worked out," he said.
Peach is not only teaching a first year course in engineering to some 150 students, he is also helping to develop it. Called 'Thinking like an engineer,' the course is supposed to help the students see how engineering differs from the pure sciences.
   Peach said engineering is a good program to pursue for all sorts of reasons. "You feel like you have this better connection with the world and how things work," he said.
   He also likes the sense of social obligation that comes with the profession. Peach uses the example of Engineers Without Borders to illustrate the point. Less known than Doctors Without Borders, EWB is sometimes seen as a group that builds wells in third world countries. But Peach said it's more than that. It's figuring out how to design and build wells with local parts that local people can fix and maintain afterwards when the engineers pull out. "It's a far more bottom up approach," he said.
   Peach was offered a job at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories in northern Ontario when he graduated with his engineering degree this past year, but opted to pursue his master's degree instead. He's not quite sure what the future holds in terms of work, when he graduates with his master's degree in 2017, but it's likely it will be connected to engineering and maybe even public service.
   "I've always been interested in politics," Peach said. "It just seems like a great way to be a more productive member of your society."
   Peach sees a way in which the worlds of engineering and politics can connect - by teaching people to properly use the resources and technology at hand to improve society without wasting resources. "Engineers, I believe, need to step out more into the public realm to engage with normal, everyday people to try to get them to buy into how we can fix problems, whether it's environmental problems or social or economic problems," he argued. "There are all kinds of ways that engineers can influence that."

O'Regan: I want to earn it

     With the end to the longest election in modern Canadian history finally drawing to a close, Liberal candidate Seamus O’Regan says it's a nice feeling being in a close race, but he's relieved that it's coming to a head.
     "It's been a long, long road," he said. "I'm just happy it's coming to fruition. And to be honest I'm also happy with the way Justin's been doing, so that helps."
     Justin, is of course, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, who, if the national opinion polls are correct, stands a good chance Monday night of becoming Canada’s next Prime Minister. The Liberals are a half a horse length ahead of the Conservatives in a dramatic race to the finish as the NDP slips farther behind. But how the seat count will turn out is still beyond anybody’s guess.
     If the Liberal momentum continues nationally, it may be enough to push O’Regan over the finish line in St. John’s South – Mount Pearl ahead of his opponent, NDP incumbent Ryan Cleary. The self-styled “Fighting Newfoundlander” was seen as having the lead going into the contest. But over the past few weeks, O’Regan has narrowed it. Website threehundredeight.com, which aggregates polling results by ridings across the country, pegged the breakdown on Tuesday as O’Regan leading with 50.7 per cent of the vote in St. John’s South – Mount Pearl compared to Cleary at 34.6 per cent.
     O'Regan said he knew when he got into the race some people would question it after having been away for some years working on Canada AM.
     "I knew there would be a bit of that, but it wasn't going to last, because I'm from here and I know what people are like,” O’Regan said. “They want to see you work. And that's been my object from the beginning - lay low and work it, just work it, work hard. And I've been at that for months... If I've got any bump in the polls right now it's because of our on the ground campaign and that's been deliberate. I've laid low, I haven't done any national talk shows or anything like that, just laid low and worked it door to door. So if we're doing well, I attribute a lot of it to the volunteers around me. The people who I've surrounded myself with were amazing; day in and day out they would show up and go to the doors with me and talk to people and listen to people. It sounds hokey, but you don't really appreciate it until your here. It's amazing to me how many people will volunteer their time and what a difference that makes."
     O'Regan said he has no idea what his opponent’s campaign team is like. His own plan is to keep doing what the Liberal team has been doing. "We've got a great group of people, a smooth operation... And I want to keep that going,” O’Regan said. “So nothing changes… We've got a lot more people now who want to come on board and I'm happy about that. But we have a core group of people who have been amazing and their ability to just knock on somebody's door and talk to them about what's going on amazes me and inspires me."
     O'Regan acknowledged that both nationally and locally, candidate debates have had an impact in this campaign. "I think the question Justin has heard, that he's just not ready, was answered after five debates," O'Regan argued. "Locally, I made a point of making a very spirited argument. As someone who considers himself a progressive citizen, I was just sick of hearing the NDP putting out promises that they can't keep. I think it's a very cynical campaign and I had no problems speaking out against it. I said it again and again and again, every time I heard a platitude or a promise, 'There's an asterisk at the end of it.'"
     O'Regan is referring to the spending plan the NDP released several weeks ago. Some of the items contained asterisks indicating the commitments were contingent on the next government meeting certain financial targets. The NDP is promising to operate government without running a deficit. By contrast, the Liberals have said they will incur deficits in the first three years of a mandate.
     "I appreciate how honest our campaign has been," O’Regan said. "We've costed it, we'll bear the brunt of it, we're talking about borrowing money, and I make no excuses about it and I believe in it, because if you look at the facts and the economics it makes sense... I have no problem spouting it and being proud of it."
     O'Regan said neither himself nor his partner Steve Doss have looked beyond October 19. "His career is going gangbusters. He's running Raymond's and The Merchant Tavern and I'm very proud of him. As for me, I hope to win. If I don't, I'll deal with that, but I'm in it to win it and I have been from the beginning.”
     If he does win, O'Regan said his priority will be to represent the people of St. John's South - Mount Pearl. "After months and months of knocking on doors, I can say that with full heart," he said. "That's not a cynical or staid response. I represent these people and I will represent them in Ottawa. I am not in this to take talking points from Ottawa and to bring them back here. I swear to God, I'll leave it if it ever comes down to it, but it won't. One thing I know about Justin, and I've known him for a long time, he attracts strong people because he is a strong person himself and he wants people who will represent their ridings and I'll represent this riding."
     O'Regan said the door knocking has really opened his eyes. "When you're running to be a Member of Parliament, you see all aspects of life and all people," he explained. "People are opening their doors to you, people you don't know. And that has a huge effect on you, big time. It's certainly had a big effect on me. So when I say I'm representing people here, I mean it, I mean everybody… I hope people respect that. I want to win their vote, but I also want to earn it, and I've been working on that every day."