Aker sets stage to make workings of Mount Pearl council more transparent

By Chris Lewis | Nov. 19, 2020

Mount Pearl council may become slightly more transparent in the coming months.

Mayor Dave Aker raised the matter near the end of Tuesday’s public meeting.

Aker highlighted a recent trend among some municipalities to open more of their private deliberations to the public.

The mayor said the suggestion was coming from a place of transparency and accountability. He suggested the idea be looked at further by council’s corporate services and economic development committee.

“We’ve always done our (committee of the whole meetings) privately, and I think the trend is moving away from that,” Aker said. “I feel that we need to unveil the cloak that’s around committee of the whole.”

The economic development committee includes councillors Isabelle Fry, Bill Antle, and director Cassie Pittman.

Aker cautioned there will still be things that must be discussed privately such as human resource matters and potential legal issues,.

“The issue here is not to say what we won’t go public with, it’s the focus on the addition of transparency, and therefore accountability,” he said.

Aker tasked the committee with a jurisdictional review and to work with the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs. All of that, then, would be brought back to the committee of the whole with a recommendation or plan to move forward with the idea.

“I really, sincerely believe this is in our best interest, and I believe that in today’s age, our residents would expect that,” Aker said.

Admiralty House finds a way to keep Frosty alive despite festival cancellation

By Kyle Reid | Nov. 19, 2020

Admiralty House Museum is making sure not to leave Frosty out in the cold this year by making an effort to preserve the history of the nearly 40-year-old winter festival.

With plans for the 39th Frosty Festival iced for next year due to COVID-19, Admiralty House museum staff decided it would be a good time to begin work on an oral history project to collect memories of past festivals.

“We just wanted to start a project to preserve the memories that people have had over the years, particularly the early memories of the Frosty Festival sort of around the time of its inception,” said assistant museum manager Nora Allen. “Sadly the community has lost some of the original developers of the festival, so we kind of thought it was a good time to start collecting these memories before they’re gone for good.”

As of Tuesday, staff had completed interviews with two well-known past Frosty Festival volunteers, Agnes Murphy, who has been a volunteer since the inception of the Frosty Festival in 1983 and chair of the festival committee in 2010, and David Lythgoe, a nearly decade long Frosty Festival volunteer.

“The Frosty Festival means different things to everyone but I think it really means, community, comradery (and) friendship,” said Allen. “Just to hear the stories from the people themselves is really, really, important.”

In many ways, Allen said, some of the early Frosty Festivals looked quite different, particularly the events. Some of the earliest iterations of the festival included events such as human chuck wagon racing, beard growing competitions and arm wrestling tilts.

“Hearing about some of those unique events was really interesting,” Allen said.

Museum staff are hoping to collect all their information, including interviews and pictures, by the end of March. From there, Allen said, they are hoping to publish a booklet of memories and photos, or perhaps even stage an exhibit.

“We’re still so far into the early stages that we don’t know exactly how it will end up, but there is definitely going to be something that the community can see, that the community will be able to read and learn more about these memories,” Allen said.

Given that Frosty is hanging up his magic hat for the time being, Allen said the project is perfectly timed to keep Atlantic Canada’s largest winter carnival alive this year.

“As sad as it is that the Frosty Festival was cancelled for 2021 we think that at least this project is a good way to keep it on people’s minds,” said Allen. “Keep people thinking about the Frosty Festival and get people excited for 2022.”

Allen added that anyone looking to contribute to the project can contact Admiralty House at 748-1124, or by e-mail at admiraltyhousemuseum@gmail.com.

Lucy Stoyles says she’s not up for re-election

By Mark Squibb | Oct. 8, 2020

When it comes to Mount Pearl politics and community life, she is almost as much an institution as she is a public representative, but long-time Mount Pearl councillor Lucy Stoyles says that she will not be putting her name forward for re-election this time around.

“I spent 25-years with the City of Mount Pearl and I’m not planning on offering myself for re-election again,” said Stoyles during the October 6 meeting.

The comment came after councillor Bill Antle asked if councillor Stoyles could speak to council about a recent Diversity Matters meeting in which both Stoyles and councillor Isabelle Fry attended. Stoyles brought greetings from the City at that meeting, while Fry brought greetings from the City at a previous meeting.

“It was very well attended, and even after the meeting I received a call from a potential candidate who is looking at running in the upcoming election. I’m going to be meeting with a lady in the next week or so to discuss her entry into politics. I found it quite interesting,” said Stoyles. “Anybody who would like to talk about what they need to do (to run in politics), they can certainly give me a call.”

It was then that Stoyles, who has a reputation for being a straight shooter and not averse to addressing controversial topics head on, said that as she did not intend to put her name forward for re-election, she would be willing to meet with anyone who had questions about running for office.

“Even if I was (running again), I wouldn’t mind meeting with people and telling them what they need to do to run for political office,” she added.

What to do with the underpasses

By Mark Squibb | Oct. 8, 2020

A report from Dillion Consulting Ltd., on the City of Mount Pearl’s overpasses was brought before council during the October 6 meeting.

Council had approved Dillion for a review of remediation options in September, following the temporary closure of the pedestrian underpass on Old Placentia Road for safety reasons.

The report listed three options for remediation of the Old Placentia Road underpass: Complete replacement at an estimated cost of $1,020,000, not including HST; Relining at an estimated cost of $750,000, not including HST; or, Concrete Infill Rehabilitation, at an estimated cost of $265,000, not including HST.

“Option three was the lowest price, and our consultant said that this will last up to forty years,” said councillor Lucy Stoyles on the work. “Our consultant is saying that this needs to be done right away, so we’re recommending we use $80,573.86 of the multi year capital works, which we still have money to transfer over into 2020-2021.”

Dillion found that underpasses on Richard Nolan Drive and Smallwood Drive would not require any repairs or upgrades for another 5-10 years. Inspections will be required every two years to keep track of any serious deterioration or aging that would require immediate attention.

The full amount of the concrete infill rehab is $390,847.26 including HST, which would require an additional $80,573.86 than originally thought.

Regarding the other two underpasses, on Richard Nolan Drive and Smallwood Drive, the consultant advised that these are sound at this time, and estimates that any repairs or upgrading may not be required for another 5- 10 years; however, inspections would still be required every two years or so.

Council approved the motion unanimously.

Green team members 'replant' Forest Avenue

By Chris Lewis | Aug. 27, 2020

Mount Pearl’s Green Team members have been busy this summer sharing garden bed knowledge and upgrading the Forest Avenue area.

The team has only two members this year, but that hasn’t stopped Jennifer Blundon and Sofia Quijada from getting things done.

Blundon, the team leader, explained that this year, the City of Mount Pearl was unsure if it would go ahead with the program because of Covid-19, but ultimately decided to take on a smaller team.

Blundon and Quijada started off teaching interested residents how they could build their own garden beds at home.

“It was a bit of a different summer, so not a ton of outdoor work was being done initially,” Blundon said. “With this, people can learn how to build their own community garden beds at home, which is great if they’re cautious about going out in public places with social distancing and everything going on.”

Currently, there are community gardens at the Gloria Pearson Community Center and one on Forest Avenue. These two groups worked alongside the Green Team, giving them insight on how to go about the first part of their project.

That ended up becoming a video that Blundon and Quijada filmed themselves, providing instructions for viewers to learn the basics of community garden bed construction. Blundon said the goal was to highlight that building a community garden bed is not a difficult task.

“You don’t even need to own a saw,” Blundon said, noting that hardware stores such as Kent can cut wood for you in the exact measurements needed, making the process significantly easier.

But there were other challenges.

“A lot of the materials had already been purchased. Like, finding soil later in the season was next to impossible,” Blundon said. “But, most years it’s usually a pretty simple process.”

Although their work for this year has finished, Blundon said there are talks of adding to the Forest Avenue garden, with community gardens built to be more reminiscent of real gardens – crops planted and grown directly in the ground, as opposed to wooden beds. They are hoping to get some local farmhands to give them a hand, but noted that this is something they have at least a year to work out.

“The Forest Avenue area is actually pretty interesting and unique. It’s an area where houses used to be, and there’s five houses that have been removed in the last five years due to the flood zones of the Waterford Rive. Some homes are still there, but some took the opportunity to move away,” Blundon explained.

Equipped with this knowledge, the Mount Pearl Green Team began a Forest Avenue heritage project, with blog posts from parts of that project scheduled to be released in the coming weeks.

After the homes were removed, the City encouraged the building of a community garden to keep the area in good condition, and maintain an area that had been around for so long.

“We helped with some of the gardens, and the maintenance of it,” said Blundon. “We built two gardens down that way, and even did some interviews with the gardeners and got to know the community and the area. It’s a really strong, old community of families that have been there for some over 60 years. There’s a strong sense of community there.”

The garden beds can be used by the general public. Anyone interested in using them should contact City Hall.

“Once they have the go-ahead, they’re free to plant just about anything they want in these little 4x4 garden beds that are allotted to people for virtually as long as they want to have one,” Blundon said. “We’re not from Mount Pearl, but we’re from the general area so it was interesting to us to be able to get engaged, involved, and learn about the City and all the community aspects. We just finished up this week, and it really was a great experience.”

Council piggybacks on St. David's area work to make park more accessible

By Chris Lewis | Aug. 27, 2020

Mount Pearl city council is using the opportunity of construction that was already underway at St. David’s Park to make it more accessible for the mobility-impaired.

The change order to add the work boosts the construction bill by some $5,735.

“We looked at three different options,” Stoyles explained. “Basically, it’ll make it accessible so that when people are in the park, they won’t have to go across a parking lot or anything like that. We decided to take a look at this, and add some extra to it.”

Deputy Mayor Jim Locke said the amendments will serve as a solid enhancement to the area, turning it into even more of a green space with a natural flow of traffic, also allowing for blue zone parking adjacent to the Royal Canadian Legion building in that area.

“For all these reasons, council supported this,” Locke said.

The motion for the changes carried unanimously.

Renewing the fleet

By Chris Lewis | Aug. 27, 2020

The City of Mount Pearl is adding to its vehicle fleet as part of a 10 year plan to ensure staff have the equipment needed to maintain city services.

During presentation of the Infrastructure and Public Works committee report last week, Councillor Lucy Stoyles said Cabot Ford Lincoln had won a tender worth $454,103 to supply six pickup trucks and four SUVs.

Councillor Bill Antle noted there have been several major purchases over the past few months for the City’s fleet.

Director Gerry Antle explained that, as per the City plan, Mount Pearl’s fleet is being renewed. Since 2018, the City has been working on a 10-year fleet plan that aims to ensure the City has up-to-date and well-maintained vehicles at its disposal.

The four SUVs are hybrids – something Deputy Mayor Jim Locke was pleased to see.

“I had a look at some of the fleet up there, the last time I was at the depot,” Locke said. “Some of our pickup trucks are beyond their usable life, shall we say. The rocker panels, and just looking at some of the rust on the chassis. I think it’s time, because our vehicles definitely get some good use. Replacing our fleet is part of our 10-year strategy … During our operations, especially winter operations, we don’t want failure of our fleet. That’s what this whole vehicle replacement and management scheme is all about.”

Council also approved a tender to buy two vans for a total of $81,663 including HST.

“Myself and Director Antle had a conversation, and he’s going to get us a report over the past 10-years. I know we have a 10-year outlook, but I’ve asked to see what it is we’ve purchased in the last 10-years and what we’re looking at purchasing in the next seven or eight years moving ahead,” Stoyles said. “We’re not just out here willy-dilly, buying all these vehicles if we don’t need them.”

Locke said the 10-year fleet plan has been put in place mainly to avoid unwelcome surprises from outdated vehicles. Knowing each vehicle has an estimated life expectancy, their plan allows the City to work around possible vehicle-related issues in the future.

Purchase of a tandem dump truck was also approved for $192,895. Two other tandem trucks, with snow blades attached, will also be bought

“All approved in our budget, all a part of our fleet,” Locke said.

Hockey NL’s latest Hall of Fame inductee

By Chris Lewis | Aug. 13, 2020

Mount Pearl’s Don Kelly has a lifetime’s worth of hockey memories.

It was back in 1974 that Kelly first registered as an on-ice official. Little did he know at the time that this step in his life would be the start of an over 40-year career officiating hockey games across the province.

It was during his time as a player in the Mount Pearl Intertown League that Kelly first discovered an interest in refereeing

At that time, the game of hockey was a much different sport than it is today. Kelly described it as “drag ‘em out and sock ‘em” hockey – so much so, that he felt it was starting to get a bit out of control. Kelly went on to become the president of that league, and it was through his contact with fellow Newfoundland hockey dignitary, Jack Reardigan, that he was able to keep the game’s players with at least a majority of their teeth left in their head. The two collaborated and began hosting games with Reardigan’s influence on the linesmen.

Kelly admitted that at first, the handling of the games within the league was not the most popular choice among the four teams, but Kelly said he felt obligated as president to keep at it, and continue trying to help out.

As time went on, Reardigan found himself taking on a similar role to try and keep hockey in the Harbour Grace area under a bit more control.

“He was going to go out there with one of his boys, and that’s when he called me and asked me if I’d be interested. I was, and that’s when it all started,” said Kelly. “That’s when I branched out of the local games into that.”

Kelly well remembers the many Friday nights that he and Reardigan would venture to the S.W. Moores Stadium in Harbour Grace to officiate those games before some of the most vocal and vociferous hockey fans in the province.

As minor hockey in the province began to expand across Newfoundland, Kelly found himself taking part in those games as an on-ice official, in the few nearby rinks that existed at the time. By the time the Mount Pearl arena opened, Kelly and his fellow refs joined forces to form the Mount Pearl Referee’s Association, which he wrote the constitution for and eventually went on to head as its president.

“We were at that for about 10 or 15 years, and the Goulds actually started it up not long after us,” Kelly said. “We helped develop referees over there, and just lent them a hand when we could.”

Kelly’s growing experience and credentials as a ref in the various minor and senior leagues around the region eventually led to him, in 1985, becoming an instructor and supervisor with Hockey NL’s officiating program – a role he held until 2017.

In 1995, Kelly became the chairman of the organization’s rules committee. This, along with being appointed as Supervisor of Officials in 2000, and being elected Referee-in-Chief for Hockey NL in 2005, meant Kelly was spending a majority of his time at rinks or talking hockey – something he says he wouldn’t have traded for the world.

“I enjoyed it from every perspective,” he said.

Throughout his years as a referee, Kelly was involved in some of the sports highest calibre play, such as the Herder Memorial Trophy Finals, and the Air Canada Cup national midget championship staged in St. John’s in 1989.

For all of his work in Newfoundland hockey, Kelly was one of the most recent inductees in the Hockey NL Hall of Fame as a builder. He described that phone call as a shock to him, but an overwhelmingly pleasant one.

Through such a lengthy career, Kelly was especially honoured to have been appointed Referee-in-Chief. That allowed him to try and influence the game for the better, something that he takes great pride in. The role saw him to come to terms with a number of things as Hockey NL’s referees were being developed over the years.

“Number one, because of our location (as a province), it was hard to get our officials up to a national standard,”Kelly said. “We tried to implement things in our program to do just that, though.” Referees-in-Chief for Hockey Quebec, Ontario, and the Ottawa district were invited in at various points to share their skills and mentorship. “To me, that really validated what I was doing, knowing that I could help develop young officials,” said Kelly.

It was also a hurdle to include players from other parts of the province, he said. Since so many of the games took place on the east coast, there was a common misconception that the minor and senior leagues were strictly an Avalon region thing.

“A good 80 per cent of the games were taking place on the east coast, so I had to try and take a program that, for the most part, people thought was only concerned about the Avalon, and turn that around. It was a big challenge,” he allowed.

While Kelly has nothing but good to say about his time on and off the ice, he will admit that anyone looking to get into officiating now needs to have a thick skin.

He described hockey officials as being part of the “third team.” At no time will a ref be on the good side of both teams and the only people in the arena who are going to support someone’s calls – regardless of team affiliation – are your fellow referees, he said.

“We’ve had a lot of officials quit on us. When they leave the arena after giving little Johnny a five-minute penalty, and see that young man’s father out in public, he might not have anything good to say to that official,” Kelly said. “But, when people ask how you deal with all the things people say, I just explain that those people aren’t talking to you directly. They’re talking to a black and white sweater. Sometimes, what they say, it might hurt. But, for the most part, once the game is over it’s over. People are angry at the ref, not at you personally.”

Kelly said that although it can take some time to accept that, it helps to officiate games outside of one’s own hometown, where the stands are full of strangers for the most part, as opposed to people you know on a personal level.

Although Kelly has since retired from his positions with Hockey NL, he has no shortage of fond memories to look back on while enjoying his retirement.

“It was always so much fun, though. The thing I miss most? Going into that cold rink at 8:00 on a Saturday morning, getting a coffee, going in and talking to the officials,” said Kelly. “Talking to them after the game about what they did and how they can improve and work on for their next game. Then, walking away and knowing that you actually did some good for them.”

A young, honoured hero

By Chris Lewis | Aug. 13, 2020

Amelia Vardy of Mount Pearl is making quite an impact at only 4-years-old.

Back in June of this year, her family hosted a series of blood donor clinic events in Mount Pearl and St. John’s in an effort to raise both numbers of people donating blood this time of year, and also awareness for the importance of blood donations.

Vardy was diagnosed with blood cancer two years ago; a moment her family will never forget, and one that proved to them the importance of blood donations. Their recent blood drives proved to be a success, even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a total of 23 donations – more than double the original number of 10 they had expected.

Now, Vardy and her family have something else to look forward to this coming October.

Vardy, who turns five that month, has been named the Honoured Hero of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada for the province of Newfoundland. That means her story will be shared with the world through the organization.

Last year, Vardy and her family took part in Light the Night, an annual fundraising event hosted by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada that, in Newfoundland, sees participants make their way around Paradise Park with lanterns, “lighting the night” in the name of fighting cancer.

Alongside doing some publicity with the organization, being named Honoured Hero means that Vardy will be in the spotlight at the next Light the Night event, currently set for October 17. Each year, the event gives center stage to someone telling their story of survival. Vardy’s mother, Veronica, said she hopes her daughter’s story of her diagnosis, treatment, and life with cancer will give listeners, especially those who are new to life with the disease as well as their family and friends, some hope for their future.

“She is living, and she is surviving, post-Leukemia diagnosis. We want to spread that hope to other people,” Veronica said, adding they even hope to conduct some hospital visits to other young cancer patients if the health guidelines allow for it.

Veronica admitted the family debated whether Amelia should take on such a big responsibility with this new honour. But when Amelia herself learned of the invitation, any doubt about whether they would do it went out the window.

“I don’t like to rush into things. I wanted to make sure we’d be able to get totally on board with all of the commitments. I was fleshing it out with my husband, and Amelia was in the family room and heard that we’d be going up on a stage and sharing her story, and she just got so excited,” Veronica said. “She said, ‘Mommy, I’ll go on stage! I’ll wear my chemo beads and tell everyone that I’m beating cancer,’ so that just sealed the deal for us.”

The chemo beads are part of a program run by the Janeway Children’s Hospital. For every treatment, procedure, visit, and everything in between, Amelia is given a bead to add to her collection, with different colours representing different procedures. The last time Veronica counted the beads, Amelia had accumulated over 350.

“It’s this long string that sort of represents everything she’s gone through, and that’s what she wants to wear around her neck. She wants to show everyone that she’s doing it, and they can too.”

Amelia is about a month away from her last day of chemo treatments.

“We’re on the verge of this all being over, hopefully,” said Veronica. “It’s exciting. A lot of the kids who were diagnosed around the same time as her are all, within the next few months, finishing up, so it’s a really exciting time for all of us moms.”

Work stopped on Smallwood Drive, council delighted

Residents of Smallwood Drive have had a small success recently.

In the City of Mount Pearl, along Smallwood Drive, the presence of Newfoundland Power employees and trucks was a cause of contention among residents, who felt as though they had not been properly informed or updated on the plans for installing street lights along the road. Those concerns were heard loud and clear by councillor Lucy Stoyles, who continued to be outspoken on the topic at the City’s regular council meetings.

Work had actually begun just after the City’s June 2nd meeting, to which Stoyles said she received a number of calls from concerned citizens. So many, in fact, that a petition sprung up from those residents, which garnered approximately 260 signatures from the locals.

Stoyles explained that the City had reached out to Newfoundland Power through written statements sent out on June 10th, requesting them to stop the work on the poles for the time being, and that the City is now working alongside Light and Power to review the scope of the work, and to gauge how the end result will affect the nearby businesses and residents. She hopes to see further information coming in the following weeks.

“I just wanted to say that we also received a number of calls from residents of Smallwood Drive. They were happy to see we’re taking these steps to consider, listen, and hear what the residents have to say,” Stoyles said. “I’m looking forward to a public consultation with this.”

That public consultation was something that Stoyles recommended at the June 2nd meeting, and she had voted against Newfoundland Power moving forward with the proposal (the only councillor to do so.) The opportunity to consult with residents in some way about these things is a notion that Mayor Dave Aker later supported.

He was sure to note that no matter what, it would be near impossible to please everyone, but that he hopes to see “the best fit” implemented in the area.

“This work has stopped. I’m delighted that we’re listening to those residents and keeping an open mind for what they’re looking at doing down on Smallwood Drive,” Stoyles said, noting that although a public consultation of sorts is not set in stone, she is hopeful that the City will be able to actively hear from those residents in some capacity - perhaps via a Zoom meeting, she suggested.

Councillor Andrea Power, during the June 16th meeting, noted that hindsight truly is 20/20. She said she feels as though it is council’s commitment to residents prevailing in this situation, and that council failed in properly engaging the public before allowing the work to go ahead.

“I’m delighted, as well, to see that we’re putting a pause on the project and engaging al of the residents that will be affected by these upgrades … I think all angles need to be looked at with this project,” Power said.