Not all doom and gloom last year, says Bobbett

By Mark Squibb/February 10, 2023

Paradise Mayor Dan Bobbett says despite a fair share of challenges, 2022 was a fine year in the Town of Paradise — the town that continues to grow year after year, as proved by 2021 census data.

“The census data came out, and we are now the third largest municipality in the province,” said Bobbett in a year-end review and outlook for 2023 interview conducted last month. “We’ve just passed Mount Pearl to obtain that. We’re just somewhere around 23,000 people, and we remain the fastest growing municipality in Newfoundland and Labrador, and probably one of the fastest growing in the country as well. We are growing, and we have been doing things to attract residents to our town. We call it place building. And it’s working year-over-year, and we’re seeing people want to move here.”

Bobbett said that one of the means of attracting people is a strong recreation core.

He noted that in 2022 the Town marked the completion of the multi-sport turf at Dianne Whalen Memorial Complex with a ‘Friday Night Lights’ event in October complete with a marching band, mascots, dance routines, and, of course, a game between the Paradise Pirates and CBN Warriors.

“Soccer will be the predominant sport, but it is a multi-use field,” said Bobbett. “It’s our first artificial turf so we’re very pleased with that,”

The town also began phase 1 of the Elizabeth Park ‘refresh’ in 2022.

“Elizabeth Park is one of the oldest areas in the town, and so we felt that we needed a recreational refresh of some of the trail systems and amenities in that area,” said Bobbett. “So, we added a new section of trail and upgraded the other sections of trail in Elizabeth Park.”

Also in 2022, the Town completed water and sewer work in Evergreen Village within Elizabeth Park, a five phased project that will see improvements to water and sewer, roads, and curb and gutter. It also implemented traffic calming measures in neighbourhoods and school zones, work it hopes to carry on with in the future, and added chicanes, essentially trail impediments used to slow down bikers and ATV users, along certain sections of the T’Railway.

The Town also opened it’s first community garden last year, near Adam’s Pond.

“There was an overwhelming response to the community garden; we have 20 garden boxes, and we probably could have had 20 more,” said Bobbett, who said council is considering other community gardens throughout town.

Despite the successes, Bobbett said council was tasked with overcoming a number of challenges in 2022, much of which were not unique to Paradise and will likely continue to dog municipalities in the year to come.

“There were challenges with the supply chain, challenges with the volatility of the market, challenges with rising fuel prices,” said the mayor. “Everybody is dealing with the aftermath of COVID. Things have slowed down, the supply chain has been interrupted, and from what we understand, based on some of our discussions with business groups like the BDO, which are financial institutions, this could continue for another two years.”

Those challenges can include big price tags — something council knows all too well.

For example, last year council was informed the price of seven new vehicles it had intended to purchase though a government standing offer would no longer be honored, and that due to supply chain shortages, the vehicles would cost the town an additional $88,000.

The council rescinded the purchase motion and opted to go to tender again, hoping for a better price.

That increase, though, was small potatoes compared to the cost of constructing a new lift station, a price that suddenly doubled the original pre-tender estimate.

“We’re looking forward to getting that lift station replaced,” said Bobbett. “It comes at a big price tag, well over $23 million, but that’s a big part of risk management… This lift station had a major failure in 2019, and ever since then we’ve been preparing and getting ready for its replacement.”

Bobbett said that even getting materials to finish work that had already been started is proving at times to be a challenge.

“There were delays, and there still are delays,” said Bobbett. “We’ve seen delays of six to eight months on things that you would not think there would be such a delay. One example is for parts to activate streetlights for a section of Topsail Road. We’re waiting for components for that that are delayed up to eight months. So, these are the challenges we’re all experiencing during this period.”

Towards the end of the year, council approved a balanced budget of $40.7 million, a budget that saw some tax increases.

“We did have a small increase of 0.2 mils in the taxation rate and we did increase the water and sewer fee by $20, so it was a marginal increase, but it had to be done,” said Bobbett.

Bobbett added council took care to consult with residents, even taking consultations “to the people” by hosting a number of budget consultation pop-up events around town. He was pleased that over 450 people responded to online budget surveys — the most respondents since the Town began offering the online surveys.

As for this new year, Bobbett said council will continue to pick away at the water and sewer priority list, work to improve snow clearing, and will replace the playground at Peter Barry Duff Memorial Park, amongst other upgrades to the park.

The Town will also finalize the design of the community boat house in partnership with the Avalon Dragons, a team of breast cancer survivors and supporters who promote dragon boating throughout the province.