Emergencies left CBS two months without council meetings

By Craig Westcott

A set of peculiar circumstances this summer led to CBS council going a full two months between regular public meetings.

When council met this past week on September 16, it was the first time the group had convened officially and in public since July 15. And oddly enough, because of the timing of next month’s municipal election, this past meeting may well have been the last public session of the outgoing council.

The reason for the two-month break is explained by the coincidence of the council’s summer meeting schedule colliding with unexpected states of emergency caused by wildfires in August, and a major watermain break in the line from Bay Bulls Big Pond this month which also necessitated a state of emergency.
The August wildfires in Holyrood and Paddy’s Pond, which caused evacuation alerts in both ends of CBS, led to the cancellation of the August public council meeting. Council normally meets twice a month, except during the months of June, July and August when it adopts a monthly schedule.

A public meeting set for September 2 had to be called off when a main outside the town boundary ruptured that afternoon and the Town was forced to close public facilities and ask residents to use water only for emergency purposes in order to preserve enough water pressure in case the fire department needed to answer a call.

Mayor Darrin Bent said council was able to carry on with Town business, for the most part, despite the cancelled sessions. But it led to a full agenda for this past week’s meeting.

“Anything that was time-sensitive has been dealt with by us and we’re just going to confirm it at the meeting,” Bent said prior to this past Tuesday’s session. “There hasn’t been much, a couple of things, I think, that needed approval. They’re nothing major, just things that would normally have gotten done at a regular council meeting, not controversial or anything. We’re looking forward to getting back in the chamber, I can tell you that. It’s been difficult with the August that we had, it’s been hard on residents, and it’s been difficult to deal with some of these things, but as far as the business of the Town is concerned, it continues. But there are somethings that need to get into the public forum and the public agenda for people to see and be able to comment on… We need to get into the chamber so the residents can see where we are with some of these issues.”