Members of Holyrood council voted during its June 30 meeting to apply for federal money to pave Penney’s Lane and Garden Road at a combined cost of $55,775.
“Penney’s Lane recently had new water infrastructure installed which resulted in the removal of its asphalt surface,” explained councilor Steve Winsor. “This application will enable the Town to replace the road surface to a new improved state. Garden Road has been on the priority list for new paving for some time and this application enables the Town to provide an improved route for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.”
Winsor said the Town sought three quotes, and that JSH Paving submitted the lowest.
“Staff are doing a great job accessing the different funding mechanisms to minimalize the cost to the residents and taxpayers of Holyrood,” said Winsor.
Council unanimously approved Winsor’s motion to ask for the funding.

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For well over a decade, perhaps even two, the road through Upper Gullies and Seal Cove, CBS leading into Holyrood has been as rutted, pocked and uneven as a broken washboard. But no longer. A fresh layering of asphalt this month has residents in the area, including Ward 4 councillor Melissa Hardy, marvelling at the difference.
But like anything that’s good, there can be a hitch to the progress.
“It is an absolute beautiful drive,” Hardy told her fellow councillors last week. “I certainly pass along many thanks to Minister (Barry) Petten (the Minister of Transportation and MHA for Conception Bay South), because it’s certainly a smooth drive. But because it’s such a smooth drive, I have noticed people increasing their speed because the natural speedbumps of the potholes are no longer there. So just be mindful, it’s still Route 60 and it’s not the TCH. Just be extra careful.”

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Construction work related to the next phase of the Dawson’s Run subdivision at Cherry Hill, Manuels is sparking concern among some residents about safety.
“There have been lots of phone calls, and I’ve had multiple e-mails, and not just me, other councillors have, too,” Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse, who is also the Ward 2 councillor for the area, acknowledged last week.
“The developer is currently there under a clearing permit doing some clearing and doing some test holes,” Gosse said. “He has approval in principle that was finalized on June 24. So that company is working through their drawings and detailed design, and the Town has not received that (information), so there’s a lot of work yet to be done there, nothing that we can share with the public because we haven’t received the particulars.”
Gosse said most of the concerns she’s heard regarded traffic and other safety issues.
The subdivision was started in the 1990s with most of the streets named after gold-related themes such as Goldrock Run and Goldust Place. The names stemmed from the discovery by a provincial government geologist of gold showings in some of the rocks unearthed during the early stages of the first construction phase. A junior mining company staked ground near the area and explored it for a couple of years, but couldn’t find enough gold to make pursuing a mine feasible.
Gosse said she’s shared the neighbourhood’s concerns about the latest phase of construction with her fellow councillors and staff.
“So, as we move forward we will look at those concerns and have the conversation,” she added. “We always want construction to be safe and for neighbourhoods to be safe when there’s construction ongoing. Like I said, the paperwork is not finalized and so I just ask for people to be patient and hopefully we’ll have more details in the coming weeks.”

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Costs resulting from the disruption caused by the February 2025 fire that shuttered the Paradise Town Hall and public works depot continue to mount.
To accommodate public works staff and equipment, the Town is leasing space at 35 Glencoe Drive in Mount Pearl at a cost of $31,625, HST included, per month. Public works staff are also operating out of a 20-foot office trailer at the Double Ice Complex at a cost of $6,900 per year.
The arrangement has resulted in “supervision, coordination, and operational deficiency,” said Deputy Mayor Kimberley Street. “To improve day to day operations and support staff needs, additional facility space is required at 28 McNamara Drive to consolidate staff function and provide appropriate lunchroom, washroom, and locker space.”
Staff recommended to council that in addition to the officer trailer, a lunch trailer and washroom trailer from Wilcox should also be rented at a cost of $42,421 per year.
“The Town currently has spent approximately $31,200 annually, excluding HST, on trailer rentals that do not fully meet the operation needs,” said Street. “The combined annual cost of the recommended solution is $49,321, HST included, per year.”
Council approved the motion unanimously. Street didn’t say whether the extra costs are being covered by the insurance payout related to the fire at the Town Hall and depot.
Council has committed to building a new depot out of pocket rather than relying on insurance coverage to repair the old depot. A construction start date has not yet been set.

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The Town of Holyrood will be keeping its beachside fire pits in storage this season.
Councillor Mable Tilley broke the news during the June 30 public council meeting.
“The beach is very, very busy with tourists,” said Tilley. “And let’s keep any risk of fire at bay for a little bit. So, we’re not going to put the fire pits back quite at this moment.”
Tilley said if the town experiences a month of rain, staff will put the pits out once again.
Councillor Bruce King, meanwhile, said many residents feel there should be consequences for ignoring fire bans.
“If we’re going to put a fire ban in place, and people do not follow the ban, there needs to be legal action taken against them,” said King. “The other thing is, if there’s an evacuation, everyone in that area needs to be evacuated, right?”
Councillor Charlotte Story, meanwhile, encouraged residents to clean up any glass they might find in the woods, as glass, when struck by sunlight, can cause a forest fire.
The measure is not the only one taken by the Town recently to reduce the risk of fire.
The Town opted to close out SquidFest on July 19 not with a fireworks display, but with a drone light show. Holyrood also discontinued it’s organic waste dropoff program in 2025 partly because some people were dropping off regular garbage instead of just tree branches and grass clippings, but also because organic material can act as a fuel source during a wildfire.

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The Town of Holyrood’s organic waste drop off program was discontinued in 2025 because the program was being abused, according to councillor Steve Winsor, who broached the subject during last month’s public council meeting.

“It was meant to be for organics, like branches and leaves and grass clippings,” said Winsor. “But people were dropping everything off – propane cylinders, garbage, car tires, all this old nonsense. We do want to come back to that sort of program because it is beneficial to residents, but it’s got to be done correctly and people can’t abuse it. We’ve got to be able to manage it so that we don’t have a fire risk. We saw the fires last summer; we don’t want to put a source of fuel in the middle of our town.”

Winsor said he has seen similar misuse of the designated metal dumpster at the Town Depot, and that on a recent trip he found an old couch, skidoo parts, cardboard, and wooden pallets tucked away behind the dumpster.

“It’s great that we have the program,” said Winsor. “However, if people keep using it as a dump for everything that’s not supposed to go there, it will go away, and that’s something that we’re all going to miss out on. It’s got to be used properly, is the message.”

Councillor Bruce King noted that recycling bins elsewhere in town also had to be removed because some people were tossing garbage in them.

“People have to understand that it’s not the staff who are taking these things away, and it’s not the council that is taking these things away, it’s your neighbours, because if you go down to where Route 60 and the hydro road (Thermal Plant Road) meet, there used to be recycling bins there, and that had to be removed because people were dumping household garbage and everything that had nothing to do with recycling,” said King. “Who wants to dig through that kind of stuff to take the cardboard out? So, the decision was made by council and staff that that would be removed.”

King said that while many people took advantage of the organic dumping site at the sports field to dump brush cuttings and tree limbs, some were abusing the privilege.

“They can get on social media and attack council all they want, but you need to understand that it’s not council that’s doing it,” said Winsor. “It’s your next-door neighbour or your friend down the road who’s taking these privileges away from the majority.”

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The Town of CBS has been served a warning from the City of St. John’s to clean up its act when it comes to the materials it’s dropping off for recycling at the Robin Hood Bay Landfill.

“During a recent recycling drop-off, we were audited by the City and told that while the City accepts a certain level of contamination among recycling, we were above that threshold that they’re willing to accept,” said councillor-at-large Joshua Barrett. “So, this means as a town we’re going to be extra vigilant when it comes to monitoring these recycling bags going forward. You might see more tagging on these bags if they have mixed or contaminated material. If that’s the case, your bag won’t be collected. My plea to you all is for you to do your part and try to adhere to the recycling standards.”

Barrett said the Town plans to roll out a social media campaign to try to educate residents about what’s acceptable for recycling. 

“We have a lot of information that’s really helpful on our website,” he added. “But broadly (speaking), separate your papers in one blue bag… your containers in another blue bag, which includes milk cartons. Typically, plastic, glass, Styrofoam, paint cans, major electronics and children’s toys are not recyclable at this time. So, you might be asking at this point, why would I even bother recycling, it seems like a huge racket?”
Barrett explained the answer comes down to money.

“You should be motivated by how we can save tax dollars by actually doing this,” he said. “Our tipping fees for garbage is $94.50 per tonne, but for recycling it’s only $32.50 per tonne. So, it’s actually one third the price for us to recycle compared to just throwing waste out in the trash. So, I would urge you to consider that going forward despite the extra efforts that you might need to make, because those savings allow us to put more investments towards our community. I know it can be a pain, but I do want to thank everybody in advance for their extra attention as we go about our recycling efforts.”
Mayor Darrin Bent told Barrett he has his back on the issue.

“We’re not trying to be difficult about this,” Bent said. “The trouble is when it goes to the facility and they see something that’s not recyclable in there, they may say that entire load of recycling now has to go to the garbage and they’ll charge us at the higher fee and then everybody’s efforts to recycle are for not, and we don’t want that. We want to make sure that we’re getting as much recycling done in the town as possible.”
Bent said CBS doesn’t get to make the call at the landfill as to what is deemed garbage and what is recycling, which is why the Town has to be more careful about what it drops off. That’s why council is asking residents to follow the guidelines as closely as possible.

“I know the people who are recycling want to recycle and they want to do the right thing, and we want to help them do the right thing,” Bent said. “So, thank you for all your efforts so far, and going forward.”
Meanwhile, there is a wide range of materials that are acceptable for recycling. In blue bags reserved for paper products, you can place everything from bundled cardboard to pizza boxes, egg cartons, glossy magazines, coffee trays, exercise books and other paper products. A blue bag for containers can include plastic water and pop bottles, beer cans, margarine and yogurt tubs, even shampoo and empty over the counter medicine bottles. The Town asks that you make sure everything is clean by washing food containers, especially milk cartons, and removing lids and caps from bottles and containers. There is no limit as to how many blue bags you can place next to your household garbage bin on recycling days.

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Count Clarke’s Beach among the growing number of towns that are discovering radon at high levels in some areas.
According to Mayor Danielle Bussey, the town’s radon levels have “skyrocketed.”
According to Bussey, Clarke’s Beach’s levels of the odourless gas are 15 times the Canadian limit. She said it’s due to some of the minerals in the ground upon which the town is built.
Bussey added radon is typically found in basements that are not vented properly. It increases the risk of lung cancer for non-smokers, and even more so for those who do smoke.
Bussey recalled someone who built a house in Clarke’s Beach around 2020 and recently had to pay $5,000 to remove the radon in the basement.
“Her radon levels should have been under 10 and they were 26,000,” said the mayor.
Bussey said that Transfer Radon, a St. John’s company focusing on radon mitigation, has been silently helping the Town take action behind the scenes. On behalf of the Town, Transfer Radon has applied to the Canadian Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists to get one hundred radon testing kits that residents can use to test the levels in their homes.
Transfer Radon also provided a website the Town can share with residents who may want to get a radon detector. Bussey said a detector costs about $100 and gives results anywhere between seven to 30 days.
“They can come out free of charge from St. John’s, give an estimate of what needs to be done, if anything. Sometimes it’s just a simple venting, especially if your basement is unfinished,” said Bussey.
The mayor clarified that the high levels do not mean every home in Clarke’s Beach has an excessive level of radon. “You might have it, your neighbour mightn’t,” she said.

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The Town of Clarke’s Beach will have the Bay de Grave Regional Fire Department inspect a dilapidated property in the community.
At last week’s public council meeting, council addressed a letter from a resident of Otterbury Road complaining about the poor condition of a neighbouring property. The building is said to be falling in on itself and has rodents living in it. The structure does not have electricity, and Mayor Danielle Bussey said Newfoundland Power will not reconnect it because it is in such bad shape. The resident asked council to take action.
Bussey said, in the past, the Town has removed homes that posed safety issues.
“It’s not as easy as just to go tear it down,” she said, “but it is something that we have done in the past, and if we have to go that route it’s something that we can look at. But I think the first step is going to be asking Bay de Grave to go in and have a look and inspect it and give us a list of actual issues.”
Councillor Keegan Healey asked whether the Town needed permission from the property owner in order for the Bay de Grave Regional Fire Department to inspect it.
Bussey said she did not believe permission is needed if the property possibly poses a fire risk or has other safety issues.
Bussey said the infestation of rodents will have be dealt with before the building is torn down or else they will disperse throughout the area.
Healey asked if council could provide the department with the addresses of other properties that may need such an inspection, and Bussey agreed to it.
Healey then made a motion to arrange a formal inspection by the Bay de Grave Regional Fire Department of the property on Otterbury Road as well as some others in town. Deputy Mayor Stephen Dawe seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.

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