There was a big turnout at Spaniard’s Bay council’s April meeting as dozens of New Harbour Road residents attended to express concern about their water supply.

Kim Welsh, a retired teacher, gave a presentation on behalf of the residents about the hardships they have endured due to a poor water supply.

“I think we all realize that, as a council and as a town, it’s incumbent on us to work together to do what we can to make our community a wonderful place to live,” said Welsh. “And I think our town has a lot of potential and I think that with all of us working together and supporting one another, we can certainly reach that potential.”

Welsh said since she moved to there some 20 years ago, the area has had very low water pressure and sometimes no water at all. A longtime resident, she added, told her the original lines went in 54 years ago.

During the recent fire at the Precision Taekwondo building in Spaniard’s Bay, Welsh said, she and some of her neighbours had no water at all.

“Given the situation that we all went through last summer with fires, I can’t tell you how frightening that was, how alarming and how disturbing it was,” Welsh said. “Low pressure can compromise fire hydrant effectiveness and emergency response capabilities, and that’s top priority for a lot of people.”

Welsh said the poor water supply negatively affects residents’ personal hygiene, with some people unable to take showers due to low water pressure. The lack of water has forced some seniors to retrieve water from other sources or clear dirt and rocks out of pipes. Businesses have also been affected; Welsh gave the example of a hairdresser who had to cancel appointments due to a lack of water.

Welsh said due to the low pressure, he cannot run her washing machine and dishwasher at the same times. Residents cannot always access drinking water when there are shutoffs, she added. Some residents in the audience said they don’t feel safe drinking the water due to its poor quality and that they must rely on bottled water, which is an additional cost.

Welsh asked whether New Harbour Road could tie into another water supply. She wondered if the Town had applied for all the grants and funding that is available and questioned the necessity some of the services the Town pays for, such as regional enforcement, animal control, and travel expenses for councillors.

“We understand that you don’t have excess funds,” said Welsh. “You got money coming in, and you got money going out. And we don’t want council in the red. We really don’t. I mean, nobody, whether you’re a household, a town, a province, a country, everybody likes to have a balanced budget. That’s without debate. But I want you to understand our frustration about where our tax dollars are being spent.”

Welsh said the fault for the poor water supply does not lie with anyone currently sitting on council. However, she told council it has to ensure future expenditures will not be made unless it is certain they will positively impact the town. “All agreements put in place must be given assurances that we will not be responsible for paying back debts that results in no positive benefit to our town,” Welsh warned.

She has posted a petition online calling for money to be spent on the road’s water line and presented a copy of it to Mayor Tammy Oliver prior to her presentation.

Oliver acknowledged the present and future councils have much to do when it comes to improving infrastructure.

“We have been working behind the scenes, and I will certainly apologize,” said Oliver. “Moving forward we hope to certainly increase that transparency between council to keep you all informed. Nobody on this council could agree with it more that, when you have those lines of communication open, it’s better for everyone. We get more feedback, you guys understand our next moves coming forward, what we did, the mistakes we made, how we move on from all that.”

Oliver said the Town has conducted some studies on its infrastructure.

“We do have an asset management (assessment) that was done on all the infrastructure, and encompasses where we should be putting our money,” the mayor said. She added Spaniard’s Bay is looking into trying something other towns have had success with, and is currently waiting on an engineering estimate, though she provided no further details on what that is.

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RCMP officers in Conception Bay North plan to make an extra effort this year to check up on people who are out on bail.

That was one of the messages delivered by Sergeant Lynn Gaudet and Staff Sergeant Phillipe Christopher during the force’s regular update to the CBN Joint Council March 26.

Christopher acknowledged there are many concerns in the area, but there are three main areas police want to focus on.

The first one Christopher described as their “offender management initiative.”

Christopher said officers are actively trying to crack down on repeat offenders, which has been a concern raised by council members and the general public at past meetings.

“People who are charged but out on bail, if we go and check on them and find that they’re not complying with their conditions of their release, then they’ll be arrested and sent back to jail,” said Christopher. “Rather than wait for them to break in somewhere, cause an issue or get charged with something else.”

Christopher said the RCMP has no control over people once they are in jail or in court, but they are hoping their efforts to check on them in the community will help curve some of the crime.

The second priority is youth engagement. Christopher said they are hoping to assign one officer to each school in their coverage area. At least once a month, the officers will visit their respective schools and check in with staff, allowing school officials to report any problems they may have. School staff can request presentations and other activities from the officers. The officers can also help staff with safety plans and lockdown drills and familiarize themselves with the layout of their assigned buildings.

Another priority is traffic safety.

“I know there’s issues with impaired drivers and ATV use and speeding and loitering in cars,” said Christopher. “So, we’re going to try to focus some efforts on traffic safety and hopefully get people to be out and visible in the public.”

Christopher said that while some people simply avoid the RCMP if they see them, a more visible police presence may help keep some people honest.

Christopher said the force plans to keep statistics and review their progress on the priority areas every quarter.

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The Town of Holyrood is in good financial standing, says Deputy Mayor Michele Woodford.

During council’s April meeting, Woodford said staff conducted a departmental budget review, and most departments reported first quarter spending below the 25 percent threshold. The one exception was the department of environment, which had spent 50 percent of its budget by the end of the first quarter. Woodford chalked up the overspending to an early payment of the annual garbage contract.

“That does not represent, of course, a budget overage, but rather, a proactive and efficient financial management practice,” she said.

All told, the Town is averaging 22.98 percent of its annual budget having been spent in the first quarter.

In terms of income, the Town has collected $970,941 in current year taxes and $83,796 in back taxes. That amounts to 23.44 percent of residential taxes, 18.58 percent of water and sewer, 15.43 percent of business tax, and 54.28 percent of fire taxes to be paid in 2026.

The Town was also advised recently that its gas tax funding allocation for 2026 had increased, and that Holyrood will receive an additional $15,376, resulting in a bump in the municipal budget to $5,220,745.

Woodford said gas tax funding is ‘project driven funding’ and will be allocated as fiscal services on the balance sheet.

The Town had initially budgeted $289,460 in gas tax income.

“Overall, we’re in a really good financial position,” concluded Woodford.

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Holy Spirit High student Rachel Acreman, right, said the school’s annual job fair is a good opportunity for students to meet with employers and hand out resumes. Gavin Day, left, and Yusuf Linthorne of Queen Elizabeth met with several perspective employers. Mark Squibb photos

You’ve heard it before (and have probably even said it yourself) – ‘No one wants to work any more.’

But that’s not the case for the hundreds of Holy Spirit High and Queen Elizabeth Regional High students who met with prospective employers at the fourth annual Holy Spirit High Job Fair earlier this month.

“I think this is a really good opportunity to get resumes out,” said Holy Spirit student Rachel Acreman. “It takes the pressure off students of having to go into a business and initiate.”

With Statistics Canada reporting record levels of unemployment for young Canadians, due to unprecedented levels of immigration and an uncertain economy caused by the Trump tariffs, finding a job is no easy task for a young person, despite any suspicions you may harbour that half the retail stores, supermarkets, and restaurants you visit nowadays are understaffed.

“I think the market is really full for teenagers trying to get jobs,” said Acreman. “So, it might be hard to find work.”

Yusuf Linthorne of Queen Elizabeth said he has been handing out resumes to fast food restaurants and retail stores over the last year but has yet to receive a call back. He was hoping the job fair might help change that.

“There’s a lot of cool jobs here – I’d work at them,” added fellow Queen Elizabeth student Gavin Day.

Some of the employers of those “cool jobs” included McDonalds, RBC, Get Messy, NL Health Services, and the towns of Paradise and Conception Bay South.

 The job fair is co-hosted by the Rotary Club of Avalon Northeast and the school’s Interact club.

“This is a chance to talk with employees face to face about upcoming summer employment opportunities, or post-graduate opportunities,” said Rotary chairman Rob Boychuk. “The underlying goal is to get students feeling more comfortable talking with employers, not only about jobs, but about academic career paths after high school, and reduce some of that anxiety that we all dealt with when we were at that age.”

The two clubs also co-host a career fair each winter.

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Paradise Mayor Patrick Martin updated the business community on some major upcoming municipal projects during the annual mayoral update hosted April 16 by the Mount Pearl-Paradise Chamber of Commerce.

Martin told a packed luncheon at The Hall at Holy Innocents Auditorium on Paradise Road that council decided to move ahead with a new depot and a major renovation to the Town Hall after conclusion of the insurance process from a fire that rendered the building unusable just over a year ago.

Martin said staff are still displaced and working in interim locations. He said it took time for insurance adjusters to complete assessments on the damage, but now that it’s complete council has begun to move forward with plans.

“We’ve determined that a responsible thing to do is remodel the interior of Town Hall,” said Martin. “The cost of this work is covered by insurance proceeds, and this means we can update the building in a financially responsible manner. We are going to improve the accessibility features of the building, modernize working spaces, update council chambers and create a Town Hall that can serve Paradise for decades to come. Work is under way and they suspect it will be completed by the end of the year.”

The new depot, he added, is a ‘significant’ financial commitment, but council needed to consider the future needs of Paradise as the province’s third-largest municipality.

A new depot was already under consideration with a feasibility study in 2024, Martin noted, as the previous space was no longer meeting the Town’s needs with respect to staffing needs and equipment storage.

“A new depot, one built for our needs, will provide indoor storage to protect equipment, offer expanded service for inventory, and create a modernize facility to support our essential services,” Martin said.

The new facility will be built on Town land near the Diane Whelan Memorial Soccer Complex.

The third upcoming capital project Martin outlined was a $50 million upgrade to the sewerage treatment plant that will bring the facility up to required federal regulations.

“The overall project is expected to cost us 50 million (dollars) and it will be completed in three separate fields,” he said. “The goal is to be compliant by the 2040s. This year, we plan to focus on the design work for phase one.”

Martin also used the luncheon as an opportunity to introduce the business community to Courtney Hiscock, the Town’s new economic development officer, who came on board in January.

Martin said one of the top priorities with Hiscock in place is to update the business section of the Town’s website.

“This is a great place to list your businesses so that residents can find you and learn what you do,” he said. “The listings are now linked to Google Maps, so residents can quickly and easily see exactly where you’re located in Paradise.”

Martin said the Town has, in recent years, created a more efficient permitting process that has seen processing times reduced from 32 weeks to 12 weeks. With a focus on what he calls ‘continuous improvement,’ the Town is also implementing new protocols to improve efficiency and transparency, including an upcoming business concierge system and website updates.

“Residents and developers will be able to monitor the status of our applications. You can get the information and updates you need whenever you need them,” he said.

Martin said the Town supports business development in a number of ways, including sponsoring the first year of any Chamber membership, with providing a $100 discount on business taxes to chamber members.

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You can either blame Donald Trump or thank him, but the U.S. president’s tariff war on Canada appears to be responsible for CBS council’s decision to scrap plans to use an inflatable dome for the town’s new community centre opting to go with a conventional steel building instead.

Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley made the announcement at last week’s public council meeting.

Tilley said council changed its mind after getting updated estimates showing the balloon structure would cost an extra $4 million to build, bringing the total to $20 million because of trade and tariff issues. 

“At that point, council accepted the recommendation of its external consultant and staff to revisit pricing for a self-supporting steel structure,” Tilley said. “The new cost estimate for a steel structure came in at $22 million, but with significantly lower annual operating costs, which would quickly absorb the $2 million difference.”

Tilley said council initially decided to go with the balloon structure because it was the cheapest alternative at the time. 

“That cost preference has essentially been eroded with escalating prices to the point that it is no longer the lowest cost long term,” he said.

Despite the change, the centre will still be built on time, with work starting this year and an opening date in 2027, Tilley said.

None of the work conducted so far, including road upgrades to the site in Gateway off Legion Road, has been wasted, Tilley added. “The overall project scope and timeline remain unaffected by any change in structure type. In addition, the footprint and size of the playing surface remain essentially the same.”

Council announced it was going ahead with an inflatable structure in January last year. It hired Lat49 Architecture to serve as its prime consultant to oversee construction and changed its development regulations to accommodate the dome’s expected 30-metre height.

Tilley said like the dome, the steel building will also provide some 100,000 square feet of space. 

“The facility will continue to support a wide range of activities, including court sports such as basketball, volleyball, and pickleball, as well as turf-based activities like football, soccer, baseball, softball, and ultimate frisbee,” he said. “Community spaces and amenities will also be included to support local programming and events.”

In a written statement – because her voice was hoarse from the flu – Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse, who chairs council’s finance committee, said the decision reflects the Town’s responsibility to minimize the tax burden on residents.

“The purpose and programming for this project have not changed,” Gosse said. “The Community Lifestyle Centre will provide a modern, year-round space for recreation, programming, and community use, and the revised approach strengthens its long-term financial sustainability for residents.”

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Bernie and Lousie Mercer of Conception Bay South will host the 13^th annual SOAR (Spirt of Alex and Riley) Celebration Memorial Food Drive on Friday, May 8.

The fundraiser is held in memory of both Alex and Riley Mercer, who both passed after courageous battles with brain cancer. Though born many years apart, the siblings shared a May 9 birthday.

Students and staff at schools in CBS and Paradise will collect donations, and firefighters will round them up and drop them off at the Salvation Army Church in Long Pond. The Mercers will also be at the church from 10 a.m. till 5p.m. Monetary donations and gift cards are also accepted. EMTs can be made to lousiemercer@nl.rogers.com.

After dropping off donations, folks are invited to stay behind for a slice of cake and a cup of coffee or tea.

“It will be a birthday party atmosphere, and we’ll have birthday cake in honour of Alex and Riley,” said Lousie. “We would love to see everybody come out. And the need is great, as always.”

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Holyrood Bay may become a testing site for military technology.

Council recently applied for $150,000 in federal funding to support research and development in the defense sector.

During council’s April 7 public meeting, Deputy Mayor Michele Woodford said the Town has received a positive initial response from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), an arm of the federal government, and was awaiting a response from the Province.

Councillor Bruce King noted that military base 5 Wing Goose Bay recently received some $8 billion in federal funding for improvements, and that other defense organizations across Atlantic Canada have also received funding.

“There’s money out there for defense related projects and research,” said King. “And the Marine Institute is probably located in one of the best places around to do anything related to the ocean and underwater technology, drones, you name it. You got a harbour there free of ice. It’s calm. You know, it’s the perfect place to do any type of research related to the ocean. It’s there, and all anybody has to do is set up shop and start.”

Holyrood already boasts one of two NATO DIANA (Defence Innovator Accelerator for the North Atlantic) sites in the province at the Marine Institute. The second, the Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering (OCRE) Research Centre is a joint operation between St. John’s and Ottawa.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s defense strategy aims to increase the amount of military and defense spending done “in house” in a bid to reduce reliance on international partners.

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CBS council has appointed a commissioner to hold a public hearing into plans to amend the Town Plan to allow for more housing on Rectory Road in Topsail.

The hearing is set for May 13 at the Town Hall but will be cancelled if council receives no written submissions up to two days prior to the date.

“This property on Rectory Road is the remaining undeveloped portion of a larger property,” said Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley. “Six lots have been subdivided from the property and two single dwellings have been built and two more are under construction. The developer indicates the remaining property will be subdivided into four lots with two lots each fronting on Rectory Road.”

The area is located near St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church and once belonged to the Anglican Diocesan Synod of Newfoundland and Labrador. The 1.9-acre parcel of land is full of mature trees and at least one old path that runs down a grassy slope from Rectory Road emerging onto Topsail Road across from the soccer pitch. The developer applied to the Town last year asking to rezone the land from Public to Residential Low Density. In order to approve the application, council needs to make an amendment to the development regulations, a process which includes an opportunity for public comment and examination by a commissioner, all of which is covered by the applicant. Retired architect Glenn Barnes will serve as the commissioner.

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The Town of Bay Roberts last week approved construction of two vacation rental homes in the Mad Rock area, with a potential third to come.

“The developer wants to develop a couple of vacation homes right now, and later construct a third dwelling down there, which will be different from the two vacation homes,” Director of Protective Services Gregory Squires said. “The recommendation is to grant an approval in principle for a proposed three-unit detached development that will be on Water Street East.”

The development does not yet have a civic address.

Councillor Silas Badcock moved that council approved the application subject to a number of conditions, including submission of a ‘plot plan’ complete with all setbacks.

Badcock noted the property will not be eligible to avail of municipal services such as snow clearing and garbage collection. The property will also not be eligible for fire protection services during the winter months due to its location.

Should the owner ever decide to sell, the two vacation homes would need to be sold as a pair to maintain the Town’s building lot standards.

Deputy Mayor Neil Kearley said the conditions imposed on the application should alleviate any concerns council may have.

The rocky peninsula, which juts out into Spaniard’s Bay, boasts a number of walking trails and views of the famed Mad Rock and Three Sisters rock formations and has drawn countless tourists over the years.

Another developer was not quite as lucky, as council revoked a development permit for a new home on Butler Drive as the permit had been issued in error.

Councillor Badcock said the permit was awarded based on an outdated survey. The lot also lacked frontage access from Butler Drive.

The applicant will be advised of council’s decision and notified of the right to appeal.

Badcock noted any future development must adhere to the Town’s frontage and access regulations.

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