By Local Journalism Initiative Report Olivia Bradbury

Harbour Grace native Sherrie Reynolds has been sworn in as the town’s newest councillor.

Reynolds will be filling the seat vacated by longtime member Gordon Stone, who resigned in April of this year. As she was the only person to put their name forward on nomination day on May 27, a June 23 byelection was cancelled

A stay-at-home mom and homemaker, this was Reynolds first time running for municipal council. Aside from a decade spent in Alberta, she has lived in Harbour Grace all her life. When she returned to her hometown, her family encouraged her to run for council. However, she turned down the suggestions as she was raising her children at the time.

Reynolds was nominated for council by one of her friends, with another friend acting as seconder.

“I thought they were crazy first,” said Reynolds. “But, God love them, they’ve got a lot of faith in me. A lot of people do. Sometimes you just need that little push.”

Reynolds admitted she was a bit disappointing to win through acclamation.

“The reason being is that it’s nice when you have a competition, right?” she explained.

She said it would have been nice if there had been a few candidates that residents could have chosen from with their votes.

“But it’s fine, I’m hoping to do the best I can for the community, and I have a wonderful bunch of councillors to be working with,” she added.

Reynolds said she can bring some fresh ideas to council, though she acknowledged she has a lot of catching up to do as a new member. She said her fellow council members have been very helpful so far. She hopes, once she learns more and has more information, she will be able to formulate her own opinions on, for example, what areas need extra effort, changes that could be made to regulations or by-laws, and so on.

Ultimately, Reynolds wants to help make Harbour Grace a better place. She said that there is only so much a single individual on council can do, but she wants to work together as a team with her fellow council members to come up with new and exciting ideas.

When Harbour Grace residents come to her with ideas or problems, Reynolds hopes to be able to help them in someway. “It might not always be the answer that they want, but it’s what’s best or what’s available at that particular time,” she said. “I’m not one to back down, so if something doesn’t work today, it might work next week. I’m there to listen to the people for the people.”

“I just hope that I do my local citizens proud,” Reynolds said. “I’m going to try my best to do what I can. I do look forward to the next three years and, if all goes well, I will run in the next election.”

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First Baptist Church and Academy has been a vital part of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland for 40 years. The church purchased property on Wyatt Boulevard in 1984, and by the spring of 1986 a parsonage, gymnasium (used for worship as well) and school facility were completed and occupied. In 1988 the men of the church began construction of the church sanctuary and classrooms. The first service was held on Good Friday in 1991. There were many men who invested their lives in those years for the building of the physical buildings. They also invested in building the lives of the people of First Baptist Church.

One of those men was Eldred Stansford. His tireless efforts helped to assure the quality and success of the construction projects. His youngest son Boyd was born in 1973 and worked as a teenager with his dad and the other men in the construction.

After graduating from First Baptist Academy, Boyd attended FaithWay Baptist College of Canada in Ajax, Ontario. After graduation he served on staff in the Christian school there. In the years following, Boyd and his young wife, Sarah, moved to Vancouver, British Colombia and served for number of years as assistant pastor at the Greater Vancouver Baptist Church.

The Lord laid on Boyd’s heart the need back here in Newfoundland. So, in 2002, he began raising support to come back to his home province and start a new church in Marystown.  He was devastated when his father, Eldred, passed away suddenly that year. However, he continued in God’s plan and went on to establish the Heritage Baptist Church in Marystown. After years of successful ministry, the Lord has called him back to First Baptist Church to serve as senior pastor in the place of his father-in-law, Allen Homan.

The building and ministry that Eldred helped to build will now be led by his son Boyd, the first true Newfoundlander to become senior pastor in its 71-year history.  I am sure that no one, but the Lord, could have seen this plan in 1984 when the building began here.

Pastor Stansford began his full-time ministry at First Baptist Church on June 28.

The church meet at 11:00 a.m., at which time Pastor Homan preached his last message as senior pastor.

The church hosted a BBQ lunch following that service.

There was an afternoon service following the lunch where Pastor Stansford preached his first message as senior pastor.

Pastor Allen Homan

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Bruce Leaman, with DFO on The Broadcast talked about salmon on the South Coast in trouble.  Some of the problems are fish farms escapes, also a disease called sea lice caused by the fish farms and warm water and low water.

When I was a boy going to school in Lushes Bight, I knit a salmon net 20 fathoms long in the night after my homework was done, had no time in the day busy at wood and water.

I got a few to eat and to sell at 15 cents per pound.

In 1954 I moved to Deer Lake to seek my fame and fortune, in other words, to better myself.

I was an avid trout fisherman, and Deer Lake was a good place for trout.

Later in life my next-door neighbour, who was an avid salmon fisherman, persuaded me to try salmon fishing.  I went with him; it took a couple of days before I hooked my first one, then I was hooked.  It was better than sex. 

In them days you could keep four salmon a day from May 24 to Sept 15.  In 1976 the call of the ocean was too great, so I retuned to my roots to become a commercial fisherman.  Mostly cod, turbot, etc.  There were many small boat fisher people who made a living at the salmon and lobster, and some would go up the Labrador Coast for salmon when the lobster was over.

About the same time as the cod moratorium was called the salmon was in trouble and the commercial salmon fishery was shut down and now, 34 years later, it is in more trouble than ever before because the government in Ottawa, which manages the ocean, did not try to find out what caused the collapse or try to fix it. 

Our salmon stocks are just about over, and we are not doing anything to stop it.  The proposed marine park for the South Coast, the one thing that could protect some salmon rivers, is at a stand still all because the aquaculture organization is too powerful and is always promoting jobs.

Well, we cannot keep providing jobs until there is nothing left, where will we get jobs then? While I haven’t caught a salmon for 50 years, I am still concerned about their future.

We owe it to our children and grandchildren and be like my grandparents, who took what they needed and not what they wanted. I have always done that, and I have done very well, and I can die with a clear conscience

Things that are impeding the return of the salmon is the mergansers, a duck that lives in the rivers. I have killed them with their stomachs full of salmon eggs, also the cormorants that are in the mouth of the rivers and will kill the smolt as they return to the ocean. 

The seals are also in the mouth of the rivers to feed on the mature salmon returning to the oceans and they are better at it than us.

(Ret.) Capt. Wilfred Bartlett

wilfbartlett@hotmail.com

The post Lots of reasons south coast salmon are in trouble appeared first on The Shoreline News.

With the increasingly hysterical media coverage of the onset of artificial intelligence (AI) I have decided to make a case for OI – Old Intelligence, otherwise known as wisdom.

All manner of folk have peered into the future, some are excited about the onset of AI and some don’t like what they see. There’s no end of AI coverage in the news, and very little on the value of OI – the wisdom most older people have. Wisdom we have always had and have today.  I think, especially with the onset of AI, more attention on OI is needed.

Youth culture, always obsessed with itself, doesn’t value OI. Old people, often not tech savvy, are considered irrelevant. That might be, but many are savvy in other ways. Tech is useful, but so is basic humanity. We are humans, we need each other, and all this tech tends to isolate people from each other. OI knows the value of shutting off the devices and just hanging out.

Technology is changing fast, but human nature is not. As humans we need OI. The longer you’ve been around the more you have seen. The more you have experienced. The more you know.

When I was a teenager, I volunteered in a senior’s home. Not because I was community minded, but because the boarding school I  was sent to was more or less a prison, and this was a rare opportunity to get out, on a weeknight no less. I had met a girl and on Tuesday nights we would meet at the local mall, go to the seniors home and make out in the laundry closet.  She soon tired of me, but I kept going because it was a chance to be out in the world on Tuesday nights. I started making the rounds visiting the old people.

What I didn’t see coming was how many would become friends. At 16 I began to learn they weren’t old people; they were people. Cool people. I remember four old fellas who would hang out with me when I got there. They had figured out the girl thing, even joking about the laundry room. I was bummed she had dumped me, and they consoled me with stories of girls they had known when they were young – during the Second World War. One of the men had a son who flew 747’s internationally. They had a HAM radio set (Google it) and they could make contact with him, even when he was flying. They taught me how to use it.  It was fun.

They had fought in wars when they were barely older than I was. Some had seen combat. Some had raised families. Some had never had families. All ended up in this grizzly medical warehouse waiting to die. The place was understaffed, dirty and uncaring. But they made the best of it. That’s what men of their generation did. That’s one of the many things I learned from them.

Whatever the reason I originally started volunteering there, I stayed because of their wisdom, their character, and their friendship. I sat through classes every day that whole year, but I don’t remember anything of them.  My old friends however were a different case. I am close to their age now, 50 years later, and I remember each of them and our time together vividly.  That’s the power of OI.

Is the worry over AI overrated? I remember when the internet was deemed to be the great Satan. I remember experts fretting about highspeed internet. Satellite internet. Google, when it came out, was a worry to many. And so it goes.

I know I possess OI.  My OI tells me we will figure out how to use AI. As a species we have seen far worse. My buddies taught me that half a century ago.

If you are worried about AI seek out some OI. AI may change the world, but OI might change your life. It did for me. I learned a lot about life from those men.  I doubt there’s an app that will ever do that.

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com

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Conception Bay South council approved a number of significant purchases last week.

Council voted to purchase a new 2-ton 4WD regular cab with 11’ hydraulic dump from Capital Ford Lincoln Limited at a cost of $118,193, plus HST, and three ¾ ton crew cab 2×4 pick-up trucks from Hickman Motors Limited at a cost of $197,556, plus HST.

Council also voted to purchase parts needed to repair a pumper truck from Safety Source Fire in the amount of $21,553.30, taxes included, and furthermore, to hire The Field Mechanic to make the repairs in the amount of $4,312.50 taxes included.

In further procurement news, hockey players and  figure skaters (and the moms and dads and  nans and pops of hockey players and figure skaters) will be glad to learn council voted to award the 5 year inclusive service agreement for refrigeration system for both the Conception Bay South and Robert French Arena to Cimco Refrigeration for the amount of $169,342, plus HST, keeping both ice surfaces frosty for years to come.

Council also awarded the Summer Day Camp Busing Services contract to Bursey’s Taxi Inc. in the amount of $28,400, plus HST – although with this weather you might have to stop and remind yourself that, according to the calendar at least, it actually is summer.

All four motions were passed with little discussion.

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Conception Bay South council approved a number of applications during  last week’s public meeting.

Council approved construction of an accessory building at 1496 Conception Bay Highway and gave the owners the greenlight to keep a pony at the same location.

“Who doesn’t like a pony?” quipped Mayor Darrin Bent

Council also approved construction of a 48.3 m² garage with lot coverage of approximately at 39 Rachel Drive, and construction of a 15.6 m² “she shed” at 46-48 Henrys Place.

Councillor Gerard Tilley joked that he would be looking forward to seeing the she shed once it was constructed. After a brief discussion, council determined that a she shed was decidedly different than a man cave.  For those curious, a she shed is a space, often made to look like a cottage, separate from the main home that serves as a home office or workspace for women.

A last application, a business application to sell vehicles at Petten’s Auto Repair at 157 Foxtrap Access Road, was refused as, in the town’s estimate, the parking lot would not be able to handle the increase of traffic.

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Two hosts are also needed for a pair of grade 11 students from Brazil hoping to attend Carbonear Collegiate in September.
The mission of NISEP is to foster an educational, fun, and culturally diverse experience for everyone, so international students and their host families can learn and grow together. The program matches students with host families based on shared interests and goals, to better ensure everyone feels at home. NISEP is also available to support students and families throughout the exchange.
“We really hope for families that will be engaged and make them feel part of the family – show them their Newfoundland experience,” said Osborne.
Host families receive $875 per month to help with the additional costs of caring for a student.
Mount Pearl families interested can contact Annette Osborne at annette.osborne@nisep.ca. Carbonear families interested can contact Christine Power at christine.power@nisep.ca

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The Town of Carbonear has been receiving reports from residents about garbage on certain properties.

At a recent meeting, councillor Wendy Penney said she herself had reported two properties for garbage, one on London Road and another on High Road South. She asked whether the reports had been looked into yet.

“There seems to be a couple more coming in there now, so the next thing we’re going to bottle neck. We need to move them along,” said Penney.

Mayor Sam Slade noted that the town’s Municipal Enforcement Officer, Matthew Burke, had been absent from the most recent Public Works, Waste Management and Community Services committee meeting.

“So, I’m not sure if we got any kind of an update on that, but I’m sure the next meeting that they do have we’ll certainly have an update for you,” said Slade.

Penney said some residents had already taken photos of concerned properties.

Councillor Malcolm Seymour, chair of the Public Works, Waste Management and Community Services committee, assured her it they would keep working on the issue.

Deputy Mayor Fred Earle also expressed his concern about garbage in the community. “Apparently right now, if you go to the extremities of Carbonear, people are starting to dump,” he said. He named Gadden’s Mash and Fox Farm Road as some local areas that had fallen victim of this. He added that garbage had also been dumped on corners.

“So my concern right now is we had a wildfire last year,” said Earle, who went on to mention a couple of recent wildfires that had occurred recently, including one in Nova Scotia, and one in Trout River, Newfoundland.

“We need to be vigilant on that,” said Earle. “IF any citizens see people dumping garbage, anonymously they can record and let us know.”

“Very important to be vigilant,” agreed Slade. “We all think that it can’t happen to us, but it can happen to us, so it’s very important that we play an active role as the council in Carbonear and the citizens.”

Seymour said that, at his next meeting with Burke, they would be discussing the beautification of the town.

“We’re going to be looking into everything from here on in, and we’re going to try to get this town and keep it clean as we go through,” he said.

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By Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Olivia Bradbury

The Pigeon Inlet Quilters’ Guild, a large group of quilters who meet in Bay Roberts, will hold a show in July to display their creations and celebrate their 20^th anniversary.

The Pigeon Inlet Quilters’ Guild was started by five women from the Bay Roberts area who quilted together once a week and called themselves the Stitch Group. They were members of the Baccalieu Quilters’ Guild in Dildo, and eventually decided to form a guild of their own. They initially set a maximum of 25 members, which they quickly recruited. Thus, the Pigeon Inlet Quilters’ Guild was born.

Now, 20 years after it’s inception, the guild has 70 members. While most are from the Conception Bay North region, members hail from all across the Avalon Peninsula. Members meet at the Search and Rescue building in Bay Roberts on the second Tuesday of each month. They also have two workdays a month on which they either follow a program or work on their own respective projects.

Pat Ivimey has been a member of the Pigeon Inlet Quilters’ Guild since the beginning. “The best thing about this guild is that everyone is so willing to share their knowledge, and we help each other out,” she said.

Not only do members share expertise, but also gladly give their time and even materials to one another.

“It’s a real sisterhood, really, beyond quilting,” said Ivimey. “It’s just you rely on everybody. You form lifelong friendships.”

The guild does a lot of charity work, taking on one project a year. They have donated quilts to organizations such as Daffodil House, the Janeway, the chemo unit at Carbonear General Hospital, O’Shaughnessy House, the Bay Roberts Cultural Foundation, and the Baccalieu Trail SPCA. Most recently, they made over 20 quilts for those affected by the fires in CBN.

“We are a not-for-profit organization, and we can’t give anybody money, but we can give them product,” said Ivimey. Sometimes organizations make thousands of dollars by selling tickets on the donated quilts. The guild donated a quilt to Ascension Collegiate as a ‘thank you’ for hosting two of their past quilt shows, and the school was able to sell it at their yearly auction.

In addition to quilts, the guild has also made hats for cancer patients and heart-shaped pillows for people with breast cancer. They also make comfort quilts to give to guild members when they are going through a hard time, such as battling illness or dealing with a personal loss.

Ivimey is on the committee for the upcoming quilt show Seams Like Yesterday, which will be the guild’s third. The show will take place at the Bay Arena in Bay Roberts from July 24^th to 26^th. Admission will be $5 and paid at the door. There will be over 200 quilts on display, all made by guild members.

Four vendors will be selling sewing supplies at the event. Furthermore, the show will feature the Quilters’ Boutique, where various quilts made by the guild will be available for purchase.

“That will be everything from a little landscape picture to a king-sized quilt,” said Ivimey. “Everything in between. Lots of table runners, baby blankets, baby quilts.”

Money raised from the show will help cover its expenses, and any additional funds will be put away for the guild’s next show.

Ivimey says that the guild welcomes everyone regardless of their level of quilting experience. Most members are retired, but people of any age can join. While the guild currently only has female members, men are also welcome. There is a waitlist due to the guild’s popularity. Anyone interested in joining the guild can email Cathy Johnson at cathyj720@gmail.com.

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The provincial government has awarded 100 young women in grades 10 thru 12 scholarships valued at $1,000 in recognition of the 100th anniversary of women earning the right to vote and hold office.

Recipients were selected based on their community contribution, leadership potential, passion for leadership, and academic performance.

Recipients included Falon McLoughlan and Kate Angelopoulos of O’Donel High School in Mount Pearl and Claire Nash of Mount Pearl Senior High School; Sierra Murphy, Paige Morgan, and Kelsey Fifield of Ascension Collegiate in Bay Roberts; Meredith Parsons of St. Kevin’s High School in the Goulds; Isabella O’Leary of Baltimore School in Ferryland; Katelyn Peach of Queen Elizabeth Regional High and Caroline Harris of Holy Spirit High School in Conception Bay South; Natalie Beh of Roncalli Central High in Avondale; Claire Coffin of Carbonear Collegiate; and Emma Morry of All-Saints All-Grade School in Colinet.

Other recipients included Holy Heart High School students Sophia Zhang of Mount Pearl and Katarina Smith of Conception Bay South.

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