MINUTES

3. Great Torbay Pick-Me-Up, May 7

Plans are moving ahead for the clean-up. The town will provide bags and we will ask for some gloves as well. There will be someone available from the town to pick up bags from residents who cannot bring them in. Council members are being invited to participate. Some prizes have been lined up and we will need volunteers to hand out bags and record names the day of the event. Madeleine will send an email out asking for volunteers. Some areas, like the river, are particularly messy.

Joanne Parsons is designing our poster again this year and we will place advertising in the free media.

A special effort to get businesses to participate is also planned as part of the PBA.

3. Property Beautification Awards

After some discussion, it was agreed that planning to have the awards presentation during the Come Home Year Celebrations was not feasible since judging of properties would have to take place in early to mid-July when gardens are not yet fully mature. Instead, we will arrange for the formal judging to take place during the week of July 25 and hold the award ceremony at the usual time on the last Wednesday in August.

To mark the CHY, we will ask Ross to do a garden walkabout on Sunday July 24. We did this

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last year and the event was very successful. Once Ross has confirmed, we will notify Sue Gruchy of the event so it can be added to the next activity report.

Appropriate advertising will need to be arranged to invite residents to submit nominations to the Beautification Awards, including a notice on the town sign. Peggy will contact Dana.

Joan Joy and members of her sub-committee will be paying special attention to businesses in Torbay and encouraging them to clean and beautify their properties for this special year. Some problem areas mentioned that require particular attention were the Post Office and all of the super mail box stations.

Also as part of the celebrations, we will be asking residents to “light up Torbay” by decorating their houses with white lights. While initially it had been suggested that we could include a “best decorated house” category in the Beautification Awards this year, the Committee decided against this first because the Awards will not now be occurring until August. More importantly, members felt that the light decorations should not be made into a competition but be done for fun as part of the CHY celebrations. Madeleine will notify the CHY Steering Committee of this decision.

Madeleine mentioned that every effort will be made to complete the landscaping around the Gully Gazebo in preparation for the BBQ.

3. Community Hikes during Come Home Year Celebrations

Weather permitting, we will hold a full-moon haunted hike to Tapper’s Cove/Gallows Cove on Thursday, July 21, beginning at 8pm at the beach. This walk was very successful two years ago. Arrangements will be made for a fire at Tapper’s Cove.

Regarding the proposed backcountry hike around Torbay, it was decided that this would not be a formal CHY event since such a hike would be quite long and strenuous. However, it is something we may want to plan for some time this summer to verify the data gathered during the trail mapping project before we consider publishing a hiking map. We will check with Harvey when he gets back on possible timing for this hike.

3. Other Business

6.1 Tidy Towns Competition

Mike asked if the Committee was interested in participating in the Tidy Towns Competition this year. After some discussion, it was agreed that we would not apply this year but wait until the Gully Project is more advanced and we have something to show off. Since this competition is quite labour-intensive, it was felt that we could not provide the necessary volunteer time at this time.

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6.2 ATV Letter to RNC

Mike tabled a copy of a letter to Tony Grace advising of ATV sightings in the Gully and asking

for stepped-up enforcement.

6.3 Waste Management

Council is very interested in encouraging composting. TETC has made application to MMSB for some funding to purchase compost bins and cloth grocery bags. This program could be launched as part of the Family Fun Day during the CHY Celebrations.

Peggy mentioned that Keith Hogan inquired about assistance that might be available to help businesses in Torbay dispose of cardboard. Mike will check on what is available and on the new provincial regulations about cardboard recycling.