MINUTES

1. Approval of Agenda and Minutes

Minutes of the May meeting were approved as well as tonight’s agenda. Shirley was appointed chair.

1. East Coast Trail Association ‘Tely Hike’ Fundraising/TETC Donation

TETC has registered a group of 10 participants. Registration starts at the Kinsmen Centre at 8am.

It was agreed that TETC would donate $1,000 to the cause and this amount will be placed on the chair’s pledge sheet. Shirley will email the group and remind them of the process.

Madeleine will email TETC and the town to promote our team and seek donations.

1. Torbay Tree Day - June 5

Everything is set for the Tree Day and notices have been sent to various groups to promote the event. Madeleine will search out the planting instructions we used last year and get copies made. We will plant a few seedlings in pots as demos. As suggested by Ross, we will also plant some seedlings at Helen’s place and these can be available to residents for replanting later on when they are of sufficient size.

Volunteers available to help on Sunday are Helen, Don, Danny, Myra, Robbie and Madeleine.

1. Gazebo Update

There is no news no report following the meeting with HTES officials last month. Madeleine will email Geoff and ask him to keep us informed of any developments.

1. Torbay Gardening Club

The group is meeting every second Wednesday of each month at members’ homes.

Lee reported that he attended the last meeting and 6 individuals were in attendance. The next meeting will take place in Flatrock on June 15.

There was some discussion about pesticides. Deputy Mayor Gallant plans to bring this issue forward for serious discussion at Council. Everyone agrees that education is critical, especially as a lot of development in Torbay is occurring in sensitive areas. Madeleine mentioned that there is a lot of useful information on pesticides at the Colourful canary blog site including daily advisories about when pesticides can and cannot be applied due to weather conditions (see http://colorfulcanary.blogspot.com).

1. Torbay Rock Garden Update

Spring clean-up of the area has been done. More volunteers are needed.

It was agreed that we really needed to get a professional designer help us develop a concept plan for the garden to guide future work, ie what to plant, where to plant, what kind of soil to use, how much it will cost, and other ideas such as accessibility, possible connection with ECTA, etc. Myra, Shirley and Ralph will set up a meeting with Tract Consulting to explore what expertise they might be able to offer and how much it would cost.

1. Gosse’s Pond Update

The public consultation on the proposed amendment has been called and the deadline is June 6. It was

noted that TETC was unfortunately not given advance notice of the Telegram ad as had been agreed to at Council. Lee mentioned that there seemed to be a problem with the town’s email system has he had some emails being bounced back to him. Ralph indicated this problem would soon be resolved.

Lee has financed and sent around a flyer about Gosse’s Pond asking for people to write in. There has been significant numbers of people visiting his web site.

1. SAM Meeting, Withbourne, June 3-4

Geoff, Ralph and Lee will be attending the upcoming SAM meeting. It was suggested that we include information about SAM in our next newsletter as most people are not aware of this group.

1. Council Items

Transparency: Ralph indicated that some positive changes were coming at Council meetings, including more timely release of documents, recording of public sessions, Q & A session for residents, etc. More to come.

Buffer Zones/Motion Estates: Council was meeting with the developer today. There will be more to report soon.

Forest Landing Phase 7: This amendment has been released by the province for public hearings. Notice should be in the Telegram soon.