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By Morris Richardson
Hi! Welcome to another summer season on beautiful Lac Long. We trust you had a wonderful fall and winter, and that the strange weather over the past several months did not impact you negatively too much. The dragonflies are out and therefore the black flies are pretty much over with for another year, and although the mosquitoes are hungry after all this spring rain, their time will quickly pass as well.
Back in the fall of 2013, the association was supposed to hold regular elections to its Board of Directors. Unfortunately, because of the sparse turn-out for the meeting, it could not do so, since there was no quorum. The Board of Directors decided they could continue to hold office until this spring at which time elections could be held.
Michael Simard, who was chosen by you to be President, back in the fall of 2011, successfully presented himself for election to the municipal council in 2013. Part of his duties involve the environment portfolio, and as a liaison between the council and the various lake associations. As such, to avoid possible conflict, he felt it best to leave the presidency of this lake, and requested me to resume its leadership. I accepted, the board confirmed my temporary nomination, all subject to ratification by the general membership at its first general meeting.
While my temporary nomination is somewhat contrary to the association's standing constitutional rules, the choices were somewhat limited. The standing President had vacated the title, the Vice-President did not want to assume the role of President, since she was herself also resigning, and no other member of the Board of Directors wanted to assume the role either. To have done otherwise would be to leave the association rudderless. At some point later this year, we may wish to revisit the qualifications for president in our constitution to allow for emergency situations. We are proceeding with the lesser of two evils at this time. Someone may wish to challenge the Board's best efforts - so be it; let them do so, and perhaps run for office themselves.
I am therefore putting my name officially forward to serve once again as your President, subject to my election being confirmed at our meeting on July 12th.
A number of things have changed in the past few years including a huge change in the population of this lake - many new arrivals, a few departures, and unfortunately, a few deaths.
Those of you who have been around for a long time will remember Frank Capello, one of the founders of the association, back in 1990. Sadly, he is no longer with us, since last fall. Our condolences go out to his family.
In the lead-up to the formal election, I have made it a point to attempt to visit each and every one of you in the past 2 weeks. I wanted to find out what you thought of the association, its duties and responsibilities vis-à-vis the lake, what you thought were its good features, and its bad ones; what you wanted changed or improved upon; what new things you wanted the association to become involved in.
I took a lot of notes, the feedback was very valuable. As a result of these consultations, you will find in these following paragraphs some notions and ideas I plan to go forward with, subject of course to your ratification of these new proposals.
This has been a touchy subject, although I fail somewhat to understand the rational, given that we tend to act by consensus and formal votes have rarely been taken at proceedings over the years.
At a general meeting 2 years ago, the membership voted to establish 2 classes of membership - a primary and a secondary, each of which was to cost $20.00. The primary was to be reserved for property owners and gave them a vote at proceedings. The second was for additional family members who wanted to join, but gave them no vote. The consensus seems to suggest this decision needs to be revisited. Many people feel that, if a person pays the same price for a primary or a secondary, why should he or she not have the same rights? And since the meetings are open to the general public, if you deny the secondary membership the right to vote at proceedings, how are you differentiating that person from any of the general public who can attend? In the end, the current model means that a secondary membership is nothing more than a financial contribution to the association's treasury.
What I now propose is a modification of that process.
The primary membership would remain unchanged, at $20.00 annually, and would allow members the right to vote on proceedings. If any additional members of the family wish to join as members, their secondary membership would cost $10.00 annually, and would give them full voting rights at proceedings. The general public would still be able to attend meetings, but would of course have no vote in proceedings.
Others may take another position. I have heard that, to allow people to buy as many votes as they want for any given property creates the possibility of a future vote being completely stacked by one property's interests. Although we rarely vote, you can bet that if something did come to a formal vote, where cards had to be shown, it would be on a big, controversial issue and people could abuse this provision to really skew things. They believe that we should follow the municipality's lead for non-residents: one property, one vote. Still others may have a completely different notion, and their suggestions are certainly welcome
What do you think? Come to the meeting and share your opinion. Let's discuss and debate the issue.
In the meantime, for this year only, I have taken it upon myself to give families a bargain membership. As I have travelled around, I picked up your membership fees and charged you only $20.00 for a family pack. The one card covers all your family members, although it still only provides you with a single vote if one is taken on any subject matter. If you and your family are not yet members this year, I urge you to become one - this family special will remain in effect for the balance of this season only. While some may say that this offer still only carries one vote per membership - that is true. However, it does permit other minor members of the family to become members - to get their feet wet - and become involved in the association's affairs, all without it costing them any money.
Having a strong, vibrant lake association is a very positive thing for a lake. It shows the determination to maintain a high quality standard for the waters of the lake, its animal and fish life, as well as its vegetation. It monitors the quality and purity of the lake waters and insures that our children are swimming in safe untainted waters. A strong association, with a majority of property owners represented, provides more clout with governing bodies and agencies when a response is required to any event which might negatively impact upon the lake and its members. A financially well funded association provides a financial cushion if the association decides to go forward with any initiative which might cost money, or to defend the interests of the lake.
Over the past several years, as mailing costs have risen, your association has attempted to control those costs by relying primarily on e-mail and the website for the distribution of newsletters. While this method is efficient and environmentally friendly, the impact of having a paper copy delivered to individual properties around the lake, or mailed to the primary address of the owners of those properties, cannot be denied.
In recent times, hits on the website have declined, in parallel to the popularity of the association itself, which has suffered and decreased seriously in membership numbers. The association has risked becoming irrelevant.
In my recent visits to your homes, this is the one thing which most of you have told me you want. To offset the cost of the mailings, I have already spoken to a number of small businesses locally, who are prepared to purchase advertising in our newsletters on an annual basis. Advertisers could also gain visibility through the website.
In the past, advertisers may have been disappointed in not always having a definitive quantity of newsletters per year. While I cannot guarantee this would not happen again, the potential advertisers I spoke to did not seem to consider that a major problem. They believe they were basically supporting the association's efforts, without overly considering the actual advertising benefit.
The spring general meeting will be held on Saturday morning, July 12th, beginning at 10:30 a.m., at the Centre Recréatif (Salle des Loisirs) du Lac Long. We urge you to attend. The initiatives described herein will be presented for discussion and ratification. You will also have the opportunity to confirm my nomination as the new President, as well as elect new members of the Executive, such as Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. If you would like to contribute your time and talents as a member of the association's executive, even in other areas of expertise, (such as newsletter writing, translation, etc.), please contact Morris Richardson, at (819) 463-1039.
The Mayor, Laurent Fortin, as well as the municipal inspector, Christian Michel, have been invited and have indicated they will be present to answer any of your questions and bring you up to date on any municipal matters.
Paul Larcher has also requested to make a short presentation with regards to his new business endeavor regarding the annual opening and closing of cottages. At some point, the association will have to decide if it wants to hear from these independent entrepreneurs, and if it wants to charge them for their pitch. Last year, we allowed the restaurant in the village to make a presentation too.
I look at it this way: if the entrepreneur is offering a new service in the municipality, and has no competition at present in Blue Sea, why not let the members know about this service. The restaurant may now be a new advertiser for us, therefore I look at it as having had a positive impact on our association.
This year, we will proceed with the annual lake cleanup on June 21, 2014, starting at 10:00 a.m. and finishing around noon. We are seriously in need of volunteers for this task. There are a number of floating logs and deadheads in the water and these can be dangerous for boaters, as well as water skiers. We want to keep our lake safe for everyone.
The process involves four steps: boaters going around the lake, tying floating logs and debris behind their watercraft and bringing them to the public landing; having people at the public landing to wade out into the lake area to take the logs from the boaters as they arrive with their cargo; having one or more vehicles at the public landing to haul out some of the larger logs for disposal, and finally, people with chainsaws to cut up the logs into manageable pieces for disposal. We desperately need you to fill in all of those areas of expertise. If you have a few hours to spare, please, come give us a hand. It is your lake -- help keep it clean and safe.
Refreshments will be served after the clean-up, at the cottage of Morris Richardson, located at 10 chemin Lacasse. For more info regarding the clean-up and your possible contribution to it, please contact me at (819) 463-1039.
The cleanup of the lake every spring is the responsibility of all cottagers - association members or not. It is your lake so please help keep it clean, not only on clean-up day, but throughout the whole summer season.
We will be resuming our annual water testing program this year, and share the results as soon as they are available, via the website, as well as in the next newsletter. I would also like to resume the water clarity tests we used to be involved in.
This summer, we plan to hold our annual picnic on July 19th, 2014, at the same location as last year's: the Michael Simard residence, located at 330 chemin Lac Long. Hamburgers, hot dogs, soft drinks, etc., will be provided free by APELL. If you wish to contribute your best dish, feel free to bring it along as well, it will be most appreciated. You might want to bring a lawnchair - seating will be at a premium. Family and friends are welcome. Take this opportunity to meet other members of your community, new and old in a comfortable, relaxed environment. It all starts around 4:00 p.m.
After several years of suggesting to municipal officials that our insurance costs would be lower if only there was a source of water closer than the village with which to fight fires, we have finally been heard.
I have been told by the Mayor that we now have received all the necessary permissions from the various governmental agencies to permit us to establish a dry hydrant at the south east corner of the Lafontaine culvert. This way, the pumper truck will be able to refill at the hydrant, rather than go to farther distances. I am also told that work should start on this project in late June or beginning of July.
Insurance companies are forever telling us that premiums on our residences would be lower if the distance between our individual cottages and the fire station, or a fire hydrant, were less than 7 kilometers. Now it will be.
Another issue has been the water level control mechanism. I am now referring to the mechanism itself, not the water level policy - that is a whole other matter.
The municipality has decided to install a crank system at the dam, to more easily permit the raising or lowering of the dam plate at the appropriate times. I have recommended to the mayor that the height of the single plate be cut in two, to more easily control the lake water levels, but that is their decision. In any case, work on the project should be completed sometime this summer.
Every year, the municipality receives a grant from the government derived from sales tax on gasoline products and allocates the funds to improving our road network. This year, the Lafontaine Project has been chosen. The Lafontaine Project consists of all the streets north of the culvert dam, including Lacasse, Lafontaine, Apell, Nevins, des Érables, and des Chevreuils.
Most of the roads have not been improved since the project was first developed, and as a result, most roadbeds are down to bedrock in many areas. The white crushed rock which you have seen around town in the past few years will be utilized to re-surface most roads in our project, to the extent that the grant funding permits. The municipality only awaits the actual receipt of the funding before beginning the roadwork. I am sure we will all appreciate the result.
I continue to attend all meetings of Council, as best I can, and continue to ask questions of members of council and the Mayor, on issues that are relevant to all of us. Only in this way can we make sure to keep on top of all developments affecting us in our cottage living.
Last year, a resolution was discussed by the association, with regards to creating a park area just north of the public access. There was considerable concern expressed by the sparse attendance, and no motion was taken on the issue. Notwithstanding, the then President of the association forwarded the proposal to the municipal council, which accepted the project, and promised a certain funding for machine work required to improve the site.
In the past few weeks, most of you have clearly told me you do not want that park. Most of you older members still remember when we had the park located just south of the access, complete with a public rest room, and a gazebo for outside shelter and entertainment. Most of you remember the raucous weekend parties by teens and young adults which often required police to break them up. The litter, garbage, loud noise, public intoxication, etc. was hard to swallow. Most of you do not want the possibility of a repeat of that situation.
I agree with you. At the upcoming General meeting, I will propose that the Association ask the municipality to rethink that project, substituting it instead for the following idea.
Right now, we encounter certain difficulties every time we want to launch our boats or take them out of the water each year. The varying water levels, the wind conditions, the condition of the access ramp at any given time all present us with challenges. That is especially true with larger boats and pontoons.
I believe a public dock would greatly help in this matter. They greatly facilitate the launching of boats or their retrieval in the fall. On any given day, children may play off of them, dive off them, others may bring their camping chairs to watch some amazing sunsets, or do some quiet fishing. Blue Sea already has its own, with much success. Ours is the second largest lake in the municipality. It is time we got ours as well.
Monies from the former park project could be re-allocated to this new practical initiative. Other monies could possibly come from government agency or tourism agency grants. And of course, we would have to put our own money where our mouth is and contribute, as an association as well. Our association is in reasonably well funded state, since we have not undertaken any meaningful expenses over the past several years. We could use some of this money wisely for the benefit of all our collective membership by going forward with this project. Tell me what you think of this notion by attending the general meeting and expressing yourself.
The Quebec government 2 years ago recommended that lake associations and other general purpose non- governmental not-for-profit groups consider taking out liability insurance for members of its Board of Directors. It also recommended that municipal councils, which rely heavily on the work and recommendations of these groups, fund the costs of this coverage. Blue Sea adopted this policy 2 years ago, and already, more than one association in the municipality has taken advantage of it, although to date, not APELL. It is my wish that our association take advantage of this coverage, at no cost to us.
Way back a few years after I was first elected president in 1992, the association had decided to include property owners on Lac Morisette as part of our inclusive membership area. The philosophy behind it was simple: most of our lake water in Lac Long comes from the culvert crossing the road from Lac Morisette. Therefore, if we are to control the quality of our lake water, what better way than to include the water at is first source? The association even went so far as to change its constitution to allow a distinctive director to represent Lac Morisette residents and interest.
Over a period of time, because of diminishing interest by its residents, Lac Morisette membership decreased, the designated directorship died, and the whole concept slowly faded from people's memory.
I would like to revisit the idea. The basic precept remains the same: we get our water from them, what better way to control its quality than to involve its members. There is another: The more members you have, the more clout you have in getting things done. I would not designate a specific director to represent their interests at the present time, until membership from that lake area increases to a significant level. But it would be opening the door to a future partnership beneficial to all. A number of persons from that lake have spoken to me in this regard and they have requested that I re-think the idea.
Most of you received a letter from the Quebec government on the re-cada stering of the municipality. That undertaking was finished, in Blue Sea, last fall, and the results released this spring. Many of you received a letter notifying you of certain changes to the description of your land lots. For most of you there was no change to the layout or the size..
Under the old system of cadastering, most lots were made up of parcels of land (parts of lots, described within the canton of Bouchette. In some cases, single lots could be composed of several little individual pieces of lots coming together. This made legal descriptions a nightmare. The Quebec government decided to simplify the land descriptions by allocating a single 9 digit number to each single lot (the sum of the parts of each lot) and to make it universal (not part of the Canton of Bouchette). Hence the Canton of Bouchette will cease to exist under the new description, and the universal number will be better found anywhere at any office of any Quebec ministry, with a simple 9 digit description. That number was given to you when you received your letter and you should safeguard it since you will require this number any time you want to find out anything about your piece of land.
The other problem under the former system is that they measured waterfront lots by drawing a straight line from the 2 most prominent points. Under the new system, they follow the actual contour of the lake. That, and the fact that the level of Lac Long has risen over the past 25 years, since the subdivision was originally registered means that, to most people, they thought they were losing square footage on their parcel of acreage. That is not the case, at least not for most of us in this area of the municipality.
No doubt you are aware that a new law recently came into effect last year with regards to shoreline protection. Rumor has it that our lake has been targeted this year by regional officials for detailed monitoring, so be vigilant.
I have attempted to bring you up to date on some news and events that have or are taking place in and around our community. I will attempt to continue to do that, as best I can. You can encourage us in this undertaking by becoming and remaining a member of this association.
If you have any questions, any new ideas and/or initiatives, if you wish certain concerns addressed, or if you wish to make certain recommendations, do not hesitate to contact us. You may reach us through the website, by directing an e-mail to any member of the board of directors, or by contacting me directly, at (819) 463-1039, or visiting me at 10 chemin Lacasse, here at Lac Long, in Blue Sea.
Don't forget to mark your calendar with the various association events taking place this summer. Be a member - Participate. The lake and its residents will thank you for it.
Morris
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