The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Local Business owner and garbage contractor, Ken Booth, was sworn in as the community's newest Town councilor, at the Town of Snow Lake's June 15th regular meeting. Booth was one of three people who ran for the position. The others were, local retiree Tom Fleming and former school trustee, Jill Powell. After a bit of a bland campaign, which lacked any publicly released platforms or statements, Booth took the by-election by a comfortable margin. Still on the town and matters of a municipal nature, the council recently dealt with two by-laws that have caused a spot of interest around the community. One is an amendment to the garbage by-law, which requires people to make sure that their garbage containers are animal (particularly bear) resistant. The other is to reduce the number of councilors that will represent the Town (in the next election), from the present six to four. The garbage by-law is being revised in order to try and do something about the attractants that bring bears from the surrounding bush into the community. Having residents and more notably, businesses, place their refuse in bear resistant containers or enclosures is seen as a major step in this pursuit. The final reading of the by-law was passed at the June 15th meeting. The by-law to reduce council seats was brought forward by council members who felt the workload could be handled by fewer members, and also in an attempt to reduce costs to the Town from the payment of council indemnities and expenses related to time off work to attend to the Town's business. The savings were pegged at anywhere from $6,500 to $10,000, dependent upon the amount of time off required. However, after two readings of the by-law and discussion around the community, it failed to get the support needed to carry it through its third reading and was defeated by a margin of four votes to three. The Town Council has also made a move to enforce a provision of another by-law that is already in place. It was noted during a recent Variation Hearing that construction on a garage had begun prior to the approval of the variation that it required in order to be situated on the lot in question. The council instructed their Administrator to advise the public that in future all applicable construction in place before a variation is approved must be removed before the variation will be heard. Although most are merely a formality, provincial statutes require that a minimum of 14 days notice be given to all property owners within 300 feet of the property requesting the variation. Still on council matters, the Town recently advised its citizenry that all household items that have refrigerants in them must have their systems evacuated, be tagged and have proper documentation before they can be disposed of at the local dump. If the person disposing of the item is unable to contract someone to do this for them, for a fee of $50, the Town will store the item at the dump until they can get someone qualified in to do the work.
