The Scope

4:30:06 PM: Andrew Harvey here in council chambers waiting for the meeting to start and the mayhem begin.

4:37:54 PM: Council is starting to trickle in. They come from a meeting they have immediately before this one together.

4:38:55 PM: Apparently that is where all the really exciting stuff happens, behind closed doors.

4:40:57 PM: My idea is to have an hour long Q&A with council before the regular meeting. Then people could give their opinion before decisions are made.

4:43:38 PM: Here’s O’Keefe, announced by a uniformed Commissionare bearing a gold mace.

4:44:42 PM: There is a delegation from the Terra Nova sea cadets.

4:46:18 PM: 2010 is the 60th anniversary of the Sea Cadets Corps in Newfoundland. That’s a long time.

4:48:04 PM: Slow night here at council, only Collins, Tilley, Galgay, Breen, Hickman, Duff, and O’Keefe are here.

4:50:45 PM: Proposal for a dog grooming buisness on Topsail rd recommended to be approved.

4:53:11 PM: Momorandum to recommend approval to change municipal boundary with Petty Hbr/Maddox cove. (Land going to them)

4:54:20 PM: It seems like a small amount of land, and they are currently zoned as Open Space and Rural.

4:55:53 PM: An application for a speech pathology clinic on Parliament Street was approved.

4:56:29 PM: Police and Traffic committee report.

4:57:39 PM: Committee recommends to defer a public meeting on traffic in Quidi Vidi until the completion of the Traffic Calming Study.

4:58:45 PM: Speed limit to be raised from 50 to 60 km/hr on E Whitehills Rd.

4:59:54 PM: Breen: “Kenmount road has become quite a busy road… Should be alleviated with the completion of the E-W arterial.”

5:01:10 PM: Breen says they are going to continue to monitor traffic accident statistics on Kenmount and act accordingly.

5:02:22 PM: Galgay spoke to group of concerned citizens from Quidi Vidi who are concerned about impact of Plesantville development.

5:03:24 PM: There was supposed to be a public meeting on traffic, but that was just deferred. Guess they will have to wait.

5:06:59 PM: Tilley is concerned about speeding, but says that he wants to thank the RNC for the job they are doing. He says we need more tickets given.

5:12:03 PM: Most of the reccommendations of the report are to deffer them until after the traffic calming study. The draft will be 4-6 weeks.

5:14:03 PM: The city is going to cost share the preliminary study for expanding the convention centre with Province, ACOA, and Destination St. John’s.

5:16:11 PM: Report will cost $100k and be equally shared. Equally shared between the 4. Even though Destination St. John’s is a part of the city.

5:17:39 PM: Thank you letter from Festival 500, who last week recieved multi-year funding from city.

5:19:02 PM: Tilley says Public works recieved 66 flooding complaints because of rain.

5:20:31 PM: Galgay is reading a letter which is talking about how good the new Federal budget was.

5:21:33 PM: He says we benifit from Gas Tax funding and protection of funding for infastructure in budget.

5:23:14 PM: I can’t say I agree with him, but I can say I disagree. I think the budget was a terrible cop-out of a document from Steve-oh.

5:24:26 PM: Breen raising concerns about flooding in future developments in Plesantville. Wants to make sure we are aware if this.

5:25:14 PM: Paul Mackey from city says snow clearing crews are getting a jump on spring work.

5:25:54 PM: Hickman encourages people to call 311 if they see a pothole.

5:27:13 PM: The city has filled 1600 potholes since Jan 1st!!! Holy snikies. Mackey says the answer is more money for public works.

5:25:14 PM: Paul Mackey from city says snow clearing crews are getting a jump on spring work.

5:25:54 PM: Hickman encourages people to call 311 if they see a pothole.

5:27:13 PM: The city has filled 1600 potholes since Jan 1st!!! Holy snikies. Mackey says the answer is more money for public works.

5:27:53 PM: Let’s hope they remember this when budget time comes around.

5:29:11 PM: Duff wants to know if we will have “sufficient retention so that there will be no additional runoff into Quidi Vidi”.

5:30:38 PM: She is reffering to the Plesantville development, and wants strict regulations on runoff from this development to protect Quidi Vidi.

5:32:28 PM: That’s it people. See you back next week, and be sure to check out my article in the Scope this Thursday. It will be controversial!