The last regular meeting was held on Oct. 28, 2003, with the following in attendance:

Mayor Gosine
Deputy Mayor Pendergast
Councillor Kent
Councillor Laurie
Councillor Pitts
Councillor Squires
Councillor Wade
Town Manager, Mr. Kent
Town Clerk, Mrs. Butler

RCMP- Corp. Merrill

Mr. and Mrs. Doug Fox from the Teen Centre

The meeting was called to order at 4pm by Mayor Gosine. The minutes of the last regular meeting were adopted as circulated on a motion by Deputy Mayor Pendergast and seconded by Councillor Pitts. Motion carried.

RCMP
Corp. Merrill reported that he is taking a zero tolerance attitude towards underaged drinking, and that he is very happy that the owners of the Teen Centre are doing their part in not allowing any youth inside their building who have been drinking. Mr. Fox said he would do his very best to keep the centre liquor free.

Corp. Merrill said that there has been several reports of vandalism which are being addressed and those involved have been identified and will be dealt with by the law.

Corp. Merrill said that he would like to see old abandoned buildings torn down as they are becoming hang outs for young people.

ARISING OUT OF THE MINUTES
(1) Grievance/Gary Sweeney - Correspondence from council's lawyer, Robert Pittman, was tabled and discussed. Council agreed to the issue going to arbitration and is new going through the steps leading up to this.
(2) Foxes - Mr. Kent informed council that he was unable to secure cages from Wildlife. He said he will try to have a fox cage or two built and placed in areas where the foxes have been sighted in an effort to catch them.
(3) Hazardous Waste Disposal Day - Mr. Kent said he checked into this and was informed that this was a Pilot Project by MMSB between the Federal, Provincial and Municipal Governments and cost between $8000 and $10,000 each day when held. The funding for this project has not run out.

(4) Chlorination System - Mr. Kent reported that the system should be completed next week.
(5) Paving Program - should start next week if the weather stays mild. If not some preparatory work will be done and the actual paving postponed until next year.
(6) Convention - Mayor Gosine said he let his views be clearly known regarding the lack of hotel space at Gander for conventions. He advised that a ballot will be forwarded to all municipalities asking for their input re where the conventions should be held.

FINANCIAL REPORT - accepted as presented.
TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT - accepted as presented.
ARENA REPORT - Mayor Gosine explained the situation at the arena over the weekend where water was coming down close to the breaker box in the electrical room and causing a potential dangerous situation. He said Mr. Ford was sent home in utter frustration due to the problems. Bob Bowdring was called in to try to alleviate the situation.

Arena Roof Project - Mayor Gosine informed council that three of the four tenders received for this project did not have their tender documents prepared properly, thus the remaining contact was accepted for $73,719.09. He said he did not think it was fair that the others were rejected and they should have been given an opportunity to either submit proper documents or the whole project should have been re-tendered. Mr. Kent explained that we had to accept Jim Neary Ltd. for the project and that our engineers will see what they can do regarding the overrun as only $50,000 had been approved by government and there is no way to obtain the difference right now while the government is in transition from the previous administration.

APPLICATIONS
(1) From Mr. Glenn Warren to reopen Cheers Pub. This was approved in principle on a motion by Councillor Pitts and seconded by Councillor Kent. Motion carried.
(2) From Mr. Ben Hammond for a quarry permit. This was approved on a motion by Councillor Kent and seconded by Councillor Wade. Motion carried.
(3) From Mr. Cyril Dwyer to construct a new house. This was approved on a motion by Councillor Pitts and seconded by Councillor Wade. Motion carried.

CORRESPONDENCE

(1) Petition from residents of Fifth St. requesting a street light - it was noted that there are no lights in this area and one would certainly be justified for this area.
(2) Letter from WST re work for Bell Island - ordered placed on file.
(3) Letter from RCMP re Teen Centre - this was addressed earlier in meeting.
(4) Letter from PMC - ordered placed on file.
(5) Information re 2003 Fall Symposium - ordered placed on file.
(6) Letter from Tidy Towns - ordered placed on file.
(7) Letter from Minor Hockey requesting that the money they owe the arena be written off. It was felt that this would not be a good precedent to set, and furthermore the arena is in dire need of all the revenues they can generate.
(8) Letter from Capital Coast re AGM - ordered placed on file.
(9) Letter from Mrs. Merilee Whelan requesting that council consider selling her a piece of land on Tucker Street, presently owned by the town. This to be discussed at a later date. Mr. Kent explained that this land was purchased by council in the 1950's and used as a right of way.

CONCERNS
Mayor Gosine said that he had been speaking to officials from the Municipal Assessment Agency while attending the recent convention and that they are willing to help us come to some arrangement re vacant land which cannot be identified by ownership.

Councillor Kent said that the watchman at the incinerator site left early on Saturday. The Town Manager explained that the worker had to return the heavy equipment to the depot which was included in time worked.

Councillor Pitts reminded those present that we should notify the schools that the Halloween Curfew again this year should be 8pm. This was authorized.

Mayor Gosine advised that he would be running for the Avalon Director's position with the NLFM.

Mayor Gosine expressed how upset he was re the recent court case involving Hollie O'Neill and her dog. He said he did not feel he should have been subpoenaed to court and lose a day's work. Because the case was dismissed and we had high lawyer's fees to pay, he felt we should check to see if we could countersue for costs.

There being no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 5:30pm on a motion by Councillor Pitts and seconded by Councillor Wade. Motion carried.

________________________Mayor ________________________Town Clerk