YOUR MEMBERSHIP AT WORK
On June 27th, the BBR Association Executive held its 2020 meeting. The following information is provided as an update.
2020 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) AND BBQ PICNIC
Given the pandemic situation and that 2020 is not an election year, the Executive decided not to hold its AGM nor its Annual BBQ picnic. Accordingly, we ask members who wish to express opinions, comments or questions to do so using the comments section in the website (see below). The comments section will serve as a public forum accessible to all members for viewing and therefore will provide an alternate means to the AGM for anyone to express observations or concerns.
2020 MEMBERSHIP AND ROAD MAINTENANCE FEES
As you recall, 2020 marks our first cycle for an annual calendar year membership and road maintenance fees covering the period from 1st January to 31 December. As of 27 June 2020, 53% of our members have still not payed their annual membership dues for 2020 and 51% of members who are required to pay for road maintenance have not payed their contribution. Members who have not yet paid their fees for 2020 are asked to send their dues to our Treasurer, Micheline Lapointe via E-Transfer as soon as possible.
ROAD MAINTENANCE
The current unpaid road maintenance fees situation is causing the association difficult funding challenges that precludes us from continuing to provide appropriate road maintenance. Until appropriate funding is available, the BBR Association is unable to provide optimum road maintenance and only minimal emergency maintenance will be performed. For example, we regularly have to get additional crushed stone (last year we bought 4 truck loads) to help maintain a solid base to our roads. With insufficient funding we are currently unable to get additional crushed stone in areas where it would be needed.
Last Fall the Executive met with the Mayor of LaPêche to discuss a number of subjects requiring attention by the Municipality. Despite multiple interactions with the Mayor over the past years where the same subjects were raised no actions were taken by the Municipality. Accordingly, the Association will once again be following up with the Mayor to raise some of the more important matters including:
- Installation of a convex traffic mirror at the top of the hill located past the creek on Gérard Joanisse Road (approaching shoreline on Ruthledge lake) to avoid potential collision when 2 vehicles are approaching the top of the hill at the same time.
- Need to better maintain Gérard Joanisse Road for which grading is sporadic and often only after someone complains to the municipality.
- Improvements to the Ruthledge Road bend after leaving the intersection from Gérard Joanisse Road. The section has been identified as being problematic for Emergency vehicle access such as fire trucks because the road bends almost 270 degrees.
WATER TESTING
Testing the quality of the water in our lakes every two years remains a top priority for the BBR Association. Accordingly, we will be proceeding with water testing on the three lakes during the month of July 2020 and results will be made available later this summer through our website.
RESTRICTING PUBLIC ACCESS TO BBR LAKES.
Given a number of cases were reported where outsiders have tried to get access on the BBR, a new sign will be installed at the entrance of the Gérard Joanisse road to inform people that « NO PUBLIC LAKE ACCESS » is available.
POWER OUTAGE
During last winter many members faced multiple power losses due to trees falling on the power line distribution. Given only one fusible link is provided for the entire electrical distribution system that serves the 3 lakes through the Gérard Joanisse road, all cottages are exposed to higher vulnerability when a tree falls anywhere on the power line distribution. We will contact Hydro-Québec to determine if additional protection can be installed at the intersection of Gérard Joanisse, Ruthledge and Bob Lake Roads to constrain the power outage to localized area on each of the 3 roads individually rather than causing a generalized loss of power to all cottages simultaneously.
BEAVERS and WATER LEVEL
Members on Ruthledge lake are facing some difficulties with beavers cutting trees on properties and building dams which are causing important high water level conditions resulting in increasing shoreline erosion. This problem has been particularly predominant during Spring 2020. To help reduce the impact of water level variation, we are considering installing a culvet where the beaver dam keeps being rebuilt repeatedly. To do so we estimate a budget of approximately 400$ to cover the cost of the culvet pipe and a cage to protect from blocking its entry and exit. Although the association could help financially, given the problem is limited to Ruthledge lake, we are asking Ruthledge lake members if they are interested in contributing 20$ per residence to share the total cost of the installation. The contribution can be provided to our treasurer, Micheline Lapointe via E-transfer by clearly specifying « Beaver Control » in your e-transfer.
CHEMIN LIONEL BEAUSOLEIL
In the past 2 years we had a number of correspondence with Ministry of Transport (Québec – MTQ) regarding the possibility to pave Chemin Lionel Beausoleil between the two sections which were paved a few years ago. In 2018 we received written confirmation that our proposal was sound and that the MTQ would include this project in their plans for 2019. Since the paving was never completed and the MTQ 2020-2022 plan shows no indication that this would be done, we wrote to the MTQ few weeks ago and no response was provided. On 29 June 2020 a letter was sent to Québec MP for Gatineau, Mrs Bussière, to raise his attention to this matter.
IN CONCLUSION…
As you can notice, the BBR Association Executive is active in looking into its members’ interests and continuing to maintain a safe and healthy environment around our lakes. We remain committed to address your concerns and invite you to communicate with any of the Executive members as required. We wish you and your family a great summer and look forward to hear from you.