General Meeting 24.2.2000

Info: General Meeting Feb. 24, 2000

1. Reviewed what the previous survey's said. You want trails (hiking, biking, x-country skiing, lake access, etc.), recreational facilities, community events, community centre, concerns over dumping and concern over the weight of vehicles on the Candy Mtn. Rd bridges with new development in the area.

2. Candy Mtn. Rd Bridges - We contacted The N.S. Department of Transportation and Public Works ("TPW") a couple of months ago in regards to the traffic these bridges . They too are concerned over the weight of vehicles and fixing the problem will all depend on funding levels. We'll keep you posted.

3. Trails - We have an agreement with TPW that the community will continue to use and maintain 2 K-class roads in the area. A K-class road is a road that TPW still owns but no longer maintains. The 2 roads in our area are Frog Lake Rd (just past the Mineville Rd bridge) and the Old Mineville Rd (runs from Candy Mtn Rd to Crowell Rd.) This agreement ensures that these roads will remain as trails or if any development occurs an equivalent sort of corridor will be negotiated. Frog Lake Road is a trail that has been used heavily by area residents over the years. But, there are problems with dumping, clear cutting and encroachment all of which we are working towards solutions for. The Old Mineville Rd. connects us to Porters Lake Park and Crowell Road. It also gives us a "safer" route to Lawrencetown Beach and the Rails to Trails project.

4. 2 Islands on Candy Mtn Road - Negotiations are currently in progress between HRM and Rae Austin to purchase these 2 islands for park usage. We believe this is an important piece of land for the community as the residents of Candy Mtn Road have practically no parkland. This is a beautiful spot. It is also a popular area for anglers and there is already a nice little trail in there (needs some cleaning up.) If negotiations go well and the purchase completes soon, we will go ahead and cleanup the existing trail and start working towards getting a foot bridge between the 2 islands this year.

5. Land on Mineville Rd (before 1st entrance to Dempster) - We proposed putting a trail to the lake providing lake access to area residents. This was put to vote and it was voted to complete this project this year.

6. Land on the corner of the 107/Mineville Rd (11 Acres) - We have proposed putting a recreation park with basketball courts, skateboard area, beach volleyball courts, skating pond, 1 acre grassy area (for soccer, baseball, kite flying, etc.), hard surfaced path for wheelchair access and rollerbladers, shade trees, park benches, gazebo, etc. We would like to start fund raising for this park to build as much as possible for 2001. We may be putting the grassy area portion in after we have a review of the topographical surveys (or at Stoney Creek.)

7. Stoney Creek (13 acres) - We have proposed putting a playground and a grassy area with park benches, shade trees, etc. in this area (50 ft min tree buffer.) If the topographical survey suggests that it is feasible we may start the grassy area portion of this park this year (otherwise 107/Mineville Rd.)

8. Land by the Mineville Rd. bridge (3 acres) - Kept as an area for fishing.

9. Land on Candy Mtn Road (.65 acres) - Provides difficult access to Lawrencetown Lake (very steep.)

10. 2 parcels of Crown Land across Lake Echo - Want to keep as a passive park for wildlife (nesting loons, etc.) We have asked Dept. of Natural Resources to notify us of any land swaps, etc. that may be brought forth.

11. Partridge Nest Park - A great example of a Neighbourhood Park (trails, playground, lake access)

12. Web Site - Check out our web site:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/CommunitySupport/Mineville/
Photo's from past events, contact information, general area info, etc. We're looking for old photos of the area to scan in and put on the web site. If you have any please let me know.

13. E-mail - Certainly the easiest, cheapest way of communicating. If your neighbours have e-mail and want to be kept informed please give them my e-mail address and I will add them to the MCA distribution list.

14. N.S. Youth Conservation Corps (NSYCC) - We have applied for funding for 4 area youth (ages 17-24) for a 9 week summer job starting the first week of July. This job will involve stream/lake cleanup, establishing baseline environment counts, organize community cleanup of Frog Lake Rd., tree planting, and a number of other tasks. Anybody who is interested in this kind of summer employment should let me know and I will ensure that you get notified when the applications come out (probably late April or May.) We also need volunteers to assist in the task of working with the crew.

15. Cleanup Frog Lake Rd Day - The NSYCC crew will organize a cleanup of Frog Lake Rd. We have applied to the Dept. of Environment (federal) to cover the remaining costs of the NSYCC salaries and to cover the costs of surveillance cameras (and sign.) The surveillance cameras will be placed at the one entrance to Frog Lake Rd. and all vehicles entering and leaving the area will be recorded to tape. Other cameras will be placed in strategic locations along the road. The cleanup day will need to be a community effort. Let us know if you would be willing to help.

16. N.S. Trails Federation - I will be completing the application to have us registered with the N.S. Trails Federation sometime in the next 2 weeks. The federation provides us with technical advice on trail development and gives us charitable status (trail work only.)

17. Recreation N.S. - We are registered with Recreation N.S. which provides us with fund raising advice, work plans, etc.

18. Walking Club - We have applied for $1000 funding from the Southeastern Healthboard initiative to pay for approximately 100 T-shirts with the Mineville Logo and 1000 KM Club on it. Residents will chart how many KM's they walk and once 1000 KM's has been reached you will receive a T-shirt. We will know whether this funding has been approved within the next couple of weeks.

19. Mineville History 101 - One of the first gold mining areas in N.S. Gold Mining started in 1861 by William Crooks and the name of the mine was Shanghai Mine. The gold veins are called: Wadlow, Middle, Bennett, Werner, Nickie, Belt, and Vance. We are considering naming the parks after these. Let us know what you think.

20. Financial - We currently have $2120 in the bank. We will be receiving $500 more from the N.S. government shortly. Mr. Hendsbee also presented a $100 cheque to the association yesterday. But, we need to purchase insurance soon which may cost up to $900.

21. Community Effort - To have trails, parks, events, etc. it has to be a "community effort." We need to know if you are willing to help and what skills you have that can provide (ie. chainsaw, concrete, heavy equipment, etc.) The more work that we do ourselves, the more funding we can get from regional and provincial levels. This is called "in-kind" support and counts towards our contribution to any of our projects.

22. Goals - To raise $30,000 by November, 2000 (remember this includes in-kind support.) This will allow us to ask for the maximum available from the county and the province (each pays 1/3 to a maximum total of $90,000.) There is no guarantee that we are going to get the maximum from each, but I would like us to be in position to ask for it. You can only apply for funding from the provincial government once every 4 years per park and she told me that when you hit us, hit us good. This would be used towards building the recreation park at HW107/Mineville Rd (recreation facilities, walking paths, shade trees, park benches, etc.) Once again, this has to be a community effort. We can do it if enough people help out. Otherwise,....

23. Fund Raising Committee - If you can help out on a fund raising committee please let us know. Fund raising will be everybody's responsibility, but we need a group to organize it.

24. Environment Committee? - I have a funding guide for environment based projects. There are all kinds of funding programs out there. If you have any suggestions as to any conservation projects that you would like to see please bring them forth. This could be restoring fish stocks, purchasing land for conservation use, restoring frog populations, protecting bird species, you name it. If you can build a case for it you can probably get the funding.

25. East Preston Enviro Depot - We have an account with the East Preston Enviro Depot. If you want to drop off you recyclables there and donate the proceeds to the Mineville Community Association you can do so there. He will give you a form to sign and I'll pick them up every so often. We do hope to have another bottle drive soon. The last one raised $229 and we only got to half of Mineville. If we had of had another 3 or 4 vehicles we could have done the whole area in about an hour. Let me know if you can help with future bottle drives.

26. We have applied to Canada Post for a bulletin board at the Mineville Rd mailboxes.

27. We have asked TPW to change the sign at the Lawrencetown entrance from Minesville to Mineville.

28. Remember that you can rent the sign at the mailboxes for $10. Considering the cost of a greeting card this is a good way to wish somebody Happy Birthday or something and it helps cover the costs associated with the sign. By the way, when we left the sign where it currently stands there was concern that the kids of the area would mess around with it. I knew that they wouldn't and said leave it where it is at until we can get it back up again. I am pleased to say that I was right. We have great kids in this area.

29. Rob Jahncke gave a great explanation of different types of parks and presented the current draft land use recreational model.

30. Clive Jones (MCA) presented what we have for upcoming events. Some of these include a community yard sale (May 27), an Easter egg hunt (Saturday before Easter), a raft race on Lawrencetown Lake and many other things. Lots of great ideas from the Events Committee. Information will follow in the upcoming weeks.

31. Michael Haynes presented on the many trail projects going on in the province and the country and trails in general. It was very informative.

32. Each of our political representatives had a chance to say a few encouraging words in regards to our efforts.

That's it.

We also want to thank our guest speakers for taking time out of their busy schedules to come by, Robert Jahncke of HRM Parks Planning and Michael Haynes of the N.S. Trails Federation (also trails author and often heard on CBC radio.) We also had representation there from all levels of government as Keith Colwell (District 3 Councilor), David Hendsbee (MLA) and Peter Stoffer (MP) were all in attendance. Thanks for coming out. And thanks to Rev. Frank Kohler for allowing us to use the church for the meeting.