The Stanstead Council was pleased to see so many citizens interested in town issues and politics arriving for the monthly meeting, held on July 6, but they as well as the residents of Stanstead who attended this meeting showed signs of weariness as discussions and frustrations about certain issues seemed to be endless. It was close to 11 p.m., rather than the usual 9 p.m., when the official meeting finally came to a close, although groups of people continued their discussions outside the town hall until much later.  
An offer for the creation of ‘a new face for the Town Hall’ was received and accepted by the Council, feeling that an update would encourage a greater sense of pride in this important symbol of our town.
Council finally voted to accept the final contract presented concerning the agreement between the Town of Stanstead and the Project Cercle de Pierres, a project to be created on Notre Dame Blvd. in the Rock Island sector of Stanstead. Council also passed a resolution changing the zoning of the area to that of a park. This decision by Council helped to reassure the Stone Circle Project that the land would not be “pulled out from under them and the money and time invested in its creation will not have been wasted if Council should suddenly decide to sell the land”.  Discussions at the May council meeting had led to frustrations by project organizers who felt that the original five-year lease that had been discussed, conditional with a resume of the effectiveness and tourism-appeal of the project after 3 years, and  submitted to Council, should be adhered to. Several meetings were held to come up with a reasonable solution to this problem.
    Councilor Serge Tougas was elected as representative on the Stanstead Ambulance Company, replacing Councilor Michelle Richard whose term on this committee ends August 2009. This resolution was conditional on Councilor Tougas being re-elected in the upcoming election in November.
Issues under the Public Works category included the purchase of salt for the winter, the purchase of a Walco Douglas lawnmower, the installation of permanent speed-bumps on Park Street  to provide better security for the children who live on and use this street to go to school. Modifications were also passed regarding the original plan for infrastructure repairs due to the fact that the submission that had been accepted was so much lower than what they had anticipated, thus freeing up funding that would enable the Council to include other street repairs in the project as well. This was indeed good news to local residents.
Unfortunately, the badly needed repairs on Junction Street do not fall under this new resolution because of specific restrictions placed on any excise tax refunds that are received. Junction Street requires much more than a new coat of asphalt to improve the long-term conditions of this well-travelled road.
A lengthy monologue was delivered by Mayor Raymond Yates defending the actions of the Council on behalf of Stanstead taxpayers. The new Town Square has created concerns from many residents over the amount of money being spent on this project. Mayor Yates explained that the sum of $320,000 had been spent on the project itself (including the pipe work that had not been originally anticipated) with another $200,000 on the adjacent parking lot, which included the purchase of and demolition of the old Caisse Desjardins building. He spoke of Council’s desire to find a long-term artistic vision for this central location.
Gabriel Ouellette, representing Rock of Ages Inc., was on hand to express, at great length, his company’s disappointment at not being more involved in the creation of the new Town Square. Mayor Yates recapped the process by which Polycor Inc. had been chosen to supply the granite for the Town Square -- by submission as required by law. Yates also stated that he had received a report that Teknika (the engineering firm that had been hired to oversee the project) had tried three times to contact Rock of Ages but to no avail. Ouellette insisted that the company had only received one fax referring to this matter and felt that they were not given sufficient time to put together a proper proposal. They appear, however, to have made a submission at some level as a choice was made to choose Polycor as its bid for the contract had been less.
Ouellet was also upset because he felt that such a project should have been done by local granite workers using local granite. Mayor Yates explained that the design  submitted required granite of two different shades and he had been told that there was no Cambrian Black available from the Stanstead quarries.
He added that the project has been put into the hands of Teknika to manage and that Council really had no control over where the materials came from, except to stress that they would prefer to see as much local granite used as possible.and  sent out to be finished by other Polycor employees, before being returned to thesite.
Mayor Yates acknowledged that he and the Council were not as aware of the inner workings of the granite industry and the numerous possibilities that are available today in working with granite as someone like Mr. Ouellet or David Bourgon were but the final decision was not in their hands. He also noted that both Robert Sheldon and David Bourgon (GranitExpo Center) had sat on the committee that created the plan for the new Town Square. Bourgon spoke on his own behalf, saying that he had withdrawn from the committee before the final plans were decided upon.
Many will recall the controversy that erupted regarding Rock of Ages Canada Inc.’s decision to use granite from a local quarry and then ship the granite to its plant in Barrie, Vt. to be finished and then returned to the construction site – Rock of Ages Canada Inc.s’ submission had been accepted for the curbing for the new parking lot adjacent to the Town Square.
Another hot topic of the evening was the construction of a large barn-shaped structure that had been built on Notre Dame Blvd. East. Residents in the area became upset not only at the size of the building but the fact that the owner of the property had done a clear-cutting of the property surrounding the ‘barn/garage’. One of the issues that seem to be tying the hands of the Council in this issue is the fact that the house sits in the residential area, governed by municipal laws and the location of the ‘barn/garage’ comes under PIIA regulations. Not only is this structure large enough that it obstructs any scenic view but neighbouring proprietors who have spent a lot of money installing artesian wells also worry tht their water could become contaminated if the owner in question should decide to house animals in this structure. There also seemed to be some concern about a large fuel tank that had appeared next to the building.
Roger Doré, who lives in that area, and has been a contractor for many years questioned the fact that this property owner intended to keep animals in the structure as the doors were well over 10 feet in height. He also noted that construction regulations view any structure of this size as commercial (no zoning in this area has been designated for commercial use). But he was no more in favour of large construction vehicles being housed in this site either.
Before their new neighbour arrived, Notre-Dame Blvd East residents had enjoyed a quiet, rural-type setting. The peace and quiet of the area has recently been disturbed by large trucks of logs and dirt going up and down the street that obviously was not constructed, by the municipality, for such heavy traffic. Building Inspector André Piché was on hand to try to explain the issues faced by the Council but nothing he had to say seemed to bring any sense of relief and reassurance to the more than 6 families that were represented at the meeting Monday evening. Mayor Yates repeated once again that the Council was trying to do everything they could to come up with a compromise that would be agreeable to everyone, if that was at all possible.

By Nancy Nourse

2009-07-10