APELL - Volume 13 Issue 1

The Association for the Protection of the Environment of Latourelle Lake "Working together for our Members" l'Association pour la protection de l'environnement du Lac Latourelle "Travaillant ensemble pour nos membres" www.apell.org    Volume 13, No. 1   April 2004

Opening Remarks

By David Adcock

On behalf of the APELL executive committee I would like to wish one and all season's greetings and prosperity in the New Year.  Last year brought several changes to the lake; excessive commercial log cutting caused erosion and high water levels, and a couple of weddings took place, most notably that of Gaston and Rita who snuck off to City Hall in late November.  As in past years many thanks go to all the volunteers who provided assistance in the lake clean-up, log cut-up and the children's and adult's parties.
 

Executive Committee 2003-2004

Last August a new executive committee was put into place.  Your committee now includes:
 

Logging at Latourelle Lake

By Steve Slaby

As you may or may not know by now, the land starting at the western shoreline of the lake and going half-way up the "Happy Mountains" has been sold to the owner of two lumber mills for the purpose of supplying his businesses with wood to make their products.  The logging operation was being run by locals who did most of the work building a new bypass road to avoid the road that was too steep for the transport trucks as well as the logging operation.

Based on the little information that was available on this logging operation, I decided to very closely monitor the situation and their progress by conducting regular site visits and taking lots of pictures to record the situation.  After a few weeks had passed it became apparent that we needed to get involved to ensure the protection of the environment that has a direct impact on our lake so Morris Richardson and I started contacting government officials at all levels (municipal, regional/MRC, provincial) to inform them about the situation and give a slide show presentation demonstrating the ongoing work that was taking place.

With respect to the municipality, the Mayor did not bother to schedule the presentation with council so we only managed to talk to council for a very short period of time and the slideshow was cut short.  It was obvious that we would get little or no support from council in ensuring there is no environmental damage to our lake.

Things went much better at the MRC and the engineer took an active role in monitoring the logging activities and requested work to be done to meet environmental regulations.  Unfortunately again, for reasons unknown to us he was dismissed from the MRC shortly after starting to help us with the logging operation.

Things seemed to be going very well up until the the end of the season when they went and created a garette (large offroad logging machine) road up alongside the Chenier creek and cut the trees on the South side of the creek right to the edge of the creek (even though regulations state that a 10 meter buffer must be maintained).  The company expressed remorse but unfortunately the damage cannot be undone, and the beautiful stream with various waterfalls has lost a great deal.  We just hope that the banks of the stream will not be destabilized by the loss of trees and result in erosion and damage to our lake.

At the end of the cutting season, the company indicated that they will relinquish their logging permit for the 100 acres of private land they bought but they plan on returning this coming spring to meet a contractual obligation they have entered into with the province to perform a commercial thinning on the adjacent crown land, to a maximum of 30% removal of trees.

Discussions with the company's representative have been ongoing and they have put more work into fixing up drainage problems by installing additional culverts to prevent erosion and we hope that they will clean up the debris in and around the Chenier creek that feeds directly into our lake before any problems arise.

As was mentioned at the last lake association meeting of the year, we have been talking with the company in regards to purchasing the land from them to prevent any further cutting, and more importantly to prevent any development of waterfront lots alongside the lake.  Based on the irregular shape of our lake, and the number of properties already developed, we may be very close to approaching the maximum number of properties the lake can sustain without a degradation in the quality of the water in the lake, which would have a serious impact on the environment.  Imagine a Latourelle Lake without fishing!

In order to avoid having this purchase fall through, we need a commitment from the property owners around the lake.  We are asking that everyone give serious consideration to putting funds towards this purchase in order to preserve the environment.  How much is the lake worth to you?  If there was a degradation in the quality of the water of the lake, how do you think that would affect the value of your property?

If we get a commitment from enough property owners, a land trust would be formed and people would have a share in the ownership based on how much they invested.  The intent of purchasing this land is to keep it intact and in its natural state.  A possibility that would have to be investigated is donating it to the municipality as a park, under the condition it never be developped or sold.  Walking/hiking trails could be developed and there are numerous locations that would make an excellent location for a lookout.  The possibilities are almost endless!

To get involved in this initiative, please contact one of the following people for more information and to let them know your commitment:

Morris Richardson
(613) 745-1253 (home)
(819) 463-1039 (cottage)
richrdsn@magma.ca (email)

Steve Slaby
(613) 225-6834 (home)
slaby@magma.ca (email)

Photos can be seen here: http://www.apell.org/ssby/
 

Municipal Elections

By Morris Richardson

RESULTS OF MUNICIPAL ELECTION, for a term of two (2) years only, after which all municipalities in Quebec will simultaneously hold their elections on the same date for a term of four years:

Seat No. 1 - HERVE COURCHESNE, former councilor years ago, 270 votes, defeated Guy Denomme, incumbent, 113 votes.

Seat No. 2 - BENOIT HENRIE, owner of Radio Shack in Gracefield, 238 votes, defeated Paul Courchesnes, incumbent, 151 votes.

Seat No. 3 - LAURENT FORTIN, President of the Comite des Loisirs du Lac Long, 219 votes defeated Bernard Kenney, incumbent, 169 votes.
 

Extreme Weather Conditions at the Cottage

By Steve Slaby

For those of you who were away for the winter, there has been quite a few days of extreme weather over the past few months at the cottage, which included some incredibly heavy rainfalls which washed out a few spots along the road from Blue Sea and raised the level winds of the lake to a height that it has probably never seen before and very high which have resulted in power outages and downed trees.

It might be a wise idea to pick a nice weekend afternoon and drive up to check out your place or ask a neighbour you know is going up to take a peek!
 

The Rumour Mill

New settlers...

By Lucie Tremblay
(Benoît, Marie-Josée, Martin)

Another Spring, another start to cottage season, another endless "To-do" list... and in Tremblay Bay on Lac Long, a minor change of landscape which will require a major "To-do" list for the next Tremblay Clan settlers!

You can't see it from the lake, but not too far in-land, the "plateau" by the beaver-made pond has been readied for our building project this year, the project of Lucie and Benoît Tremblay.

Yes, another couple of Tremblay-Tremblay's, not "Wanna-be's", like one of the association's members said at last summer's picnic... but a couple of real T'N'Ts... but the quiet type of course (just so not to scare the neighbours - hi!hi!).

The project is well into planning and should be ready to go up later this Spring. We are very much looking forward to settling in our own "family nest" with our two children, who can't wait to build their own "squatters" tree-house... not too far from the main house of course!

Salutations to all our future neighbours around the lake... See you soon!

Newly married...
... and newly retired!

Gaston & Rita's marriage, November 2003

Gaston Tremblay, and David & Gisèle Adcock, are pleased to announce their retirement 29 April 2004.

You can't afford to lose friends

By Michel Rheaume

I would like to take this opportunity to thank two very special friends.  The weekend of September 27 I was sick at home and Pierre Tremblay and Yves St-Cyr gave me great help and went to my cottage to pick up a trailer load of construction junk that had to be transported to the municipal dump.  A big thank you, to you both.  That's what makes Lac Long so special!

Sweet Marie Bars

By Fran Baressi

INGREDIENTS ½ cup - corn syrup ½ cup - brown sugar ½ cup - peanut butter ½ cup - semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 tbs. - butter ¾ cup - peanuts 2 cups - rice krispies TOPPING 2 tbs. - peanut butter 1 cup - semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Melt corn syrup, peanut butter, chocolate chips, butter and sugar.  Remove from heat; add peanuts and rice krispies, stir in.  Put into buttered 8x8 square pan.  Melt topping ingredients, spread over and refrigerate.
 

2004 Calendar of Events

A Special Thank You

By Jim Baressi

A very special thank you to the following businesses for their generous contribution of gifts toward both APELL events: Allard's Collision Center, Campbell Ford, Capital Collision Center, Camco Acura Automobiles Inc., Graham Collision Center, Performance Mazda, Surgenor Pontiac Buick GMC, Southbank Dodge Chrysler (1982) Ltd., Myers Chev Olds Cadillac Inc., and Jim Tubman Motors Ltd.
 

Garbage and Recycling Collection Calendar - 2004

Changes were made last year to the garbage and recycling programs.

Garbage

Collected once per week (Mondays)
When there is a holiday, collection is postponed by one day for the rest of the week.

Recycling

Every week during the summer.
Every second week the rest of the year.
  April 14, 26
  May 10, 26
  June 7, 21, 28
  July 5, 12, 19, 26
  August 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
  September 8, 13, 27
  October 13, 25
  November 8, 22
  December 6, 20

Recycling boxes may be picked up at the Blue Sea Municipal Office.
  Monday to Friday
  8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m
  1:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
  Telephone: 819-463-2261

Dump

  Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
  You must bring your card.

Have a great summer!