Wishing you all the best over the holidays and into the New Year.
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We are pleased to announce that Paula Miller has taken up the role of Treasurer for the association. "I am looking forward to serving with RLCA after 6 years of owning a cottage on Little Redstone. Cathy's books were detailed and meticulous and I thank her for her years of hard work. I wish everyone a very happy holiday season." - Paula
At this time we'd like to thank Paula for coming forward and to all our volunteers that have played key roles in running the association and managing our key program over the last year.
- Cathy Meades for her work as Treasurer over the last 5 years.
- Cynthia West for her work as Secretary.
- Gerry Oxford for his leadership in Healthy Shorelines program.
- Donna Luger for her work as Membership Coordinator.
- Laurie Kerr as our Social Media lead.
- Bob Cole (Past President) for his leadership on the Lake Partnership Program and his team of Lake Stewards.
- Mike Johnson (Past President) for continuing to be involved in the association and running the Private Buoy program along with all of his volunteers.
- Mike also manages our roadside signage. If we can improve, create or change the formats on the info signs on Haliburton Lake Rd or on Kennisis Lake Rd, please let us know.
- Barbara LeVasseur (Past Secretary) and Christine Legge for attending and reporting on the FOCA Spring and Fall Seminars. Christine's report starts below...
and of course our Directors:
- Bob Cole
- Laurie Kerr
- Donna Luger
- Richard Luger
With that, we'd like to again offer you the opportunity to support the Association by volunteering for the role of Secretary. Ideally we'd like to see someone from either Little Redstone, Pelaw or Coleman to give us wider representation from the lakes of the Association.
The executive meet about 5-7 times a year for about 2 hours. We meet in person or on video or conference calls when needed. Your commitment can be for 2020 only if that works for you.
Thank you in advance. Please email president@redstonelake.com if you are interested.
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FOCA Fall Seminar for Lake Associations.
Full report is posted on our website click here.
I had the pleasure of attending the FOCA 2019 fall seminar on behalf of the Redstone Lake Cottage Association, which was held at the Boulevard Club in Toronto on November 16, 2019. Below is a brief summary of the day.
The title of the Seminar was "Lake Stress, Road Egress, Water Tests, Extra Guests, Septic Checks" which was drawn from current issues and top ongoing concerns of FOCA members.
The sold out event, with a full house of 130 attendees plus another 36 webinar participants, commenced with greetings from Marlin Horst, President of the FOCA Board of Directors, who introduced FOCA's Executive Director, Terry Rees.
Terry provided an overview of current issues and updates on the following key ongoing files. Additional details can be found on the FOCA website: https://foca.on.ca/fall-seminar-2019/
- High Water & Flooding
- forecast that great lakes are likely to remain unusually high and may set additional records
- Provincial Policy Statement (PPS)
- proposed 2019 PPS update includes changes to current policies related to natural heritage, water, agriculture, mineral aggregate resources & hazards
- Aggregate Resources Act (ARA)
- changes are being considered by the Ministry of Natural Resources
- Bill 132 omnibus bill
- Bill 132 will revise over a dozen of Ontario's most important environmental statues
- Electricity Pricing - proposed elimination of the H1 "Seasonal" class of customer.
- At the request of the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) Hydro One submitted a "Motion of Change" on October 1, 2019, recommending AGAINST the elimination of the Seasonal Class of customer. Follow this issue: https://foca.on.ca/electricity-pricing/
- Algonquin Land Claim
- $300 million transfer to the Algonquins of Ontario, transfer of not less than 117,500 acres of Provincial Crown land to Algonquin ownership, and new recommended approaches
- Asian Carp
- brought to North America in the 1970's, migrated north through U.S. waterways towards the Great Lakes, prevention best way to protect native fish population. You can also watch a video at https://youtu.be/2oCiwbrlAuc
- Lake Partner Program of Long-Term Water Monitoring
- 600 volunteers monitor water quality and water clarity in 550 lakes at over 800 sites, send water samples to lab for analyses. Measure, total phosphorus (TP), water clarity, calcium (since 2008) & chloride (since 2015).
- Risk Management for Lake Associations - member benefits
- Protecting homes, boats, cars... and our volunteers. Cottage Insurance Programs, Road Association Insurance, Lake Association Insurance
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Picadilly Bay has frozen over, Redstone is still open and the fishing is great.
RLCA had an amazing year installing 27 buoys around Pelaw, Little Red, and Big Red covering off shoals, asking for low wakes for sensitive shorelines and floating docks as well as directional buoys between Little Red and Big Red.
Thanks goes out to the 10 Buoy Masters who install and remove the buoys at each season. Thanks to the boat owners who respect the buoys.
If any one has a suggestion for buoy management or would like to be part of the program please contact rmichaeljohnson44@gmail.com
See you in the spring.
Mike
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Healthy Shorelines Program
This year the RLCA placed a new emphasis on naturalized shorelines: why they’re important and how to get started on your own. Our efforts included:
- a page on the RLCA website, with pointers to a variety of related resources: information, instructions on getting started, individuals or firms that can be consulted.
- a presentation at the RLCA AGM
- a prototype “naturalization weekend” on Coleman Lake. Most of the lake’s residents participated in the afternoon session given by Julia Sutton of Sutton Environmental, with additional support from our councillor, John Smith.
Julia also did individual assessments of half of the properties on the lake, out of which process came an order to Grow Wild! for more than 200 native plants that went into the ground in the early fall.
Gerry
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As 2019 draws to a close Dysart Council’s 2020 budget work is well underway. From my perspective the biggest challenge is to balance demands for better roads, the ever increasing cost of operating landfills and the need to keep any tax increase relatively modest. We need to look carefully at every service we deliver.
Almost everyone wants good roads but with over 300 km to maintain the reality is that our roads will never be as good as many of us would like. On the environmental side the cost of operating the five landfills in Dysart continues to rise significantly. Three of the sites (Haliburton, Kennisis and West Guilford) are essentially full. Just as we now pay contractors to haul bins of recycling away, we will soon be doing the same with all garbage taken to the sites. The cost from both an economic and environmental perspective is substantial.
No one likes tax increases. From my perspective roads remain a high priority and deserve a greater portion of our spending. In the past few months we have taken some action to reduce the materials received at our landfill sites but more changes will be necessary.
Beginning in June used tires will no longer be accepted at any Dysart landfill. Under new Ontario regulations any place that sells tires must accept used tires from residents at no charge. The costs will go to the producers. As a result there is no need for Dysart to tie up staff time and space offering the same service.
Even reducing the volume of materials that need to be recycled will help. As of March 1st single use plastic water bottles will be prohibited at Dysart facilities where safe drinking water is available. Right now this includes Dysart’s offices, the arena and Head Lake Park. With a just received grant we will be installing several more water refill stations in 2020. The reasons for anyone to require single use plastic water bottles are going away.
As individuals, the more we can do to reduce the volume of stuff we need to take to any landfill the better from both an environmental and economic perspective. Please remember that reality with every purchase you make. How long will you use the item and then where will it go?
Please feel free to reach out if you have any concerns or suggestions on how Dysart can better serve you and deal with the challenges we face.
Have a wonderful holiday season!!! May 2020 bring everything you wish.
John Smith
Councillor Ward 4
Dysart et al
705-754-9844 (home)
647-393-5528 (cell)
Follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/smithjd33smith
www.dysartetal.ca
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We had a very successful 2019 in Membership. We have had an increase of 40 members, a 13.7% increase over 2018. 15 of the 40 are from Coleman Lake the newest addition to the Redstone Group of Lakes. We are ending the year with 332 members.
Distribution over our six lakes are as follows:
| Lake |
2022 |
2021 |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
2017 |
| Bitter |
|
4 |
11 |
27 |
24 |
22 |
| Burdock |
1 |
2 |
3 |
7 |
6 |
6 |
| Coleman |
1 |
2 |
4 |
15 |
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| Little Redstone |
1 |
13 |
42 |
86 |
82 |
69 |
| Pelaw |
|
4 |
5 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
| Redstone |
1 |
33 |
83 |
189 |
173 |
163 |
| TOTALS |
4 |
58 |
148 |
332 |
292 |
266 |
| YoY % increase |
|
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|
13.7% |
9.8% |
9.5% |
Annual Membership Drive
588 Membership Packages which included CHA's Lake Health Report were delivered to cottages on our six lakes in June 2019. We greatly appreciate the help of our 28 wonderful volunteers and we hope each of them will be able to help out again next year.
We are in desperate need for members on Boice Bradley, Baybreeeze, Breckles, Fisherman's Trail and Preacher's Lane to join us to help distribute membership packages on their cottage roads. Drop a note to membership@redstonelake.com if you can offer a couple of hours in June.
Donna Luger
Membership Coordinator
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Have some great shots around our lakes? Share them on Instagram with hashtag #rlcahaliburton or on our Redstone Lake Cottagers Association Facebook page!
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