Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Letter from the Association President


TO MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF GRAND LAC ROND (RODDICK LAKE)

Hello,

It is an honour for me to address you today as the new president of the Association. To begin, I wish to inform you of the composition of our new Executive Committee : beside myself as president, we have Mr. Jacques Lépine as Treasurer, and Messrs. Richard Ducharme, Michael Lukyniuk and Bruno Paul as directors.

I would like to correct some information found in the minutes of the last annual meeting held on August 28, 2011.  On page 3, the text leads us to believe that I think English-speaking people don’t have the right to get services in English;  this is simply false.  This has never been my opinion. During the meeting, I asked a question about an amount of $366 which was paid to translate a document ‘Our lake, at a vital turning point’ which represented the personal opinion of the former president and not the opinion of the majority of the members of the Association.    In future, we will have an interpreter at all our meetings and we will continue to present all publications to our members in both languages.  We want harmony within our team and want to operate in consultation with all our members. It’s not the president or the Executive Committee that constitutes the Association, but all its members.  The Association is each and everyone of you working together for a common goal:  the preservation of our lake.

The main objectives of the new Executive are, first and foremost, to preserve the collective interests of the shoreline property owners, to be their spokesperson before different authorities, to promote a lifestyle which respects the environment, to ensure that the nautical safety rules are respected as well as the fishing regulations, to stock the lake with fish, to stabilize the water level, to plan an annual social activity so that we can meet with one another, and to organize subscription campaigns. But our main objective is, and will always be, to preserve the optimal quality of water for our lake – water being a priceless collective resource.  That’s the reason why we will continue to perform annual water tests and also to support the tests made by the Réseau de surveillance volontaire des lacs (RSVL). In a few months, we should receive the first results of those tests.

Interim Control Bylaw 2009-206 (ICB) : The members of the Executive Committee met recently and have decided to send a copy of the resolution presented at the annual meeting on August 28, 2011 to the President of the Regional Municipal Council asking that a bylaw be adopted to target the most serious polluters : the municipalities, publics lands and farmlands.  We also propose to check with the municipalities of Bouchette and Ste-Thérèse on the status of the septic tanks around the lake, those being the most important source of pollution of our lake. We will closely follow the progress of this item.

 Many thanks to those who renewed their membership in the Association for 2011. I want to mention the great generosity of some donors:  we’ve received individual donations up to $120 for the stocking of fish – a special thanks to those members.  For those who did not renew their membership, I invite you to do so to ensure that the Association will stay alive and active. Please do not forget to provide us with your telephone number, postal address and email address so that we can easily communicate with you. I want to also bring up the importance of your presence at annual meetings;  it’s the best way to be heard and to transmit your opinions and suggestions. It would be a good thing for everyone to try to recrute new members so that our Association becomes stronger and more representative.  The personal abilities and the skills of each member are an asset for the Association, therefore I invite you to volunteer in any  domain that interests you, for example:  informatics, translation, research, etc.

As far as the fish stocking is concerned, the Association is still trying to get some grants to help reach our objective. We will continue to sollicit contributions from the municipalities of Bouchette and Ste-Thérèse and also from local merchants.

In conclusion, I want to assure you of our will to respond to all preoccupations of our members and our wish to listen and to convey the opinion of the majority and all actions that will be taken in the future. In that perspective, I invite you to send me your comments concerning all subjects that are within the competence of the Association.

Hoping to see you soon,
 
Robert LeSage                                 

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