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THE TOWN CRIER

November 2015

Hello everyone,

I would like to thank all of you for your support during the recent municipal election, and I will do my very best to lead this community on the road of sustainability and prosperity. For those candidates that were not successful, I would like to thank you for putting your names forward to represent your community, and I hope that it does not discourage you. I encourage you to continue to pursue your mandate with the new council. All ideas will be welcome. I want to congratulate Councillors Chris Irvin, Brian Lund, Stacy Bauer and Brenda Leach. I look forward to working with you over the next three years. I also want to thank the outgoing Mayor & Council members for all their hard work. Richard Durocher, Cynthia Kearns, Tim O’Brien, and Thomas Slager. Through their hard work they built a healthy and strong organization. The new Council will have to continue to build on that organization, enabling it to address the needs of Watson Lake instead of having to rebuild it first. Thank you for that. The newly elected Council will have its plate full. On the campaign trail I heard a lot about current infrastructure needs for the Town of Watson Lake. The condition of our streets, quality and availability of municipal drinking water, waste management, and how to proceed with property tax liens. The relationship with Liard First Nation was also raised. Also mention of the hockey camp. These are to name a few. It is our responsibility as a Council to attempt to address all of those issues and to do what is best for the community based on the information and ideas that we get from the constituents of Watson Lake. I want to close by saying that this is your community. It is important that you have every opportunity to participate every step of the way. I want to continue to have an open door policy as was done previously, as I believe that with the participation of the community we will reach the ultimate goal of making Watson Lake a healthy, safe, vibrant, sustainable and prosperous community to live in. Sincerely Mayor, Justin Brown

WINTER SNOW REMOVAL As winter approaches we would like to remind all residents of the Town of Watson Lake Snow Removal policies. During snow removal from public roadways the Town will attempt to use the ‘driveway trap’ on the grader to clear the windrows of snow at the edge of the traveled portion of the road and the driveway or road approach to a property”. If the plow truck removes snow from public roadways, the windrows of snow cannot be “trapped” and therefore the removal of the windrow will be the responsibility of the property owner. The location and snow depth in the driveways affect the use of the driveway trap therefore the success of each trapping is dependent on circumstances. “Snow removal between the traveled portion of the road and the property line, together with the driveway and any other entrances is the responsibility of the property owner.” “Any snow from private property may not be piled within 15’ of any fire hydrant. “ “Snow removed from private property may not be placed on the traveled portion of any highway. When conditions warrant, the Town may limit the area of highway right-of-way available for placement of snow removed from private property. “ Please ensure that vehicles are not parked or stored on the right-of-way. The Town will not be responsible for any vehicle damage incurred.

The Traffic Bylaw and the Snow Removal Policy may be read at the Town Office.

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BY-LAWS

WATSON LAKE CEMETERY

For those persons not familiar with the WL Cemetery, we would like to highlight some of the information from the Town of Watson Lake cemetery bylaw.

The cemeteries of the Town shall be under the general supervision and control of the Public Works Department.

The maintenance of established Burial

plots shall not be deemed to be the responsibility of the Town.

To all those who have reserved a plot/or

plots in the WL Cemetery, These plots must be paid for prior to the end of the year, otherwise they will be made available to the public as needed.

UTILITY ARREARS Any utility account that remains in arrears over 60 days may be transferred to and form part of the tax account for the property to which the service was supplied. Once transferred to the tax account these amount may be recovered in the same manner as other property tax. Notice: Any utility account that is in arrears as of November 30th will be transferred to the applicable property tax account.

WATER DISCOLORATION The Town of Watson Lake will be turning on the Recirculation System the week of November 9th. The water may be discolored during this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Also it is time to turn on your water line transformers. TURN YOUR CLOCKS BACK ON NOV 1st When local daylight time is about to reach Sunday, November 1st, 2015 at 2:00 AM

clocks are turned backward 1 hour to Sunday, November 1st, 2105 at 1:00 AM local standard time instead.

TELEPHONE BANKING Town of Watson Lake Utility Bills can be paid through CIBC Electronic Banking (Telephone and PC); the account name is Watson Lake Utilities. For those persons paying by this method, please ensure your utility account number is set up correctly. If you are wanting to pay your taxes through telephone banking, please ensure you have entered the tax roll # to ensure the payment is applied to the proper account.

MUNICIPAL ELECTION RESULTS

The municipal election was held on Thursday, October 15th. Congratulations to the newly elected Mayor & Council members who were officially sworn in to office on Tuesday, October 20th: Mayor: Justin Brown Council: Brian Lund Christopher Irvin Stacy Bauer Brenda Leach It is the responsibility of Mayor & Council to keep the electors informed as to how they are discharging the trust and confidence that was placed upon them. They have a personal responsibility to fulfill the obligations of the office with impartiality and integrity to the best of their ability.

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TOWN OFFICE CLOSURE

The Town Office will be closed on Wednesday, November 11th for Remembrance Day. We will reopen on Thursday, November 12th at 8:30 am.

2016 Property Assessment Notices The 2016 YTG property assessment notices will be sent out to property owners in November. If you disagree with the assessed value of your property, please contact YG Property Assessment and Taxation directly at 667-5268. An assessor will review all the facts and answer any questions that you may have. The Town of Watson Lake is required to set property tax rates on or before April 15th. Please review your assessment notice for any discrepancies, as your 2016 taxes will be based on the information provided.

Recreation Advisory Committee

The Recreation Advisory Committee committee is a committee formed by the Council of the Town of Watson Lake. The mandate of the Committee is to provide recommendations to Council on issues related to the recreational activity of the community in an effort to promote community health and well-being. The committee is further mandated to recommend to Council projects and user groups who have made submissions for funding under the Community Lottery fund. In the event that you are interested in being a member of this committee, please submit your name to the Town of Watson Lake along with a brief statement why you feel you would be an asset to the Committee.

COMMUNITY LOTTERY FUNDING

The Community Lottery applications have recently been updated. The Watson Lake Recreation Advisory Committee will be reviewing Community Lottery funding applications only twice per year. There has also been a change to the amount of granting. The maximum for a single application is $4,000.00. Special projects and capital purchases of more than $4,000.00 will be considered based on available funds.

Deadlines are: March 15th and August 15th.

Electronic and paper copies of the application and guidelines are available on the Town of Watson Lake website or can be picked up at the Town Office or Recreation Department.

CURBSIDE SOLID WASTE COLLECTION

Please be reminded that garbage containers are to be set out for collection by 7:00 am on the day regularly scheduled for pickup. Garbage containers shall not be placed for collection within any structure, fence, or other enclosure and must be placed at the property line. Please ensure that no vehicles or other obstructions impede the haulers access to the garbage containers. Only 2 bags of garbage are permitted per container on collection day. Any more than the two bag limit will require a garbage tag. Garbage tags can be purchased at the Town office for $2.00 each. As winter approaches, we encourage people to keep their area free of snow to allow staff access to your container.

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NEW CAO FOR THE TOWN OF WATSON LAKE

The Town of Watson Lake would like to welcome David Steele as the new Chief Administrative Officer.

WATSON LAKE FIRE DEPT. Sept/Oct

Watson Lake Fire Dept. responded to: 1-Motor vehicle accident 1-C.O. alarm 2-False alarm 4-EMS assist October 4-10 was fire prevention week. Members from the department visited the Day care, JES, WLSS and the Seniors Centre. We spoke to everyone about fire safety and gave out fire prevention information and smoke detectors.

WLFD will be holding the annual Halloween fireworks display on October 31 at 8pm. We hope you all have a great time. The members of the Fire Department enjoy putting this on for you all to enjoy. If you are doing your own fireworks display please, use caution and be respectful of your neighbors and their property.

A note to pet owners, if your pet is scared of the Halloween activities for their safety please keep them indoors, they would surely appreciate it. WLFD has a limited number of smoke /CO detectors available free of charge for the general public along with some info on how and where to install them. For more information please contact me at the fire hall.

WOOD BURNING STOVES & FIREPLACES

With the chill of winter approaching, the thought of

warming up by a crackling, toasty fire is enticing.

Before lighting the match, experts advise ensuring

that your fireplace or wood-burning stove is

operating properly in order to maintain the safety

of family members and your home. Any wood-

burning device should be checked periodically and

cleaned according to usage.

The most important consideration when it comes to

fire is safety. Homeowners should conduct their

own yearly inspection to ensure that their units

perform properly. Before using your fireplace for

the first time each season, it is suggested to check

the visible areas of the chimney for any blockages

or creosote (a highly flammable, gummy deposit)

build-up on the interior of the chimney walls and

the surface of the flue. Any deposit over one-

quarter-inch-thick is a potential fire hazard and

should be cleaned professionally.

Creosote residue accumulates on relatively cool

chimney linings and, when ignited, causes an

extremely dangerous fire. To prevent creosote

build-up, home-owners should maintain a moderate

fire hot enough to prevent a cool flue liner, but not

hot enough to ignite creosote already formed.

Burning unseasoned or green wood creates a

‘cooler’ fire, which increases the chance of

creosote build-up. To lessen this problem use aged,

seasoned wood, which will burn hotter.

It is also that time of year to check your smoke

detectors

Scott MacLean Fire Chief WLFD 536-8008 s.maclean@watsonlake.ca

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Greetings from Recreation! I would like to start this month’s newsletter by giving DAVE KALLES a HUGE shout out! Dave competed in the Victoria Half Marathon, ages 74-79 and completed it in 2 hours and 22 minutes! He came in 4th overall! Absolutely amazing Dave, you are an inspiration to us all! We are proud to have you represent Watson Lake at this event.

As I am sure you have all learned by now, Halloween is my absolute FAVOURITE time of year! We have the usual Halloween Night activities lined up. The bonfire will be lit around 5:00pm, so that means it will be a roaring fire by 6:00. The seniors are once again making sure that we are well fed with FREE hotdogs and hot chocolate at Wye Lake Cabin. At 8:00pm we will have the world famous Watson Lake fireworks! Maybe not world famous, but I can guarantee you that every Watson Lake kid that grew up here misses them at Halloween if they aren’t here and thinks about them every time they see them somewhere else. It has always been a running joke amongst us at events with big fireworks shows that Watson’s are always better. Thank you to the volunteer fire department for putting them on. Now for my favourite event of the entire year!! The annual, spooktacular Haunted Houses! The youth Haunted House will be on Friday, October 23rd from 5:00pm-7:00pm and it is for ages 11 and under. The adult Haunted House will be on Saturday, October 24th at 7:00pm and there is a 5$ admission charge. The adult Haunted House is for ages 12 and up. *Disclaimer*-The Haunted Houses are designed to be scary, including the youth one. There will be an adult dance on Halloween Night, doors open at 9:00pm, admission is $10, ages 19+ and the Steiner Recliners is the band that will be playing. There will be costume prizes so BRING IT! The ever amazing Riding Association will be hosting, and doing an incredible job,

as they do with all events. There will be costume prizes! Well, I think that’s it! Can NOT wait…seriously. Way too much fun packed into a small amount of time. This has been quite the month, I think I need a nap! COSTUME PRIZE CATEGORIES: Best Woman, Best Man, Best Group and Best Couple

The Glow Dance for the younger ones went extremely well, it was an absolute riot watching them all ‘get down,’ My three year old son busted out some epic break dance moves, he may be the next Channing Tatum, just sayin’. It is absolutely hilarious watching the dynamics of the kids and seeing them having fun and dancing their little butts off. I think we are going to have to host a few more of those for sure!

Remembrance Day is coming and with it I would really like to commemorate our local heroes of Watson Lake past and present. If you have any information on Watson Lake vets please send it my way. I would like photos and a very brief write up. I think that it would be a wonderful thing to recognize our locals who have, and do serve our country. If you have any ideas on how we can make this event more memorable (get it?) please contact me so that we can discuss your idea. November 11 at the Watson Lake Community Hall Doors open at 10am, ceremony to start at 10:30am

Scott MacLean, our fire chief approached me a few weeks ago about hosting a benefit dance for Shaya Giesbrecht. On September 8, 2015 Shaya was diagnosed with lymphoma. By October 1, they knew it was Stage 1A Nodular Hodgekins Disease. She will have to take 4 months of intensive Chemotharapy. If the bone marrow biopsy comes back positive for cancer she will be moved up to stage 4 and then will have to udergo 6 months of intense Chemotherapy! ALL proceeds will go to help Shaya in her battle. The turn-out was wonderful and we would like to thank every single person that came out to support Shaya and her family. We managed to raise $5000!!

The Movember Dance is happening again this year, on Saturday, November 28th! Our local volunteer fire

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department has once again thrown the gauntlet to the RCMP to see which group can grow the most facial hair in a month. They all shave on November 1st and then we get to see who the winners at the Movember Dance! Last year the fire crew took it, be interesting to see what happens this year. Movember is raising awareness for men’s health issues.

We are proud to host another Yukon Women in Music Coffee House on Saturday, November 21st (same day as the Christmas Craft Fair). There may be a surprise guest appearance of a local lady joining to do a song or two! I guess you’ll just have to come out and see. The cover charge is 5$ and the beverages and snacks will be served to your table, from the Moose Coffee Shop. The concert will be at 8:00pm, and we look forward to seeing you there! I am looking for volunteers that would be interested in helping maintain Wye Lake this winter. I have an idea of a Winter Wonderland where we have someone drag the trail around the lake so that it is easier to walk on, set a cross country ski track on the lake and keep an ice rink shovelled off. Turning Wye Lake into a winter wonderland is something I have wanted to do since I took on my position as rec programmer. We can have family hockey games, skating, make the park a place for us to come together as a community in the winter as well as in the summer. It is such a beautiful place for us to be active together, or as individuals. If you are interested please contact me and we can discuss the logistics. Perhaps we can have days with hotdogs and hot chocolate. This is not something that I am able to do on my own, I will need a lot of help to make this happen. If you are interested in volunteering for maintenance or doing hot chocolate/snacks in the cabin please contact me and we can discuss it together. Well, that’s all I’ve got. I hope you are all enjoying your fall and looking forward to the winter months. I know the dark snowy months can seem very bleak, and the best advice I have to combat it is to find something that you enjoy to do out in the snow. We have cross country skis and snow shoes for rent at the Recplex, we have a beautiful downhill ski hill, many trails. Tobogganing is an absolute blast! Skijoring is combining your dog and cross country skiing. There are a lot of things to do in the snow and if you get yourself properly geared up it can be a tonne of fun! I will try and help with outdoor adventures with coordinating volunteers for the Winter Wonderland idea at Wye Lake Park. I always get scowls when I talk about being excited when it is snowing but it is because I really love the activities that come along with it…..and I am not responsible for snow removal Shovelling snow is great exercise though, maybe I should start. Enjoy your Halloween! Please remember that every child in the community will be out trick or treating on Halloween night and to be very very careful. See you all at the bonfire! Tabata Classes every Tuesday @ 7pm HIIT workout every Thursday @ 7:30pm Beginning Yoga Monday’s 6:30 Healthy Cooking classes starts Nov 5th All at the Rec Centre

Meaghen Kimmitt

Recreation Programmer/

Personal Fitness Trainer

Town of Watson Lake

fitness@watsonlake.ca

Work: (867)536-8023

“Enjoy life…and you will be well” –

Unkown

Recreation`s purpose is not to kill time, but to make life; not to keep a person occupied, but to

keep them refreshed; not to offer an escape from life, but to provide a discovery of life.

Watson Lake Recycling Centre

536-7104

Email: recycling@watsonlake.ca

HOURS OF OPERATION:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and

Saturday

Landfill 10AM – 5 PM

Recycling 10 AM – 5:30 PM

We will be closed on Wednesday

November 11 for Remembrance Day.

Household Hazardous Waste Disposal

Day

Our annual Household Hazardous Waste Disposal

Day was held on Saturday September 13. We had

quite a large turnout this year – 33 households

participated. This was great to see, as we spent

quite a bit of time this past year working on getting

information out there.

Now we start working on HHWDD 2016, sigh.

Proper disposal of these items is something that

must be paid attention to during the whole year.

The items need to be set aside as they show up, one

can’t usually scurry around at the last minute and

gather them up. (Well maybe sometimes you can,

but usually someone has improperly put them in

the landfill by then).

We did get confirmation that empty oil jugs can be

disposed of at this annual event rather than

landfilling them.

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We also got a commitment from Community

Services that the 2nd

Saturday in September will

now be our annual date.

Detailed information is available at the

Landfill/Recycling Depot and we will shortly begin

advertising. We had previously issued some small

bins designed to hold HHW until the disposal day

and help remind people of the issue. If you don’t

have one of these bins and think it might be useful

for you, please contact us.

The Baler Works!!! The Baler Works!!

We have been baling material for about 3-1/2

weeks now and are slowly working our way

through the backlog. We’ve baled over 200 bags

of material so far – still have quite a ways to go but

it is starting to finally look better around here. We

work hard at maintaining the Depot and yard so

that your time here is as efficient as possible.

Thanks for your patience while we work our way

through this. Believe me - We’re looking forward

to having a safe, tidy worksite back.

SORTING AT THE OUTSIDE DROP-

OFF AREA:

When we bale product we have to remove it from

the white bags and put it into the baler. Doing this

has shown that there are some problems with the

outside sorting area. A reminder…

All soft plastics should be put in the smaller bags

hanging from the frames. DO NOT PUT SOFT

PLASTICS DIRECTLY IN THE LARGE WHITE

BAGS.

ALL SMALL PLASTICS (SMALLER THAN

YOUR FIST?) SHOULD ALSO BE PUT IN THE

SMALLER BAGS FIRST.

Those of you who are bagging up your plastics at

home…that works wonderfully. Those bags can be

put directly into the large white bags. Being able

to handle the product like that makes the job, and

the post-job cleanup, go very smoothly.

Paper does not go with the boxboard/cardboard.

Please bring it directly into the Depot.

Please return to using the bags for cardboard &

boxboard. People with large amounts should ask at

the depot where to put it. (Until we are fully

caught up, it changes from day-to-day).

FLUORESCENT TUBES:

A reminder to NOT use packing tape to hold tubes

together. It is difficult to remove and the residue

builds up on the intake tube, causing problems. If

you must tape them, please use masking tape only.

You will be asked to undo any tubes coming in

with any other type of tape on them.

The Northern Lights Centre

The hours of operation are

Wednesday 11am to 6:30pm

Thursday 11am to 6:30pm

Friday 2:30pm to 10pm

Saturday 2pm to 10pm

Sunday 11am to 5:30pm

CLOSED Monday and Tuesday

Jurassic World is playing this weekend!!!!

Friday, October 23rd at 7:00 pm

Saturday, October 24th at 7:00 pm,

Admission $5.00

We have the following to offer you;

Birthday parties w/gaming, 3D movies etc…

Public computers w/Internet

We have a Friday and Saturday night movie and gaming on Sundays

Rental space, hourly or daily

Please call Chad at 536-7827 or 536-8028

For more information and costs

MEMBERS OF COUNCIL

Mayor: Justin Brown

Councillor:

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Brenda Leach Brian Lund Chris Irvin

Stacy Bauer

TOWN COUNCIL MEETINGS Council Meetings are held the first & third Tuesday of every month. The next scheduled Council meeting is Tuesday, November 3rd at 7:00 pm. Please approach members of Council on any agenda item that you wish to bring forward.