Come celebrate, with your community, our 5th year of existence as a ASSOCIATION
August 3nd from 11:30am to 2pm
Don’t forget to reserve Saturday, August 3 (from 11:30 am to 2 pm) for our “Corn & Roast”. The musical band “Socks Over Pants” will animate, as last year, our crowd. As usual, our regular prices from local businesses and our 50/50. In addition, a BIG surprise … A GREAT DRAW WITH A BIG PRICE !! A plane ride over our area, courtesy of Gilbert our regular pilot.
Here are the email addresses of your Vice-presidents. Write to them if you want information or have a problem… but don’t forget we are all volunteers in our executive board …
- Bowman sector: Linda Cornell, email: linda.cornell@hotmail.ca
- Newton bay: Jeff Parkes, email: parkes.jeff@gmail.com
- Newton lake: David Orfald, email: david.orfald@gmail.com
- Brochet lake: Benois Sirois, email: benoitsirois60@gmail.com
What the news for July?
Sad news for all those you knew them in Newton Bay and Bowman…
I share my sorrow with all those who knew Dave personally or who met him during our community activities. Dave held the reins of our association for two years. He has been my mentor since I started as president in the association and consulted him so many times. He encouraged me when things were not going well. He especially taught me to love my lake and to protect it. He had always some humour to share. I will miss you Dave and I am sure the entire community of Lac Poisson Blanc also😞.
I share my sorrow with all those who knew George personally or who met him during our community activities. George held the reins of our association for a very long time with the help of Andrée-Lise Bédard. He has been my mentor since I started in the association. Thanks to him, I knew the history of our lake, its early pioneers, its geography and more. He was a real information box. He encouraged me when things were not going well. He especially taught me to love my lake and to protect it. He was preparing a nice surprise for our fifth anniversary. I will miss you George and I am sure the entire community of Lac Poisson Blanc also.😞
Summer has arrived and finally the heat and the sun is at the rendezvous. Many projects have begun if we listen to the noises around … renovations of all kinds and new constructions are part of the routine of June but as time passes, they will become discreet to be replaced by the shouts of joy of the young people who are bathing and by a fisherman who caught his catch of the century or even the sound of lawnmowers Saturday or boats leaving for the SandBar. On behalf of the Association we wish you a WONDERFUL and LONG SUMMER, we deserve it!
On June 28, we are 69 members dedicated to the protection of our lakes (Poisson Blanc, Brochet or Newton) and its community. Since we like to have a predictable monetary fund to make our purchases for the summer we hope, if it is not already done, that you will renew your membership. If you are not an property owner but you enjoy our paradise why not participate in its protection by becoming a member?
Please click on the following link to renew or to become a member of our organization: https://lacpoissonblanc.ca/renew-join-the-association/
A lot of water, this spring, in the Lièvre watershed of which we are part.
Another extraordinary rise in the water level this spring for Poisson Blanc. Many homeowners have seen the waters rise much higher than normal for a second year in the last three years. The peak of this year was almost twice that of the average water level. The reservoirs at Lac Poisson Blanc, Kiamika and Mitchinamecus were used to retain huge amounts of water to protect populations downstream in the lower Lièvre (Buckingham area, Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette) also in the Montreal area. The reservoirs in our watershed play a crucial role in protecting against floods and, during droughts, maintaining power for large urban areas (including Montreal, Gatineau and Ottawa). For these reasons, as an Association, we simply have the power to be consulted and to be notified in the event of exceptional situations such as this spring. We are now on the emergency list of the municipality of Notre-Dame-de-Laus and also at Énergie Brookfield.
About our May 26 Members’ Assembly:
As you probably already know our new name and logo as well as our new bylaws have been unanimously adopted by our members who were present. From now on, our name is A.B.V. du Poisson Blanc. THANK YOU for accepting this change!
We would like to thank PASCAL SAMSON of the A.B.V des 7 who informed us, by his presentation, to the growing problem of invasive species in our waterways and, how to fix it.
In August, we will be conducting a study with COBALI at Brochet Lake, in the Bowman area and in Newton Bay to check for the presence of invasive plants and, if so, to delineate the risk areas. One of our members, Louis-Philippe, will assist Pierre-Étienne and his team for this study. The latter will be housed at Monique and Michel’s place at Lac Brochet. At our next AGM we will share the results with you and decide what to do next.
Our 2019 STARS of our Association
As every year we want to thank some of our members in particular. For 2019, our stars are: Ray Thibodeau and Johanne Leclerc (Paradis)
Ray is a member who has agreed to be the coordinator of the Islands Committee since this year. For more than 5 years it has been busy visiting two rustic camping sites on l’île Verte. Thanks to his monitoring, we have been able to prevent the certain deterioration of these sites. THANK YOU RAY and thank you to all our volunteers on this committee.
Johanne (Daniel’s spouse who is a member) is taking action on transparency in Newton Bay and close to île Mystérieuse at Poisson Blanc Lake. Thanks to her transparency monitoring, she can warn us if a problem is in preparation and so … take the necessary measures. THANK YOU JOHANNE! Unfortunately, Johanne was absent when we took the photo.
Buoy Committee
Margaret Robinson, the coordinator of this committee told us, that this year there would be no big expenses but only material to replace. However one member volunteered for a new location that will be marked soon. THANKS to all the members of this committee … because of their volunteer work we avoid serious problems to our vacationers who circulate on the Poisson Blanc!
Other news that was shared during our Assembly:
Floods, intense rainfall, periods of freezing and thawing, warming of the water and other drastic changes due to climate change have very real consequences. As a precaution, two administrators, Marcel and Benoît, will take charge to promote, with our municipalities, the development of an emergency plan in anticipation of natural disasters … it is better to be prepare then improvising. Details to come in 2020.
We are still in discussion with the SQ of Papineauville for a circuit modification to ensure a police patrol for the sector of Bowman by the SQ of Maniwaki which seems more accessible for our members. As of June 30, we don’t know if our proposition was accepted but Linda tells me that that she notice a police patrol on the weekend so the results are now showing.
The Municipality of Bowman installed a BIG sign of instructions for the users of the small car park where is situated the boat launch. This sign was produced in collaboration with the municipality, the «Base de plein-air» and us. We thank Bowman for their great collaboration in this project. In addition certain changes have been decided in order to accommodate the tranquility for the owners of this sector including a change of location for the parking of vehicles in the large parking lot. Thank you to the Air-Eau-Bois Outdoor Base for these initiatives. The emergency telephone number if you have any problems with users of the parking lots or the boat launch is: 819-457-4040. In addition, we shared the costs of installing a sign encouraging boat washing.
Finally, during the election of our administrators, there is new blood in our executive council, Jeff Parkes succeeds to Ronald Thomas as Vice President for the Newton Bay area. Jeff is a “newcomer” to our paradise and we wish him a lot of happiness here. He will soon be communicating with members of his sector to better understand their concerns. THANK YOU to Ronald Thomas for his dedication as VP during the past four years. Monique Lesage was appointed secretary, as was Diane Faucher. Both of them with speaking rights at our administrative meetings. So, here is the 2019 Administrative Council of our Association:
- Pierre Charlebois President
- Jeff Parkes Vice President (Newton bay)
- David Orfald Vice President (Newton lake)
- Benoît Sirois Vice President (Brochet lake)
- Linda Cornell Vice President (Bowman area)
- Gilbert Lafontaine Finance
- Carla Monette Administration
- Marcel Prévost Advisor
- Diane Faucher Secretary
- Monique Lesage Secretary
GIANT HOGWEED: Some members from Newton lake are intrigued by the presence of cow parsnip, wild parsnip or Giant Hogweed (very dangerous) in a sector of Grand-Poisson-Blanc Rd. The municipality doesn’t think it is the latter but David and Lori are discussing getting a sample of the plants to a biologist for identification. We will let you know if there is any move on this issue during the summer.
Have you read OUR 2019 NEWSLETTER “The Poisson Blanc Insiders Scoop”? Not yet ! Here it is… follow this link to download it:
THANK YOU CARLA MONETTE for your work in developing this informative newsletter for our members!
