Annual General Meeting, 2016

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the West Oro Ratepayers’ Association

Held Saturday September 3, 2016

At the home of Bill Forster, Shanty Bay, Ontario at 10:30 in the forenoon.

56 attendees including Officers and Directors and Advisory Board Members

VP Domenic Natale opened the 13th Annual Meeting with a welcome to all attendees including those Board members from SaveOro and AWARE Oro-Medonte

The WORA Board is comprised of 8 directors elected for a 3 year term. This includes Ron Golden, President; Domenic Natale, VP; Michael Higgins, VP; Kelly Lazar, Secretary-Treasurer and 4 other Board members including Ian Woods, Bill Forster, Helena Lazar and Frank Hutcheson. WORA also has an Advisory Board with Ann Golden and Bob Fournier.

Kelly Lazar presented the financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016.

Ian Woods tendered his resignation from the Board and Judi Bolton, a Shanty Bay resident and Lady of the Lake, was nominated for a Director’s position. Moved by Domenic Natale, seconded by Ann Truyens to nominate Judi for the position of Director. Approved and voted in by acclimation.

Domenic Natale then moved to have the membership ratify the activities and actions of the Board for fiscal 2016. Seconded by Michael Higgins.Approved by show of hands.

Guest speaker Wendy MacKay then provided a brief history of SaveOro’s activities. The highlights were:

O-M elected reps are proving very challenging to deal with

The Boots and Hearts weekend for her, Bruce and Ann at their homes was very trying with noise and trespassers

Council allowed an increase to permissible decibel level of 100 from 90

Council allowed music to be played until 2am; beyond the bylaw deadline of 11pm

Her private prosecution against Republic Live moves ahead in September

She has been told that the Promoter at Burls Creek needs to increase the noise level in 2017 to make the concerts more audible to patrons at the back of the bowl

The 2015 negotiated $200,000 fine is due in October 2016.

A question from the floor asked if WORA/SaveOro had reached out to environmental groups.

Environmental Defence – not interested

David Suzuki – not interested

Neil Young – not prepared to push the issue

President Ron gave his report noting:

The OMB hearing regarding the TUBL resumes in October. A good show of WORA members would be appreciated and good for the cause

We need to be thinking of candidates to run for the O-M positions in the next municipal election

The 2015 Ontario Tourism grant that was originally awarded to BC was cancelled.

Members are urged to read about WORA successes regarding TRY Recycling and the Ucci Development on the website.

The meeting was adjourned at noon.