WERA Annual General Meeting of November 26, 2019

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Meeting commenced: 19:05.

                                Chair: Elmer Rudolph; Recorder: Gavin McLeod

                                Number of attendees: 9

Approval of minutes of previous meetings: Motion to approve minutes of September 24, 2019 moved by Mickey Bickerstaff, seconded by Bill Zander, approved.

Additional Agenda Items:

“Nextdoor” Social Media App Introduced to the West End (Melody Li): A new social media app was introduced to the west end by Melody Li, there is also a website. It is multifunctional providing communication and opportunity for buying and selling.

Restructuring of City Committees including Residents’ Association Forum (Elmer Rudolph): The city has restructured their advisory committees, reducing the number from 38 to 27. The Neighbourhood Traffic Committee was merged with the ActBiPed Committee. Each residents’ association had a representative to the Neighbourhood Traffic Advisory Committee but that has been discontinued. Some committees will require applicants to have defined skills and experience.

Restructuring of Residents’ Association Forum (Elmer Rudolph): The forum was created to provide information interchange between the city and RA presidents. The meetings were quarterly. The new version will have one meeting per year with the RA representatives meeting with the entire city counsel. In addition to this a counsellor will be assigned to a specific RA. The counsellor will have to receive a request at least one week in advance and a copy of the agenda. After the meeting the counsellor will receive a copy of the minutes.

Motion By Bill Zander: Moved that WERA write a letter to New Westminster Counsel asking for an explanation for the changes to the Residents’ Association Forum a voicing concerns with having only one meeting per year. Letter to be distributed to other RAs.

M/S/C

Petition On Recycling Depot (Elmer Rudolph): The city announced that the existing recycling facility will be closed and the property will become a parking lot for the new Canada Games pool and Centennial Community centre. A new and larger facility will be built in Coquitlam, but accessibility is a problem. The New West facility will close in early 2020 but the new facility will not be available until late 2020. Daniel Fontaine has created an online petition. Gavin McLeod was asked to publish a link to the petition on the Nextdoor website.

Community Policing Report (Gavin McLeod): Calls for service were down but theft of automobiles was up. The Quay reported a major problem with break ins and theft of bicycles. The market reported several incidents. New Westminster police are investigating the use of the Nextdoor app/ website.

12^th street developments – lack of information from city (Mary Wilson): The city has a plan for the redevelopment of 12^th street, the lower 12^th plan is several years old. The upper 12^th plan has not been updated since September 2017. There does seem to be some disagreement on city council about the redevelopment of upper 12^th.

18^th Street/ 10^th Ave pedestrian accident (Mary Wilson): On October 30^th 2019 at 7 am an 18 year old male pedestrian was hit by a car at Eighteenth and 10^th Ave. The pedestrian was seriously injured. That T intersection is very busy and used by many pedestrians. The are is seeing major development with ice rinks and high rise and townhouse development so something will have to be done at the T intersection. The accident was not reported in the New Westminster paper but was reported in the Burnaby paper.

Climate change initiatives by city? (Elmer Rudolph): The city has declared a climate emergency and published goals that are stated to be reached by 2030 which is only one decade from now. The city web page is here: https://www.newwestcity.ca/services/environment-and-sustainability/energy-conservation-and-climate-change

There are no specific projects listed at this time.

Stewardson Way overpass official opening ceremony (Gavin McLeod): An email was sent announcing that there would be an official opening ceremony scheduled for December 5^th at 10 am. Gavin McLeod asked Elmer Rudolph, Mary Wilson and Alice Millar to be guests at the event.

Annual donation to Unity in Action church for use of hall (Elmer Rudolph): It was agreed to donate $75 to Unity in action church for the use of the hall for the year.

Meeting Adjourned: 20:14

Next Meeting: Annual general meeting tentatively scheduled for Tuesday January 26,  2019 at Unity in Action Church from 7 pm to 9 pm.