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7193 East Bay Hwy
Big Pond, NS
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THE BIG POND TIMES
November 1996 Volume III Number 11
Big Pond Bustle...it Never Stops!!
COMMUNITY COUNCIL
OPEN HOUSE ON THE WATERFRONT
On Friday afternoon, 18 October, scores of Cape Bretoner's flocked to the renovated Big Pond Community Centre (the old parish hall), underlining their interest and support for recent developments at the Big Pond beach. The hall, dormant for the past few years, was once the scene of spirited dances and a bevy of other community activities. The general consensus was an impressive "thumb's up" with the transformation.
The MC for the Open House was Bev MacPherson. Additional flights of oratory were offered by Pat Nelder and Donnie MacNeil. All were brief and poignant, thus ensuring an especially appreciative audience. Dave Gillis graciously donated trays of food; the Community Council supplied some refreshments.
Project participants who attended included Messrs. Lloyd White and Joe Donovan, superintendent and foreman, Kevin Pembroke and Jerome MacNeil of Pembroke Construction, the project manager, Dave Gillis (Gillis Home Care), Blair McDonald (Island Well Drillers), Mike Mahoney (J.R. Mahoney Ltd), Hugh MacPherson (Lochmore Services), John Peach (John Peach Masonry) and Ken Wilson (Wilson's Home Hardware.
Rita MacNeil and her daughter Laura were also in attendance, as were Rev. Angus MacDougall, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Antigonish and Larry MacPherson from Tourism Cape Breton.
Community Council
Guest speaker for the October meeting was Len MacDonald, who explained the composition of the new School Advisory Councils being established.
The Community Council executive suggested that the Vice-president, Treasurer and Member-At-Large be elected at one time with the positions of President and Secretary in alternate years. Presumably the constitution will be changed accordingly before the first three positions come up for grabs next September. Thus, a nominating committee should be in place by July, 1997.
There was some discussion as to why this area, including East Bay, should still be stuck with an antiquated dialling system from MT&T with which almost no other area on the island must contend. There will undoubtedly be some follow up on this issue.
The recovery rate for the Neighbourhood Watch engraving pens is now at 50%; two continue to elude the Neighbourhood Watch sleuths, even though they are already engraved.
The gap between the ball team and the concert benches is slowly narrowing; it is hoped that contact would be made before the considerable snow which is expected starts to fly about this winter.
Once again, the topic of choice for the meeting was the cost of the old school building. Although the executive put forward a number of potential uses for the building which would be incorporated into the next phase of development, there was little discussion and fewer questions on that aspect. The bottom line was an immediate, financial one. There was significant support for a suggestion to put the building into hibernation for this winter. The executive and the community now await the written report from a CBI (Certified Building Inspector) who checked the structure recently.
The next Community Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 6 November at 7:30 PM at the Big Pond Fire Hall.
FIRE DEPARTMENT NOTES
Twelve Big Pond fire-fighters attended a re-certification program in Standard First Aid and CPR on 28-29 September. The intensive course, delivered by the erudite John Rose of the Westmount Fire Department, ensures that the first response members are current in emergency first aid procedures. (First Aid certification must be renewed every three years; CPR is yearly.) The course was held at the Big Pond Volunteer Fire Department hall and the participants included Ron McCarron, Blair McDonald, Cyril MacPherson, Tom MacPherson, Stan MacLean, Melvin White, Frank Sampson, Don MacGillivray, Greg MacMillan, Roy MacNeil, Art Lewis and Bill MacPhee. The course was enhanced considerably by the contributions of food and smiling faces of Anne Thomas, Flo Sampson, Sharise McKeigan, Chris MacPhee, Norma McDonald and Jan Lewis.
A troika of Big Pond fire-fighters, Stan MacLean, Ron McCarron and Ed MacIntyre, pulled together an impressive display for Fire Prevention Day at the Fire Hall on Saturday, 5 October. Safety films, safety demonstrations (including a children's house for practising emergency exits), equipment displays and explanations from the local fire-fighters ensured that the more than thirty children and a considerable number of adults are both better informed and better prepared for emergencies. Aside from consuming a large number of hotdogs the individuals who dropped in left with a more informed, and positive, impression of the capabilities of the local firefighting crew. Jack Neary, the Fire Prevention and Investigation Manager, and Myles MacLean of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality were of special assistance on this one.
The BPVFD Ladies' Auxiliary has acquired three new members-Theresa MacDonald, Flo Sampson and Jan Lewis. Incidentally, the Auxiliary will be selling tickets in November on a wooden sleigh decorated in a Christmas motif. It is designed and painted by Theresa MacDonald.
COMMUNITY NOTES
Bookmobile schedule: Big Pond, 11:30 am; Irish Vale, 1:30; Irish Cove, 2:00 on Tuesday, 5 November
St. Mary's Parish will host a spaghetti supper 9 November 4-7:30pm at Big Pond Firehall--eat in or take out-- $4.00 per plate.
Rita's Tea Room will Re-open November 1st 12-5pm Seven day's a week!
Tutoring available Grade 10-11, Specialising in French, Math, and Science. Phone Jeff McCarron 828-2109
Heather's Barber & Beauty Salon--Fall and Winter Hours...Monday 10-6pm, Tuesday 10-6pm, Wednesday 9-8pm, Thursday 9-8pm, Friday 9-6pm, Saturday 9-6pm
Thank you to our family and friends for making our 25th anniversary such a wonderful occasion. Special thanks to Father Bedford Doucette, the Big Pond Fire department and the Ladies' Auxiliary, and to Malcie, Flo and Amanda for the beautiful music. A huge thank you to our beautiful daughter Angela for all her time and effort in planning the celebration.
Roy & Cora MacNeil
MONEY MATTERS
There are three types of investment income: interest, capital gains and dividend income. Each receive different tax treatment by Revenue Canada. This month I am going to discuss interest income as this is the one with which most people are familiar.
Investments such as Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GIC), term deposits, Canada Savings Bonds (CSB), and savings accounts all earn interest. The interest income is taxed at your marginal tax bracket. For example, if you are in a 50% tax bracket and have earned $100 in interest, Revenue Canada will tax $50 out of that $100. 100% of your interest income is taxed at your marginal tax rate.
Canadians put a large portion of their discretionary income into GICs and CSBs. These investments are taxed heavily, unless of course they are put in a tax shelter plan such as an RRSP. These types of investments are fine if you are conservative, older or as a source of emergency funding. However, to rely on these types of investments exclusively is a problem due to our current low interest rate environment and the tax treatment they receive.
Bev MacPherson
Financial Advisor
COUNCILLOR'S REPORT
Taxation
This past August, Council adopted the Planning Advisory Committee's report on a new Taxation approach for the Region. The tax structure has a base rate, plus rates for services provided. The tax structure is characterized by urban, suburban and rural; with varying rates for residential and commercial properties. The tax structure incorporates 'area rating' for services not reflected in the base rate. Items which will be area rated include corporate services and administration costs, sewer, fire hydrants, fire protection and transit. Items included in the base rate are police, curb and gutter, storm drainage, sidewalks, roads, street lighting, garbage collection, incineration/landfill, recreation programs, parks and grounds, maintenance, long-term debt retirement (infrastructure programs and incinerator), deficit retirement (annual operating, Centre 200, transit, northside industrial commission and the regional incinerator).
Myself and other councillors who were elected from suburban and rural areas feel there are too many items in the base rate. For example, sidewalks, curb and gutter, garbage collection, storm drainage and ball field lighting. The reasoning we were given was that there was not enough time to put all related data into the computer system and that next year some items which are included in the base rate will be removed to show a more appropriate picture of the base rate.
Also included in the base rate is the Public Works budget of approximately $14,000,000. It seems a small percentage of this is spent in the suburban and rural areas. Payment to the Department of Transportation for maintaining class "J" roads is approximately $724,000, plus approximately $500,000 for bungalow roads, sidewalks and unlisted roads.
The base rate is $1.299 and will be phased in over 4 years. Depending on where you live you may pay extra for the following services: .105 for fire protection, .206 for sewer, .130 for transit and .164 for hydrants.
The total operating budget is $86,962,676. Approximately $11,000,000 is for various debts (infrastructure, Centre 200 etc.). For every cent on the tax rate, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality raises approximately $500.
Note-We have a new email address and a home page on the Internet, and with the help of family members are learning to make better use of this medium. We appreciate the response we have received to date and will do our best to keep up with the email correspondence.
Ivan Doncaster, Councillor District 14
Email Him!
Access his Home Page
Safety Tips
It's that time of the year again where the wood burners are preparing for winter heating season. Times staff have recently spoken with Fire Chief Frank Sampson concerning chimney cleaning equipment. Apparently the rods and brushes are available through any local Big Pond fire department representative. A twenty-five dollar deposit is required. Frank would like the rods/brushes returned within a day or two from the borrowing date.
The Emergency-911 telephone service is slated to be up and running by the end of October, 1996. All residents/cottage owners should have their civic address numbers clearly displayed and visible from the highway. If you are not sure about your civic number try calling 1-800-388-3911 for information. In the event you are unsatisfied with above 1-800 number, you can contact Terry MacPherson at Nova Scotia Environment (563-2100).
Social Commentary
Although Sunday October 13 was a typical dark fall Cape Breton day, it was beaming bright in our Big Pond Church! This day hosted a beautiful baptism for Bhreagh MacNeil (daughter of Donnie and Linda MacNeil). Bhreagh was a model child for the morning, allowing Father Bedford to gently hold her in his arms for quite a while....Monday October 14 - a wedding shower was held for Valerie MacFarlane...did we ever think such an event would occur? Valerie....gasp..even wore a dress. She looked lovely. Many people attended this professionally orchestrated event, some from as far away as Pittsburgh! Valerie would like to sincerely thank all those who attended on the blustery evening and for bringing such beautiful lunch and gifts. The late Marion MacDonald (Val's GrandMother) would certainly be proud of this evening.
Sport Shorts
The Big Pond/East Bay Softball League finished in mid-September with a round-robin tournament at the Northside East Bay field. It was a close final game between the Big Pond Fire Department and Big Pond Young Guys. Jamie MacNeil took the mound for the Fire Department and Harvey MacIsaac pitched for the opposition. The Big Pond Young Guys prevailed with a win to claim "bragging rights" till next season. The outcome might have been different for the Fire Department if their star pitcher Brother MacNeil hadn't slipped on the sidelines and dislocated his shoulder. A suspicious flask was found near the scene of the accident, however the star pitcher denies any connection to the container or its contents.
In other news the fire department ball team attended the 13th Annual Mira Road Softball Tournament during the weekend of September 28/96 . The Big Pond team won the consolation title in the tournament and Little Lorraine finished with top honours. A highlight in the tournament was Brother MacNeil winning the Most Sportsman-Like Player award. Brother has played in every Mira Road tournament since it began in 1983. Congratulations Brother we hope to see you again next year at spring training camp.
TMP
The Dart Beat
The Big Pond Mixed Dart League has begun its Fall/Winter schedule. We have twelve teams in the league this year. Kevin MacPhee, Arnold Hall and Jamie MacNeil have current top spot with 43 wins. Second place with 39 wins is held by Joan Murphy, Ed MacIntyre and Richard Cabot. Third place with 37 wins is claimed by Anne Marie Donovan, Gerald Thomas and Terry MacPherson. Anne Marie is leading the team with 51 points. Individual top point totals for the league (men/women) are Kevin MacPhee and Joan Murphy with 134 & 73 points, respectively. A few newcomers to the league are Bev Mozvik and Bonnie & Gordie MacDonald. Their dart shooting seems to be improving in leaps and bounds...last week we had only one complaint of someone getting hit by a stray dart. The league welcomes our new members.
TMP
Joe Neil MacNeil 1908-1996
Joe Neil MacNeil died 14 October 1996. Born in 1908, he came to Middle Cape and the home of his foster parents, Neil and Mary (MacMillan) MacNeil, when he was six months old. He spent his life in the area.
In a sense there is little to write about Joe. A few days after his burial we are hard pressed to find any material sign that such a man even existed.
Where was his home? He had no home. He had a little home a long time ago, but one day, like some modern day Thoreau, he simply walked out of it and never went back. He lived here and there with friends in Middle Cape or Big Pond or Irish Vale, some times disappearing for days or weeks on end and coming back with stories from places like Christmas Island or Iona or Inverness. In time there would be the little apartment in Westmount, and at the end the private guest home on Floral Heights.
His monuments? There are none. He wired this house and that house and Joe Big Hector's house and other houses when the electricity came to the area; and he could turn his hand to most trades - he was known as Mechanical Joe (his friend John MacPherson said at his wake, "If ever a man had hands that were blessed, it was Joe Neil") - but there is nothing you would point at and say, Joe Neil built that.
His material possessions? The fiddler, the bard - all who give us our music, song and story - are not well rewarded; so I doubt that he had much money besides what it took to bury him. But he would make it a point to have that. Besides the little necessities of life he seemed to have and need little. Near at hand were a well worn Gaelic dictionary, two or three little books on genealogy, a little store of song and music, a radio, a telephone, prayer beads. All he wanted. His world.
At the end he perhaps found, as most of us do sooner or later, that he had more friends than he thought he had and fewer friends than he thought he had. His funeral was well attended, the Gaelic community that meant so much to him was well represented, the language of the garden and the music of the Gael were there, and tribute was paid to his genius. He would have been pleased.
He has no descendants. He never married.
"Here lies one whose name was writ in water." We read it on John Keat's tombstone. The great poet wrote it himself. Joe probably would have written an equally dismissive epitaph for himself - perhaps, "Who I was is not important." Is that written down somewhere or did I just hear him say it?
But in a larger sense there is much to be written about Joe Neil. Blessed with a quick intelligence and a prodigious memory, he absorbed the language, history, music and traditions of the Gael as few other Cape Bretoner's have; and he communicated his knowledge in a masterful way and shared it with generosity.
He became a powerful link between the old Scotland and the new, at home and respected on both sides of the water, moving easily among the Gaels wherever he found them. Often he told me with pride of going as a young man to a gathering at Dan MacPhee's in Ben Eoin and hearing Joe MacKinnon, Joe Iain Peigi, wondering aloud who the young newcomer was, and commenting, "He fits in very well at the end of the row." The approbation meant much to him, coming as it did from the scholarly MacKinnon, a man of considerable stature and influence. In time he would get to Scotland, the first time in the company of the Sons of Skye. They have wonderful stories to tell of his pilgrimage, of how they looked on with pride and pleasure - and not a little awe - as their friend who arrived as a humble visitor from Cape Breton left as a national celebrity.
One evening in telephone conversation I said, "Joe, I don't look forward to the day that I dial your number and you won't be there to answer my questions." He replied with a chuckle in his voice and I am sure a twinkle in his eye, "Ah, I guess the day must come when someone will say, "If Joe Neil were alive, he could answer that question." The day has arrived. He will rest in peace.
Jack MacNeil
BIG POND TIMES: Founded in 1994. "It is a newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell." - Chicago Times, 1861.
Circulation : 250
Published by Big Pond Community Council
Mailing Address: c/o Don MacGillivray
Big Pond, Cape Breton B0A 1H0
E-mail: dmacgill@sparc.uccb.ns.ca
Subscriptions for non-residents are $6.00 for twelve issues ($7.50 for non-Canadian addresses). Contact Josephine McCarron, Big Pond, Cape Breton, Canada, B0A 1H0.
This issue was brought to you by Ivan Doncaster, Josephine McCarron, Don MacGillivray, Sharise McKeigan, Marge MacLean, Bernadette MacPherson, Terry MacPherson, Bev MacPherson,Jack MacNeil, Viola Doncaster and George Salmaniw.
Deadline for submissions for December issue is 20 November 1997
E-mail: dmacgill@sparc.uccb.ns.ca
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