By William Crooks

Local Journalism Initiative

Snow removal, parking issues on College Street and many upcoming local events highlighted the Lennoxville Borough’s monthly council meeting Nov. 28. Beginning at 5 p.m., Borough President Claude Charron presided over the nearly hour-long meeting with seven local residents in attendance.

Question period began with a complaint from a resident on Speid Street concerning snow being plowed onto her property from a neighbouring apartment building’s parking lot. The problem has lasted years, but became pressing when she recently installed a plastic snow-fence in the area. She circulated pictures of the problem to the council members.

Although she installed a sign saying ‘private property, no snow dumping permitted’, they have continued to plow snow there, right up against her fence, ripping it apart. “I just want them to respect the property line,” she explained.

Charron asserted that the apartment building is privately owned, so what the contracted snowplows do is not the responsibility of the town; conflicts between citizens can be resolved using a mediation service that avoids lawyers. He suggested a real fence could be installed, but the woman insisted such a fence would just be damaged itself and cause her more problems. Charron noted that the new fence would count as a “shared expense”, so the apartment building owner would have a personal interest in its maintenance. Charron suggested the apartment building owner’s phone number could be ascertained through finding the lot number on the town’s website.

A Bishop’s University (BU) student, who lives in a residence there, practicing his French, asked why the installation of a winter bike route on King Street had been voted against by the Sherbrooke City Council. It was a “difficult” project, Charron responded, at a projected cost of half a million dollars. Other more important projects exist that require monetary support and this one was too much of a challenge. The minor objective of lessening of gas emissions do not weigh favourably against the possibility of injury which would be the City’s responsibility.

Another resident pointed out that College Street was not plowed, after the recent snowfall, until 2 p.m. Other minor streets were plowed first, which did not make sense to him. Charron responded that the issue was likely due to new personnel and a lack of City employees. The man was skeptical. “There has to be a system,” he said, that even new employees can follow. Charron insisted that he is trying to improve the system in the best way he can from his position. Garfat noted there were some equipment breakdowns and things will only get better.

The resident went on to question the legitimacy of some new parking spots on the corner of College Street and Vaudry Street. Charron explained that the new parking there was authorized recently because of related new construction. The resident emphasized that his issue was about the “aesthetics… of having cars everywhere”. Charron assured the resident that the new parking plan submitted was a reasonable request, but admitted there could be more cars there than there should be, so an inspector could be sent to see if the plan was being followed. Charron noted that similar parking could be seen higher up on College, so a denial of the request would have been unfair.

The Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité Durable (MTMD) recently put in a request that, according to their guidelines, the stop sign on the corner of Mount Street and Charles-Lennox Street should be removed. The council reported that they denied this request, citing safety concerns. Councillor Jennifer Garfat explained that many use Mount to avoid Lennoxville’s main intersection, and that the stop sign contributes to speed reduction on the residential road. Charron noted that the request would now be bumped up to the City level and may still be accepted.

Garfat announced that the list of 13 community organizations that were receiving funding from the town would be available soon on the town’s website. Funding numbers range from approximately $500 to $2,500 per year per organization, with no major changes from 2023 to 2024.

Garfat thanked the organizers of the Sunday Santa Claus Parade in Sherbrooke. Over 40,000 people participated, she noted. She mentioned that Nov. 27 began the 16 Days of Action Against Gender-based Violence campaign, which will culminate with a commemoration of the École Polytechnique Massacre on Dec. 6. Many other activities are happening this week, including Santa Claus coming to Square Queen, details of which can be found on the borough website. Jeux de Québec is still looking for volunteers; they need 2,500 and only 900 have signed up.

Borough Councillor Guillaume Lirette-Gélinas mentioned some recent public and private meetings and applauded the move towards more public meetings. He congratulated the BU Drama department for their recent play ‘Life is a Dream’, which was “tackled with great talent”. The BU Singers still have tickets available for their upcoming concert on Saturday afternoon. BU’s Chapel Choir is putting on a ‘Festival of Carols’ event at St. Mark’s Chapel on Dec. 9 and 10. Lirette-Gélinas stated that he attended Premier Legault’s recent press conference in Sherbrooke and hopes the “shoes will follow the mouth” and an official positive announcement concerning BU’s relationship to the proposed tuition hikes will come sooner rather than later.

There was a brief objection by Garfat to Lirette-Gélinas’ comments on public vs. private meetings, wherein she insisted on the importance of private meetings. Charron suggested the debate be taken up at another time.

Charron noted that volunteers were needed to help out with Santa Claus coming to Square Queen. He explained that the best way of making a complaint about snow-removal was to call 819-821-5858. There is a fundraiser selling boxed cookies and squares at Uplands on Saturday. Charron thanked the two BU students in attendance, one hailing from B.C., for attending the meeting and practicing their French. “It’s a big challenge, thank you,” he said warmly.

The meeting was adjourned just before 6 p.m.