Community Policing Committee Laurentian Valley Township

Minutes of Meeting

Date: September 16, 2009

Present: Elise, Dennis, Keith, Kevin, Mike.

Regrets: Mary, Ken

Welcome New Members: Marcel Marsan, Philip Saar, Matt Neadow

Approval of minutes from June meeting: Moved by Keith, seconded by Kevin.

Reports: Dennis mentioned that he was asked about our radar board stats at the CPAC meeting. He also mentioned to the Staff Sargent about a complaint he received from Heather Saar from the Rankin Community Center about the vandalism there. She had mentioned that someone was caught at the rec center by police and was not charged with anything. She also mentioned that this has been an ongoing problem at the Recreation Center; there has been a lot of vandalism there, from writing on the walls, tearing down signs, breaking bottles on the ice, etc. Heather’s concern was that this individual was not charged with any offence.

After speaking with the Staff Sargent Dennis was told that it is up to the discretion of the officer, that they don’t have to charge them. Heather was not pleased with this response and told Dennis that they need to have these people charged, there can be no exceptions.

Dennis relayed the message.

Also at the CPAC meeting Saab Stock was mentioned. Everyone was happy with the way things ran. Everything was very well policed, and organized. Everyone is getting geared up for next year.

Dennis mentioned that the township received a letter from Renfrew County Roads concerning the request for a stop sign at Boundary Rd and Bruham Ave. The letter stated that we should do a study first, at our cost, (approx $10,000). So the long and short of it is the City of Pembroke isn’t responding and Renfrew County Roads said it’s not in our township so………….

Radar Board: Dennis was asked about the radar board, he responded with “It’s broken,”

All committee members were concerned that they haven’t seen it out all summer. Well to our surprise it has been broken since returned to us after being rented by the City of Pembroke. Our question to Dennis was, why hasn’t it been fixed? Dennis replied that “staff” has tried to fix it in their spare time but haven’t been able to figure it out.

Well we would like to know why it hasn’t been sent out to be fixed. This machine gives us important information. We realize that it may not be a priority to anyone else but it is to us. Here we are now summer is over and winter is upon us and the radar board has been sitting in the parking lot. Well this issue needs to be addressed. We would like to know from council what if anything they are prepared to do. Can someone not call the company where it was purchased and ask for a tech to come, or is there somewhere where we can send it to be repaired?

At our June meeting Mike has mentioned the issue about the extra garbage pick-up. After a lengthy discussion on the topic many issues were raised. One being how early residents put out their items.

Well our concerns were heard. Council has instructed Bi-law officer Michael Street to issue warning letters with a copy of the bi-law to anyone who is putting things out too early. After the warning if they don’t comply they will be issues a fine.

Elise brought up the Child Poverty Action Network: She had received some literature from Dennis in June and after reviewing it asked if the committee would like to become a member. There was discussion on the topic and a few concerns were mentioned. We wanted to know how they decided which children would receive items (backpack, snow suite etc) Is there some type of screening process or do they just have to walk in and say they wanted a backpack.

Matt (one of our new members) mentioned that he has contact with the organization and that he would bring us more information before we make our decision.

The built up area (Stafford) has been experiencing a high rate of break and enters in vehicles. Keith mentioned that his own vehicles were entered (nothing taken) and he lives in a rural area. Elise was asked to mention to Beth about running some advertising about Lock it or Lose it.

The committee was very concerned about the recent accident in Petawawa where a 17 year old girl was killed by a drunk driver. We were flabbergasted by the fact that this is still happening. Is there anything we can do to help fix this, people just aren’t getting it. So Elise will mention to Beth about maybe running some ads concerning this as well.

Next meeting October 21, 2009 at 7pm at the Township Office.

Motion to adjourn: Moved by Keith, seconded by Mike