I am writing this message at the beginning of March after another large snowfall has turned our thoughts to spring when we can start our annual trek to the beach to renew old friendships, make new friendships, and experience the unique community we call Bruce Beach. When I try to explain to my local friends why we spend so much time at Bruce Beach during the summer, it’s hard to convey the sense of community, the Beach traditions, and the fun our children have participating in the activities that bring all of us together.
And yet Bruce Beach is rapidly becoming connected to the larger communities and environments that surround us. For many years Bruce Beach has been able to perpetuate our unique community in an almost idealistic, isolated, setting that has allowed us to maintain our traditions from generation to generation almost unchanged. But the local area is rapidly changing. We are now challenged by wind turbines (off-shore and on-shore), Cladorpha algae, invasive Phragmites Austrailis weed species, plastic pellets that wash up on the beach, and fertilizers that wash down into the lake. Add to this local and provincial politics that often find our beach community funding initiatives that frequently benefit the rest of inland Huron-Kinloss Township with little direct benefit to our beach community, it is apparent that Bruce Beach needs to connect and work at the local, lakeshore, and provincial level to affect the policies that have such a direct impact on our community.
As my predecessors Keith MacDonald and Barry McPherson have emphasized the past four years, we need to expand our efforts to work with our lakeshore fellow communities of Boiler Beach, Lurgan Beach, Point Clark and Amberly Beach as well as at Huron-Kinloss Township, Huron County, Provincial and Legislative political levels. We need to continue to lobby the MP and MPP of Huron/Bruce on the issues that are most important to Bruce Beach. This has never been more evident than today based on the continued building of wind turbine farms, the deterioration of the quality of our water, and the loss of our beach to invasive weed species. While the Provincial Government recently announced it is not proceeding with proposed off-shore wind projects citing the need to conduct further scientific research regarding the impact of the turbines, it has become apparent this is a political moratorium until the October elections. Depending on the outcome of the election, off-shore wind turbines could once again become a threat to the Beach. Many of our neighbors have made progress with the local Township, County and Province voicing their concerns regarding the quality of our water and providing suggestions on preventing the nutrients of agricultural run-off to enter Lake Huron. In the coming year the Executive will be working with these interested members to formalize a Bruce Beach position and request definitive action from our local, lakeshore and provincial representation.
During 2010 the Lakeshore Presidents Group (Point Clark, Lurgan Beach, and Bruce Beach) met with the Township of Huron Kinloss’ Mayor Mitch Twolan, Administrator Mary Rose Walden and Treasurer Jodi MacArthur to voice our collective concerns to the council. One of the positive outcomes of this meeting was the Township’s agreeing to clean our collective beaches of algae starting in May after the long weekend and lasting until the Labor Day weekend. The three Presidents stated that regular algae cleanups by our membership will help our beach communities feel that there is a more equitable allocation of our tax dollars being spent along the beach.
Last year the BBCA Executive made use of formal, independent surveys to better understand our members’ views on a variety of topics that affect our beach community. The Executive’s goal for the use of surveys was to understand our members’ views and to determine if our constituency wants the Executive to represent their views to various third parties when necessary on certain key topics of interest to the beach. During 2010 we issued three surveys, one regarding input on the Bruce Beach Barbecue and two on our members opinions regarding on-shore and off-shore turbines. The use of these surveys greatly assisted the Executive in being able to accurately represent the views of our membership and we will be looking to expand the use of surveys on key topics that affect our beach in the future.
An additional change that the Executive will be looking at implementing this year will be expanding the role of the Councilors from each Bruce Beach area. The Councilors represent a subset of the beach, approximately 20-25 cottages each, and we are looking to expand their role and responsibilities in serving as an advisory group to the BBCA Executive. We will be reaching out to the current councilors to gather their input on what they feel these expanded responsibilities should be.
Bruce McKelvey will be organizing the BB Barbecue this year and will be welcoming cottagers’ input on how to improve our annual Beach get together. As many of our cottagers have indicated via surveys that the Bruce Beach Barbecue is the key event that pulls our community together, please feel free to contact Bruce with your input on the Barbecue.
With the beginning of a new summer season rapidly approaching, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the following members of the Executive who have provided me with guidance and support during my transition to President of Bruce Beach: Keith MacDonald, Barry McPherson, Bruce McKelvey, Ross Klopp, Janice Gibson, Sue Davidson, and Peter Newson. I greatly appreciate their input and assistance in rapidly coming up to speed on the issues that affect our beach community.
In summary, I am greatly honored I am able to assist Bruce Beach to address the issues that are challenging us today. I cannot overemphasize the need for our Executive to work with our beach membership and to continue to work with our Township, County, and Provincial governments on the challenging issues that affect Bruce Beach. I look forward to hearing our cottagers input on the issues that affect us so the Executive more accurately represent the beach. It us up to us to ensure that Bruce Beach continues our unique community and maintains our traditions so we can pass them on to future generations.
Sincere regards,
David Tiernan, President