PaBIA’s eBlast January 2024

Happy 2024! We hope everyone’s holidays were filled with good memories! And now, as the days are starting to get longer, let’s begin to think about summer at the cottage!

Your Board has been hard at work preparing for a new year…so please read the new and different ways you can pay for 2024’s membership dues. By paying online by January 15^th, you will not be sent a snail mail invoice! While you are reupping it, please be sure to update (where necessary) your contact (and family’s) info as you would like it to show up in the Yearbook ’24 listings. Check out the details below!

---

Table of Contents In this Eblast:

PaBIA

• Membership Invoices – New Offerings for ways to pay!
• Marine Patrol 2024 – GREAT Resume-Building Opportunity for your child or grandchild!
• Consider Advertising in the Yearbook 2024
• ToA Public Hearing in January for Site Alteration and Tree Preservation: in person & online

OHPS

• History Moment – Harvesting Winter Ice

OF INTEREST

• BAY NOTES – Winter Update by Councilors Earl Manners and Scott Sheard
• GBA Update
• GBB – Celebrating 2023
• Yearbook Update
• In Memoriam – Blair Bongard, Paul Ludwig
• Lake Michigan-Huron Water Levels – December 29, 2023

This Month’s Content is Below:

PaBIA

---

---

Two ways to pay online:

• CREDIT CARD through the PaBIA website (there is a surcharge for this service). Fill out the online form and submit.

 OR

• E-TRANSFER from Canadian bank accounts to pabislanders[email protected] (auto-deposit enabled). Please note spelling for auto deposit.

xxxxSend all the payment details listed below to Elise Findlay [email protected]:

1. Membership dues based on membership level,
2. Extra items being ordered,
3. Donations being made, and
4. Any changes/additions/deletions from the 2023 Yearbook listing you want made for the 2024 Yearbook. Please put “2024 dues/changes for [your name] listing” in the subject line.

We will NOT mail any ’24 Membership forms to anyone who has paid online by January 15^th. 

All those not heard from by that date will be mailed the form with a return envelope. You, of course, can still pay online after that date, should you wish to do so, but the notice will have already been sent out.

We are, of course, able to take payments by cheques from both Canadian and US banks.

This year, all payments will be received and recorded by Elise Findlay, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer, as she prepares to take over the position from Nancy Rogers at the 2024 Annual Meeting. 

---

---

Wanted: Marine Patrol Applicants for 2024 Summer Program!

The Pointe au Baril Islanders’ Association (PaBIA) is seeking students currently enrolled in College or University who have a strong interest in the local environment, community relations, and member activities like the regattas.

The employment period is Saturday, June 22 to Sunday, September 1, 2024. Training will be held from June 22 – June 30. The Marine Patrollers work as a team of two and have Tuesdays and Wednesdays of each week as their days off.

The Marine Patrol position demands maturity, dedication, and team-work. Individuals will be required to work autonomously, follow well defined protocols, and demonstrate sound decision-making to advance PaBIA’s agenda and those of its partners; Georgian Bay Land Trust (GBLT), Georgian Bay Forever (GBF) and Georgian Bay Biosphere (GBB). This position will give students real responsibilities and fantastic experience that will set them up for careers in environmental, marine, and community service industries.

As members of the Marine Patrol, key responsibilities include:

• Partner with the GBLT stewards to monitor and maintain local properties,
• Coordinate Environment projects such as Phragmites monitoring and Abandoned Dock cleanup,
• Conduct water quality testing working with GBB
• Promote environmental responsibility by monitoring and cleaning-up local Crown/Treaty land recreational areas,
• Educate members and visitors on proper use of GBLT and Crown lands.

Please note that candidates must have the following qualifications:

• Good communication skills; written and verbal,
• Work experience that demonstrates leadership and the ability to work independently,
• Possess a current boat operator’s license,
• Possess or be willing to become certified before the start of employment with a current certificate for Standard First Aid/CPR-C/AED
• Knowledge of the Pointe au Baril area and waterways or experience navigating using nautical charts,
• Access to accommodations in the Pointe au Baril area and capability to commute by water.

A detailed job description can be found here. If interested in the Marine Patrol position, please submit a cover letter, resume, and references by email to both Emma Berton, Marine Services Supervisor, and Cath Fairlie, Director or Member Safety.

The DEADLINE for receipt of all resumes is Friday, February 16^th, 2024. Successful candidates will be notified by March 15, 2024.

---

---

---

---

ToA Public Open Houses Scheduled for
Site Alteration & Tree Preservation By-laws
Jan. 25^th (in person) and
January 30^th (online)

There will be two open house sessions in early 2024 in which you can participate, either in person or online:

• In-person at the Pointe au Baril Community Centre on January 25th, and
• Online on January 30th.

To register for either one, please click on this link.

There is a survey open now to submit your feedback once you have read the proposed bylaw changes.

PaBIA is engaging in the process; and if you would like to submit feedback or questions through PaBIA, you can email the Director for Ratepayers Affairs, Katie Findlay. 

OHPS

Harvesting winter ice for use in the summer is an integral part of our area’s heritage. Up until the 1950s, teams of men with horses would carve 200-lb blocks of ice from the bay in front of Ojibway Island and transport them to be stored in the big Ice House beside the grocery store. The ice would be encased in sawdust to keep it cold. Ruth McCuaig, author of Our Pointe au Baril, writes about Bert Bruckland and his wife Mabel bringing a team out one winter to stay at Oakwood cottage. The ice-cutters headed out on the ice and Mabel madly tried to keep the cottage warm and cook enough food for them.

Come spring, staff members would break the huge blocks into smaller blocks. The cooler in the Ojibway kitchen could handle 100-lb blocks, while smaller 50-lb blocks would be transported out to the island cottages in the Ice Boat. In an interview with Nancy Lang, Peter Phippen recalled that in August, as the Ice House was becoming more empty, it would be used in the evenings as a “cool music hall” where the younger generation could gather to sing and play instruments.

Since ice blocks were always covered in sawdust, they would routinely be dunked in the lake using huge metal ice tongs before being loaded into the kitchen or the Ice Boat. Legend has it that one young lady who stayed at the Ojibway thought sawdust was an ingredient in every gin and tonic!

HISTORY MOMENT written by Celia Milne, Jane Manning-Marshall, Nancy Lang ~ OHPS Board Members

Of Interest

Please email Scott or Earl to be placed on their mailing list to receive the full accounting of their reporting! Below please see a recap…

Deerhorn Conference 2023 | Community Engagement at Its Finest

From Ward 3, your associations, in no particular order were represented by:

• David Sharpe, Mark Gwozdecky, and Trudy Irvine of PaBIA
• Marilyn Capreol and Bettina Ryder of Shawanga Bay Islanders Association
• Steve Spearing and Tony Gale of Skerryvore Residents Association

Ward 1 was well represented by:

• North of 50 community organization and attended by
• Anna Allevato, Anne Steward, and Sally Slumskie.

Strategic Plan 2023 & Why is this Important to Us?

• Strategic Initiative | Work Smarter
• Decision-Making Through People, Process and Tools

Waste management 

requires governmental vigilance and community discipline to avoid significant economic and environmental consequences to our residents and environment.

• Weigh Scale Data | Site 9

Council Resolution for Backyard Sheds
Township Fire and Response

---

---

Here is the December GBB News: Celebrating 2023

---

---

Here is the latest GBA Update for December!

In Memoriam

Blair Bongard, past owner of A247 and PaBIA member, father of Lynn (Ken) Heikkila and Cindy (Steve Cook) Bongard, December 2023.

Paul Ludwig, past owner of B832 – 5 ‘Lo Sha Ba’, husband of the late Susan Ludwig, father of Laura and John, brother of Bob (Marilyn) Ludwig and Carrie Ludwig, December, 2023

Yearbook 2023 Updates

Water Levels

Lakes Michigan/Huron Water Levels February 12, 2024

To better read the charts, please click on the chart for the Daily or Six Month Forecast Water level chart and the corresponding websites

---

---