CALEB NICKERSON
SHAWVILLE Feb. 17, 2020
On Feb. 17, the Villa James Shaw (VJS) committee held their annual general meeting at the Centre d’accueil Pontiac’s Dale Thompson room.
In a surprise move, President Albert . . .
Armstrong announced in an emotional speech that he was stepping down from the top spot, after five years in the role.
“This is my dream, this is all our dreams,” he said. “I want to thank all of you for the opportunity of being the president, I’m not going anyplace, but I’m just going to step back and take a new lesser role.”
The board moved that Armstrong stay on temporarily until the meeting next month, when all the members are present to elect a successor, to which Armstrong agreed.
During the AGM portion of the night, which started off the evening, three directors were re-elected to the board: Rick Valin, Larry Coleman and Jim Duncan, who had taken over as the interim director in place of Sylvia Poisson-Hodgins.
One issue that came to light in the regular meeting was the confusion over the $50,000 in funding they had been approved for at the MRC. While committee members had thought they would receive the funds as a lump sum, they were told that they would have to submit invoices to the MRC, who would then reimburse the suppliers directly. The committee decided to investigate whether they could retroactively submit a $30,000 payment to their project managers ROHSCO.
In addition, they received a letter from the MRC regarding the $41,697 they had been approved for through the territory development fund (FDT). Since the amount they were approved for was less than they had applied for ($58,000), they were required to submit a revised budget showing that their project was still viable with less grant funding, which invoked several complaints around the table about red tape. The deadline for the revision is Feb. 28, and the board resolved to consult the MRC for possible solutions.
A new management and operations committee was formed, with Ruth Potter as chair, to oversee management of the facility when it is up and running.
The group was reminded of the Easter Tea fundraiser in support of the project at the Shawville United Church on April 4.
