There were 29 members to hear Adam Goheen, County Director of Operations, and Carey Englesdorfer, Wellington Councillor, give an update on the Wellington Rotary Beach project.

Adam acknowledged the Wellington Beach Task Team, including Phyo and John Inwood, that presented their recommendations on improving the beach. Their report is on the County website. Next was a report of a landscape architect who outlined three designs to implement these recommendations:

• “Big Move” that would make the beach like a Disneyworld
• “Tweet” the current layout and move the parking to the boat launch area
• “Naturalize” the existing beach in a design for walking rather than driving

A canvass of residence gave a slight preference for Naturalizing, but Adam said that no final decision was made.

Further study was required because Quinte Conservation has some jurisdiction so in 2022 they published a technical report that mitigated risk. It dealt with:

• A new parking strategy
• Dune restoration
• Mitigating sediment in the channel
• Sediment retention to increase the western end of the beach

The report is also on the County website.

The next step has been taken to hire a consultant to do a site-specific study to implement a solution.

Adam then talked about dredging the canal that has to be done every three years or do. The canal fills in with beach sand that blows there every year. It costs $150,000 for a contractor to suck up the sand and blow it onto the eastern end of the beach where it is spread again by bulldozer. It will be done in the fall to avoid the tourist season. Modification of the beach will be designed to stop this movement of sand. He hopes to get some funding from the Ontario government by demonstrating that dredging prevents problems of flooding upstream.

Adam addressed flooding of the roadway and the beach. He does not have money in his budget now to address a solution and Council has instructed all department heads to reduce their budget next year by 10%. He said he can only do that by reducing service.

He answered the question of where the money goes that is collected at the park entrance on weekends and holidays. It almost pays for the monitor who operates the system and collects the fees.

Yvonne declared that Rotary would help to implement whatever solutions were decided upon for the Rotary beach. We shovel the sand off the boardwalk each spring and hope a solution is found to remove that need. Adam said that maybe the boardwalk has to be raised. Ted said that when ir was built, it was raised but the sand has filled in under it. Adam said it probably would be labour assistance (sweat equity) rather than funding.

Club Business:

Peter made an impassioned plea for awareness of the family situation when one of its members has Alzheimer’s, like his wife. A show of hands showed a large number of members have had a relative stricken with this disease. He suggested that the Club could consider a project to educate and ameliorate this situation.

Bill Mitchell repeated the request for volunteers to work the Wellington Party at the ball diamond on August 20. Tim was looking for confirmation that additional insurance was needed for the event. Margo said that Rotary insurance would cover it. It was recommended that she assure the County Registrar of Facilities, Jane Vader at 613-476-2148 that we had the coverage. Tim said that he had the $600 in his budget if we had to buy it.

Kim reported on a near-miss at the bottle depot - a pallet of beer cartons started to tip when the Beer Store employee was loading their truck. The instability was cause by the bottom row not having a full cardboard case on one of the corners. Barry added that to improve stability, the bottom and top rows should have the stretch wrap wound-around twice.

The notice board at the bottle depot needs to be replaced. Several solutions are being considered by the bottle depot committee.

Barry gave an update on the foodbank project. The Clark’s Automotive building is for sale and it could provide an ideal location to relocate the foodbank. The existing building would serve as the warehouse and the small office would be expanded as required. The asking price is $1.5 million. Cornerstone Builders is being asked to estimate the cost to add the offices and modify the building to make it a warehouse. A fundraising committee is being assembled.

Yvonne has a petition for Wellington residents to sign to slow down the expansion of the waterworks project that is so expensive. Rotarians who live outside Wellington are encouraged to send their protest to their Councillor. Public meetings on the subject are scheduled for:

• Bloomfield Town Hall Aug 17, 6-8 pm
• Wellington Community Centre Aug 24, 6-8 pm
• Wellington Community Centre Aug 31 6:30-8:30 pm

David Smith advised golfers that the Rotary Club of Colbourne is having a charity golf tournament. Contact David for more information.

The Rotary Club of Brighton is having a street dance on Saturday and their annual karaoke event on August 28. Our club’s entry has to choose its songs, said Christine.

David MacKinnon reported on a meeting that Chris and he had with the Belleville nurse practitioners to plan next steps. They do not expect a response to their application to the Ministry of Health until October or November but in the meantime they want to educate the public about what nurse practitioners are doing already for County residents. An article is being written for The Times. David further outlined the next Wellness initiatives planned, that is a series of education sessions, including the mental health request by Peter, given in part by the Belleville nurse practitioners.

David Smith had his 50:50 ticket drawn but he did not draw the ace of spades.