Presidents Letter - Spring 2018

Dear Members,

Warm spring temperatures have taken their sweet time to arrive this year, but by the time you read this, I hope that will be a faint memory. It is time to renew our memberships, moorage contacts and tennis fees.

Last year we researched boat insurance, and, as a result, implemented new insurance requirements for boats at Thieves Bay. We thank you for your patience and quick compliance on this and recognize the efforts of members to meet the new requirement. Thank you. The requirement for Protection and Indemnity Marine Liability Insurance continues this year.

Thanks to the extensive dock reconfiguration in 2015, the wait list for marina slips is significantly shorter that before. Thanks again to the marina directors and volunteers; Glenn Henderson, Marina General Manager, Ian Syme, Projects Manager, Art Curtis, Maintenance Manager and Patrick Cramond, Operations Manager. Also, I’d like to thank Bob Coulson who has been working on automating our slip assignment process. We are planning to re-float the work shed and put in a new fish cleaning station in hopes of a better year of fishing.

We also continue to have a great tennis facility, thanks again to the volunteers lead by Mike Wiley. The courts will be resurfaced this year. You and the marina crew are the backbone of the society so, thank you.

I’d like to thank the rest of our outstanding MLPOS board of directors, Firstly our indispensable Secretary, Kathy Gilbert, our brilliant Treasurer, Jean Deschenes, our enthusiastic Vice President, Peter Morton, our dedicated Director at Large, David Reed and last, but never least, our amazing Office Manager, Joanna Rogers.

Your board has been diligently working on several challenging projects this year. One was contesting the property tax assessment for the marina which we thought was unfairly overvalued. Thanks to the extensive work of Kathy, Joanna, Jean and former Marina General Manager, Wally Foster, we have managed get a property tax reduction of approximately $1,100. Great job, everyone.

Another undertaking has been managing the proposal by Roy Moore and his committee to develop a Lawn Bowling facility on the vacant land beside the tennis courts. Although this sounds like an interesting idea, the need to rezone the property and the very questionable demographics, make it a proposal of concern. Also, this proposal has inspired our board to investigate other possible uses for this excellent piece of land. Uses including volleyball, pickle ball, bocce ball, badminton … the list goes on.

We will be doing maintenance on the playground as well as researching a possible expansion.

Finally, we have been active supporters of the proposal to put an emergency access route through Lively Peak Park between Ketch and Scarff roads. This route is well under way and should be completed shortly.

Don’t forget to check out our new website at magiclake.ca. You will find lots of information about the society, marina, tennis courts and life in Magic Lake Estates. We post minutes of our directors’ meetings here and, new last year, was the option to pay some of our member dues via PayPal through our new website. We are trying to make things easier for you.

Have an amazing summer.

Jeremy Harwood

President, Magic Lake Property Owner’s Society