When Audrey Preston saw a notice on Facebook about the Town of Deer Lake planning to expand its boundary towards Pynn’s Brook she was a little concerned.
Preston is the treasurer of the Pynn’s Brook local service district and said her community has not received anything from Deer Lake on its plans.
That’s left her and many residents wondering if Deer Lake is looking to include Pynn’s Brook within its municipal boundary.
Deer Lake Mayor Dean Ball said joining the towns is not on its agenda.
What the town wants to do is expand its planning boundary southward on the east side of the Trans-Canada Highway as far as Pynn’s Brook, and has applied to the province to do so. The town has engaged Stantec to conduct a feasibility study to assess its.
It’s a planning process, Ball said, that will look at where the town will be in five, 10 or even 20 years.
“We just want to maintain the ability to control what’s around our boundaries and be a part of any major decisions,” he said.
“We know that the growth for Deer Lake now is going to be coming closer and closer to the Pasadena way.”
To expand to the east now isn’t as feasible as access to services comes into play. The town has already expanded eastward into commercial land and that’s where its industrial park is located.
But from a geography perspective the planned expansion westward is simpler and easier.
“From a residential aspect, we’re going to coming down on the back of St. Jude’s, headed to Pasadena,”
Eventually, Ball said the Deer Lake and Pasadena boundaries could meet.
As a planning boundary, Ball said it would not take in the communities — Pynn’s Brook, St. Jude’s and Taylor’s Estates — in the area.
That doesn’t mean that amalgamation or some form of regionalization would not be considered in the future.
“The door is always open for those discussions,” said Ball.
“They would have the opportunity, if they wanted to, but there would be nothing forced on anybody there.”
He said any talks would have to be initiated by the other communities.
Ball said regionalization is something that’s being talked about more and more in the province and done in the proper way it has a lot of beneficial factors for residents.
Preston doesn’t think Pynn’s Brook joining with either Deer Lake, 12 kilometres away, or Pasadena, about 10 km away would work.
“It’s a long ways,” she said.
She said it would cost a lot of money for either town to take in Pynn’s Brook.
As a lifelong resident of Pynn’s Brook, she said it’s not something she wants to see.
There are 34 homes in the community, 10 cabins and a couple of businesses and Preston said they have everything they need.
The main road is the Trans-Canada Highway, the community pays a fee to dispose of its garbage in Deer Lake and pays Pasadena for fire protection. It looks after its own water.
That all costs residents about $460 a year.
The Town of Deer Lake will hold two public meetings on Dec. 11 where Stantec will present the town’s proposal and explain its intention. The meetings will take place from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at the town office.
Preston said she’ll be at one of those meetings.
After that it will be up to the province to say yes or no to the boundary expansion.
