Apr 28 - the roads board

The Lost Channel Local Roads Board meeting took up a large chunk of my day yesterday.

Prior to the meeting I worked on my Hummer bike, replacing the bottom bracket. In an earlier post I mentioned that I had a spare ... and then when I got up here I checked my box of spares that I keep here and found 2 more ... duh. How prepared can one be ?

At any rate, the new BB is now in place and the crank turns smooooothhhlllyy. It wasn't too bad before, only really noticeable when the chain was off the crank but once it starts to grind the increased friction wears the bearings quickly. Of course quickly is relative -- could be a lifetime for some casual riders and could be over the course of a 600k for me !

Still on the biking front -- I've been exchanging emails with Pete Dusel who is the RBA in Ontario NY, close to Rochester. I'm going to do a 200k ride there on May 9th. He referred in one email to the LOL ride that Randonneurs Ontario runs ... I thought that LOL was an acronym for "laugh out loud" -- which it generally is in emails etc., but in this case it's "lap of lake". This particular brevet -- 1000k being run in July, goes around Lake Ontario. Am I tempted ? Not yet, but we'll see. I don't even want to think about it until the Shenandoah 1200 is over. I think that it runs from Thursday July 7, and of course would take three days. Apparently his house is the usual first night's stop, people crashing there for a couple of hours before resuming. He also mentioned that he is registered for the GRR -- Gold Rush Randonnee -- out of Davis CA as well as the Granite Anvil, the one that I'm signed up for here in Ontario in August.

I still have to adjust that front derailleur on the Hummer -- I ran out of time yesterday because I had to head over to Ysseldyk's for the meeting.

So ... we gathered at Art's -- Erika Bradley (secretary), Susan Allen (trustee), Art (trustee) and me (trustee). We discussed a number of items on Art's agenda including coming to an agreement on the minimum land tax on a property. That is something that we determine -- we cannot change the assessment or the mill rate or the factor applied to properties, but we do set the minimum. The factor applied to properties varies among "residential"=1, "commercial=1.18..." and "managed forest"=.25, as I recall.

I did not realize that all assessments have not been done. That means that there are many properties still being calculated at the several-year-old assessment. Somehow that does not seem fair -- ours was assessed just as we finished the construction, prior to that it was assessed based on the purchase price that we paid Mom & Dad which was way up from the prior assessment based on some nominal amount. Since many properties have been in families since they were purchased from the Crown, without an assessment their values are way, way understated. The land alone is worth a lot these days (and of course some properties are not worth much more than the land ...).

Anyway, taxation is never fair. It's always about redistribution or we'd all pay our own way. The Ministry is taking over the billing this year, which is a good thing. Erika did an excellent job -- adding a personal touch to the process -- but the Ministry has more power to collect taxes. Apparently there are a few properties in arrears including one with water access who has no intention of ever paying taxes ... but that will change with Ministry collection, since the Ministry has the power to seize the property. All Erika can do is send letters written by a lawyer. It's too bad that the Ministry is not going to collect the back taxes too.

Ministry collection also makes our budgeting easier, since we get the money that is due, not the money that is collected. That money due is then matched by the Ministry, although the matching factor of 1.0 will vary this year -- could be slightly higher and could be slightly lower. Assuming a factor of 1.0 though, we end up with a budget, which we worked through when the two Ministry guys showed up at 11:00. We also discussed, with Mike (Ministry), applying for government grants for major projects like major "lifts" and stone chipping.

In this case a "lift" is not like a face lift, where you remove material, but is a matter of adding material to raise the road surface -- ha. There is one major section of Osprey Road that could use a lift and areas on other roads.

After Mike and his partner left, the three trustees came over to my house and we went online to do the grant application. That took quite some time, working through the online form, answering variations on the same question several different times -- the form is mainly designed for major projects. No, we're not putting in bridges, changing watercourses, building new roads ... no, we don't need environmental assessments; no, we don't have engineering drawings; groan.

When all was said and done, it was around 3:30 and I had not had lunch. Marilyn (Art's wife) had brought out cheese and crackers and banana bread etc. but no one really dug into that. I was tempted but was looking for lunch, like a sandwich, not snacks. So I had a late lunch. The weather had cleared while we were at Arts and I did some cleanup outside. I put the Whaler in the water and used it to align the dock; picked up and piled some branches strewn around the yard; used the pruner on the pine tree by the kitchen to free up a large branch that had broken with the heavy snow; and just generally enjoyed the great outdoors for an hour or so.

It's sunny now, but don't let that fool you. It was 29F when I got up this morning. It's supposed to get up to 14C -- high 50's -- so my plan is to get out on the bike for a "proper" 70 mile ride. I see that they've dropped the rain from Saturday's forecast, but it's supposed to hit a high of 10C -- 50F, from a low of 1C the night before. Oh great -- I guess that I'd rather have the temp down a few degrees than be wet, so I won't complain. My current plan is to stay over at Alex's ... although I'll ponder that one and let him know later today.

The start time is 8am so I could leave here at 4am and comfortably make the ride (three hours away). Longer upcoming rides start earlier and I'll have to avail myself of his hospitality. Of course, I could always skip this one and do the Toronto 200k two weeks later ... hmmm ... perhaps it would be warmer then ? Perhaps it would be warmer in Toronto than in Barrie ? There are definitely too many options ! My temptation is to get this Ontario 200k over with. I want to do the 300k, 400k & 600k too and if I leave the 200k until mid-May I'll probably be giving up some other nice day at the lake when I could be sunning, fishing, relaxing in the gazebo laughing at the black flies ... you get the idea.

Sandy did some other cleanup outside yesterday and also made a run into town to pick up mail (Bonnie had already given us the older mail), and a few items at the General Store. Sandy is planning on going into Sudbury on Thursday to do more grocery shopping. We heard from Bonnie yesterday after they had gotten back from Sault Ste. Marie - it seems that their barbecue had blown off their deck. I know that story -- that happened to us with Jason's barbecue when we were staying at his house while ours was being built.

The lake is like glass right now, with small wisps of fog hovering over the water. I don't know what the water temperature is right now, since I had not put the depth finder in the Whaler, but while it is warmer than the air, it cannot be by much ! Taht will change rapidly with some warm weather though ... here's hoping.

Well ... that's about it for now.

Oh -- Bev and Bruce are planning on coming for a visit mid-May. No, it's not on a weekend, so it won't conflict with one of my rides.

It's too bad that these rides are all on Saturday's -- I wish that there were an alternate day to do them, but they're not like Permanents where you pick your date and time. These rides are all registered with the French ACP (Audax Club Parisien), the governing body for these rides. RUSA (Randonneurs USA) and Ontario Randonneurs are clubs operating under the auspices of ACP.

It's interesting that in contacting the Simcoe RBA and the Ontario NY RBA, they both offered their house as a place to stay before/after the ride. These guys are really into it ! I might take them up on the offer at some point, once I know them, but not just yet ...

Ok, that's really it ... signing off for now ...