By Aaron Beswick
FOR THE SOU’WESTER
Myron LaVallee is worried he won’t have a place to keep his nets next winter.
The caretaker of the Port Saunders, N.L. fishermen’s store believes town council is attempting to sell the building.
Port Saunders Mayor Tony Ryan refused to confirm or deny LaVallee’s claims, nor would he state who owned the store, which was built under a government program some 40 years ago.
“This is an internal matter,” was Mayor Ryan’s only comment.
LaVallee, meanwhile, had plenty to say.
“Council told me it was going on tender,” said Mr. Ryan, who argues that fishermen own the building, not council.
“They shouldn’t be able to sell it – when it was built the agreement was that 99.9 per cent of fishermen need to agree to sell the store to sell it.”
According to LaVallee, some nine fishermen use the large waterfront store to keep their nets in, do repair work and overhaul boats. He added that each fishermen pays $100 annually for business tax.
“Times are hard enough as it is, council should be helping, not doing this to us,” said LaVallee, himself a small boat fisherman. “Six boats have been overhauled in here in recent years. I hope Gerry Byrne reads this and gets in touch with me because this is wrong.”
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