Sackville town council meets Monday night for their regular monthly council meeting. Council will start off in camera at 6:15pm to discuss a human resources item, and then at 7pm, the public meeting is scheduled to begin.
Beyond the usual departmental reports, councillors will be asked to consider a number of motions, including:
- A renewed 2-year contract with Mary-Ann Oster to manage the canteen at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre.
- The re-appointment of Kellie Mattatall to the Sackville Arts Wall committee.
- The go-ahead on completion of a natural assets inventory for Sackville.
- The temporary closure of York Street through the Mount Allison Campus on September 3rd to accommodate traffic to and from the school’s Welcome Centre.
- The waiving of fees for family and lunchtime skates for the 2021-22 ice season.
- And four motions in advance of the Annual General Meeting of the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick. The motions direct the UMNB to lobby the province for a ban on recyclable materials at landfills, for the use of carbon taxes to further the province’s climate action plan, and for changes to the NB Elections Act to allow permanent residents to vote municipally, and to use Indigenous languages on municipal and provincial ballots.
Another possibly contentious item up for a vote will be the first reading of amendments to the town’s Street Traffic By-law that would permit skateboards on public streets.
Three councillors (Hicks, Estabrooks and Tower) have spoken against the by-law revisions, and three (Evans, Black, and Butcher) have spoken in favour. Councillor Sabine Dietz has said she’s on the fence on the issue, and councillor Bruce Phinney voted against the motion to pursue changes back in April. With Phinney away for today’s meeting, it seems that Dietz will cast the deciding vote on the issue.
Today’s vote will be on first reading only of the by-law revisions. They must also pass second and third reading before becoming part of Sackville’s by-laws.
Residents are invited to attend the public portion of tonight’s meeting starting at 7pm, either in person if they register in advance, or online through Microsoft Teams. The meeting will also be livestreamed.