Water and sewer shut-off notices sent to 100 accounts for outstanding debts
Shut-off notices for unpaid water and sewer bills have increased in 2022 compared to last year.
But the overall figure is lower now than before the pandemic, according to data from the Town of Sackville.
“In June a review of outstanding water and sewer accounts were completed, and we have begun the process of issuing shut-off notices to accounts with overdue balances,” says a staff report to council from the latest public meeting.
That includes 100 water and sewer accounts, which together owe roughly $59,260.
That’s an increase compared to last year, when the shut-off list included 92 accounts worth a total of about $54,400.
Shut-off notices are issued for any account owing at least $250 more than 90 days past due, according to town treasurer Michael Beal.
In response to queries from CHMA, he noted there were no shut-off notices issued in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit New Brunswick.
In 2019, shut-off notices were issued to 130 accounts totalling more than $69,000; the previous year there were 131 accounts that received shut-off notices for debts worth about $96,000.
Beal couldn’t immediately confirm how many water and sewer accounts have actually been shut off due to outstanding debts. However, he could only recall one recent example, which he said involved a vacant property.… Continue
Sackville man gets four years for cocaine and meth trafficking, assault and other charges
A 27-year-old Sackville man has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to a series of charges stemming from an interprovincial drug trafficking investigation.
Taylor Allen Cole appeared in Moncton Law Courts for sentencing on Wednesday afternoon.
He previously pleaded guilty to multiple charges that included possession of cocaine and crystal meth for the purposes of trafficking, and assaulting a man by striking him with a shovel.
His sentencing follows what the RCMP called a “months-long inter-provincial drug trafficking investigation” in March.
That’s when police announced charges against Cole and seven other people from Sackville, Grande-Digue, Memramcook, and Amherst.
On Wednesday, provincial and federal crown prosecutors went over an agreed statement of facts about the case.
Cole sold cocaine by the ounce to undercover police on three occasions before a search warrant was executed on his home on Stephens Drive in Sackville.
Police found 80 grams of crystal meth, 26 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, more than $8,000 in cash, and items that included scales, baggies, eight cellphones, a cocaine press and a money counter.
They also found a .22 calibre handgun and two silencers, at a time when he was under a release order not to own or possess any firearms. … Continue
Sackville man sentenced in drug trafficking case
Listen to Tantramar Report for Thursday, July 14, 2022.
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Online ‘inventory’ takes stock of natural features in Sackville and its watersheds
Sackville and its two main watersheds, Carters Brook and Joe Brook, boast nearly 71,000 “natural assets” covering more than 12,000 hectares, according to a new online dashboard.
Natural assets include everything from wetlands, lakes and rivers to forests, fields and soil. Over the past year, staff at the Town of Sackville have been working with the not-for-profit Municipal Natural Assets Initiative on the so-called natural assets inventory.
Town councillors saw the results of that work at last week’s public meeting of council, during a presentation by Amy Taylor, CEO of Green Analytics, a company that provides technical support to MNAI.
Speaking at Sackville Town Council on Tuesday, July 5, Taylor explained that natural assets can help mitigate the effects of climate change.
Online ‘inventory’ takes stock of natural features in Sackville and its watersheds
Listen to Tantramar Report for Monday, July 11, 2022:
Thousands of honey bees removed from Sackville Waterfowl Park
Thousands of honey bees descended on the Sackville Waterfowl Park this week, before a local couple with a backyard beekeeping operation removed the swarm.
Jeff Allen and Tasha Hawkes own and operate Izzy’s Bizzys Apiary and Natural Bee Products in the Midgic area.
On Tuesday, they got a call from the Town of Sackville after someone spotted a swarm that appeared to be hanging from the branch of a tree.
“When I went to inspect it, I quickly found there was probably about 25 to 30,000 bees,” said Allen, who obtained a master beekeeper certification in 2020.
“It’s deceiving because it looks like they’re hanging off a branch, but they’re actually hanging off each other on a very small piece of that branch.”
Allen spoke to CHMA on Thursday about honey bees, backyard beekeeping and threats to pollinators posed by climate change.
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Beekeepers remove swarm of thousands from from Waterfowl Park
Listen to Tantramar Report for Friday, July 8, 2022:
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Mount Allison returns Indigenous artifacts to Mi’kmaq community
Listen to Tantramar Report for Friday, July 1, 2022.
‘I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t quiet’: Student plans protest in response to US Supreme Court decision on abortion
Pro-choice activists plan to march in Sackville on Sunday to protest the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe versus Wade.
That ruling means women no longer have a legal right to abortion in the United States.
Jenna Auguscinski, a student at Mount Allison University who is organizing this weekend’s march, says she fears criminalizing abortion will increase the suicide rate among women.
“I think it’s a huge issue and I think people are being pretty quiet in Canada about it, so I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t quiet about it,” she said.
Here in New Brunswick, the provincial government’s policy on abortion has also attracted criticism.
The province only subsidizes procedural or surgical abortions in three hospitals in New Brunswick, two in Moncton and one in Bathurst.
The Medical Services Payment Act, a regulation restricts those procedures to approved hospitals. Activists have called on the province to scrap that regulation.
“In New Brunswick, if you need an abortion, and you can’t receive it in a hospital, the province doesn’t pay for it,” said Tasia Alexopoulos, Mount Allison’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Coordinator. “That can be $600 to $1,200 out of pocket.”
Listen to the full interview with Auguscinski and Alexopoulos from Jun. 29, 2022:
The federal government previously withheld $140,000 in health transfer funds to penalize the province for violating the Canada Health Act over inadequate access to abortion services.… Continue
‘We didn’t sell to a corporation knowingly’: Family was unaware buyer wanted to turn home into quarry
A wooded acreage in a rural New Brunswick village is slated to become the site of a rock quarry.
But Kim Meyerdierks wants area residents to know that wasn’t her family’s intention when they sold the property in 2019.
“We didn’t sell to a corporation knowingly,” the Bangor, Me., resident said in an interview.
Opponents of the proposed quarry in the village of Calhoun believe it could destroy their small community, which is located about 30 kilometres northwest of Sackville, CHMA previously reported.
Her family has roots in the Memramcook area going back several generations. They decided to sell the property after her aunt, June Burmeister, died in 2014.
They hoped to sell the property to a family that would take care of the land.
“We wanted to make sure we weren’t selling to a corporation,” she said. “That was our only stipulation to our realtor. We were just interested in families or individual property buyers.”
When Alain Belanger of Grand Falls bought the property in 2019, they didn’t know he was the co-owner of an asphalt paving company that operates throughout Atlantic Canada.… Continue