Sackville considers getting its first EV
The town of Sackville is getting in the electric vehicle game.
At its meeting on Monday April 11, Sackville town council will vote on a proposal to replace its bylaw enforcement vehicle, currently a 10-year-old Ford hybrid, with a fully electric car.
The move to go electric comes after a recommendation from the Mayor’s Roundtable on Climate Change in their review of Sackville’s 2022 capital budget.
Climate Change coordinator Kirsty Mrazek told council on Monday night that staff compared three different electric models in terms of price, and the Chevy Bolt EUV came in cheapest, at just under $39,000, including taxes and $10,000 in rebates from the provincial and federal governments.
The report did not include costs over the life of the vehicles, but according to CAA’s driving cost calculator, the fuel cost for the new EV will be considerably cheaper than its hybrid predecessor. For a generous 30,000 kms per year, the Chevy Bolt EUV costs about $660 in electricity, at current rates. A Ford Escape Hybrid going the same distance would rack up about $3000 in gas charges at today’s prices, according to the CAA online tool.
While staff are recommending an EV to replace the bylaw enforcement vehicle, they are not doing so for another vehicle replacement.
A twelve-year-old Ford 150 truck from the Parks and Facilities department is due for replacement, and staff are recommending a hybrid to replace it, instead of a fully electric truck.… Continue
Nearly double the repaving planned for 2022 as town engineer Dwayne Acton says farewell
The town of Sackville will be repaving nearly twice as many streets this year, thanks to a 2021 top-up from the Canada Community Building Fund, also known as the gas tax fund. Though the Community Building Fund can be used for a variety of infrastructure projects, Sackville council and staff opted to put the money solely towards road paving projects.
The town has nearly a million dollars to spend on road projects this year, with just over $423,000 coming from this year’s gas tax fund, and just over $410,000 coming from the top-up handed out to municipalities last year. Another nearly $100,000 is leftover from previous gas tax budgets.
At Monday’s special council meeting, outgoing town engineer Dwayne Acton responded to a question about whether this year’s generous list of project would put Sackville ahead of schedule in road paving. “Not necessarily ahead of schedule,” said Acton, “but it definitely can go a long ways in adding additional streets to our paving list.”
“Over the last probably eight years we’ve done a fair amount of repaving which definitely helps in the community and in our residential streets,” said Acton.
The original list of paving projects that was put out to tender will need to be adjusted slightly, because even the lowest bid came in above the amounts budgeted back in 2021. Acton told council that cost increases are not uncommon between budget estimates and actual bids, and that the paving industry is dealing with increased supply costs.… Continue
Talking tidal floodplains with town engineer Dwayne Acton
Listen here to Tantramar Report for Tuesday, February 22, 2022.
Security camera upgrades in Bill Johnstone Park, soon coming to other town properties
The town of Sackville has installed new facial recognition surveillance cameras at the Bill Johnstone Memorial Park Activity Centre.
On Monday evening, public works boss Dwayne Acton told council that the system is an upgrade from the previous cameras, designed to give more detail in the event of property damage or theft.
“The cameras that are there are kind of outdated, and the RCMP cannot utilize the cameras to give enough detail to explore or to take it any further,” said Acton. “One of the difficulties that we’ve had over the years is the amount of vandalism at the building, in the washrooms, around the park.”
“I know over the last year, the building has almost burnt down twice where the fire department has been called to put out a fire that was started in the washrooms,” said Acton.
In light of that and a recent spate of break and enters, Acton says staff reviewed their options and “felt it warranted that we would spend some operational money to upgrade those cameras to something a little more substantial, to be able to give us some facial recognition, or at least some details that the RCMP could use.”
Councillor Sabine Dietz raised concerns over citizens’ privacy with the use of cameras, but treasurer Micheal Beal assured council the cameras are not connected to the internet, data is erased after a period of time, and images are only viewed in case of an incident.… Continue
Isolated flooding and a full retention pond during Thursday storm
In a single storm last Thursday, more rain fell in Sackville than in the entire month of August combined. According to Environment Canada, Sackville saw 81.6 mm of rain on Thursday, September 2. The heavy rain filled the town’s new retention pond, had sewage pumping stations working at capacity, and caused isolated flooding at spots throughout town.
Town engineer Dwayne Acton says that overall, town infrastructure fared well, but that might have to do with some lucky timing in terms of the tide cycle. “During the heat of the storm we were somewhat on low tide,” says Acton. But if the worst of the storm had come at high tide, “we might have seen a different story.”
“We had some very intense times throughout the storm,” says Acton. “The retention pond did a fantastic job in holding the water that was coming down to Lorne Street.” But Acton points out that despite the storm not hitting one-in-100-year levels, “the pond was basically at the brim.”
The pond did overflow onto St. James Street at one point in the storm, and the pathway along St. James was flooded as well.… Continue
Tantramar Report: theatre in the park, walk-in vaccines in town, and illegal dumping on the marsh
Wednesday on Tantramar Report:
Meg Cunningham talks with director Vallie Stearns and actor Morgan Grant about their production of A Banishments of Poets, which opens Thursday afternoon in Bill Johnstone Memorial Park, as part of the Festival by the Marsh.
Erica Butler checks in with pharmacist Charles Beaver about how the vaccination rollout in Sackville is going. Things have slowed down, but the Corner Drug Store is still taking appointments and hosting a Pfizer walk-in clinic this Thursday.
Also in local news:
The Sackville hospital emergency room was closed Tuesday night due to a shortage of available nurses. The ER shut down at 7pm and reopened Wednesday morning at 8am.
Goya’s Pizza says that since the notice of a potential public exposure at the restaurant on August 1st, all their employees have been tested, and all results were negative.
Unknown individuals dumped a black tar-like substance near the covered bridge on the High Marsh Road. Town engineer Dwayne Acton told council on Monday that after being informed by the Department of Environment, public works staff removed the material and disposed of it at a Moncton facility.
The town of Sackville has released some of the results of its 2021 residents survey. 323 people responded to the survey, and of those, 74% said they were satisfied with the quality of life in Sackville. Only 41% of respondents said they were satisfied with the town’s leadership and budget processes. The town is now asking for residents to complete a follow-up survey by August 14.… Continue