Proposed dental clinic and apartments first to receive Tantramar’s development tax incentive, Lafford applies to become second
A $1.3 million dollar mixed-use building project for 35 Main Street will be the first project to receive an incentive in the form of a tax rebate from the new town of Tantramar, based on a policy passed in Sackville in March 2020.
A Moncton-based dental surgeon has plans for the vacant lot just uphill from Sackville town hall. Daniel Nachaat is listed as the director of the numbered company that bought the vacant property in 2021. This year, Nachaat’s company applied to the town’s economic development incentive program with a proposal for a three-storey development including a ground floor dental clinic, and two upper floors with a total of eight one-bedroom apartments.
The project is being managed by Dieppe-based real estate investment company Quest Capital and is the first ever development to apply for and be approved under the new incentive program, which offers property owners a 50% or more tax rebate over 5 or 10 years, for commercial, industrial or multi-unit residential projects.
The Quest Properties project is estimated at costing $1.3 million, and without the incentive program, would bring in an additional $25,000 per year in taxes for the municipality. With the incentive program in place, more than half of that potential tax revenue, about $72,000 over the first five years, will stay with Nachaat’s company.… Continue
Tantramar residents asked to weigh in for $68K brand development initiative
The new municipality of Tantramar is in the midst of a roughly $68,000 brand development initiative.
To develop the brand identity for the newly formed town, the town hired the Details Design + Branding, which is working with the public relations firm Porter O’Brien.
They’re seeking input from local residents through a survey that can be found online at TakePartTantramar.ca. The survey closes on June 30th.
Public engagement will also be taking place in-person at several locations around Tantramar beginning this weekend.
Tanya Duffy, who runs the Fredericton-based design firm, said the process will involve more than just the creation of a logo.
“A brand is more than an image, it’s a sense of identity,” Duffy said.
Listen to the interview with CHMA
The municipality, which brings together Sackville, Dorchester and neighbouring areas, came into existence on New Year’s Day, following the Higgs government’s controversial process of local governance reform.
In May 2022, a committee of local officials announced that it would be called Tantramar. Until then, it was known by the placeholder name Entity 40.
Throughout this process, there’s been a lot of talk about what the changes would mean for the identities of formerly separate communities.
Tom Bateman, a senior consultant with Porter O’Brien, noted that the goal isn’t to stop residents from calling their home community by established names such as Sackville. … Continue
Sackville prepares for Fiona
Hurricane Fiona has prompted a wave of cancellations and postponements as people prepare for high winds and heavy rain starting late Friday night and continuing through Saturday.
CHMA called up town of Sackville special projects manager Kieran Miller to find out what advice and information the town has to share:
Miller recommends people, “secure any loose objects on your property, clean up any downspouts and make sure that you have a 72 hour emergency preparedness kit on hand.”
She also recommends people sign up for the town’s new alert system, Voyent Alert.
“We hope never to have to use our emergency alert system, says Miller, “but we recommend all residents sign up.” Voyent Alert allows people to chose between alerts delivered via phone call, email, text, or through a smartphone app.
Sackville is prone to freshwater flooding, especially when high tides prevent freshwater from draining through existing aboiteaux into the tidal Tantramar River. High tides at about 11:15pm Friday night and 11:40am Saturday could be critical times for flooding risk, depending on when the heaviest rainfall arrives.
Miller says the town’s public works staff are, “in a state of readiness. They’re getting everything ready to go should they need to take action.”
In case of an extended power outage, the Tantramar Veteran’s Memorial Civic Centre on Main Street is equipped with a generator and could be put into use as a warming centre or emergency centre.… Continue
Town seeks easements from property owners before replacing trunk sewer along Trans Canada Trail
About a dozen Sackville residents dropped in at town hall last week to look over plans for a major trunk sewer renewal project that will take three years to complete and will directly impact about 15 properties and parts of the Trans Canada Trail.
The project starts at the Weldon Street end of the Trans Canada Trail and runs about 550 metres northward to the end of Princess Street.
Special projects manager Kieran Miller has been coordinating communications for the project, and says notices went out to the 15 properties directly affected by the project, as well as the surrounding properties on Weldon, Morgan Lane, Clarence and Princess Streets. “They might not be directly impacted but there is a big infrastructure project happening in their backyards,” says Miller. “We wanted to give them the opportunity to ask any questions.”
Any property owners who couldn’t make the meeting will be sent a detailed outline of what the town plans to do, a requirement in this case, because the town needs to secure easements on the affected properties before it can proceed. The existing piping is old enough to pre-date the town’s policy of seeking out easement contracts with property owners, which needs to happen for the project to proceed.… Continue
Survey says: Residents want to see improvements in economic development, roads and sidewalks, and police services
The results are in from Sackville’s 2021 residents’ survey. 323 residents responded this year, the highest number in the four years that the town has conducted the survey.
Senior manager of corporate projects Kieran Miller says the information collected in the survey is used to help staff and council make decisions. “It really gives us kind of a touch point on where the community stands on a couple of different areas,” says Miller. “It helps set budget planning priorities, where we put resources, thinking about future projects and what we’re going to do next year. It really helps us make some of those decisions. So the more people that fill it out, the better.”
The town published selected results in an infographic on social media:
At CHMA’s request, Miller provided the full numerical results.
Survey respondents are not selected randomly, so the results have to be taken with a statistical grain of salt, as they don’t necessarily represent the opinions of the wider population of Sackville.
Overall, just about 74% of the survey respondents said they were mostly or very satisfied with the quality of life in Sackville. That’s down from 81% in the 2020 survey.
In their infographic, the town identified policing services and transparency as the “top two areas that could improve”, although the two issues do not appear in any of the multiple choice questions in the survey.
Policing and transparency were mentioned by survey respondents in a question asking for “the one most important issue facing your community that you feel should receive the greatest attention from your local leaders in the coming year.”… Continue
Tantramar Report: Hirtle’s up for sale, walk-in Pfizer clinics in Sackville, and survey results are in
Tuesday on Tantramar Report:
Jan and Bill Hirtle have announced they are putting their Middle Sackville grocery story, Hirtle’s Variety, up for sale. The pair made the announcement on social media, and say they will continue to operate the store while they look for a buyer. The message said the Hirtle’s were drained emotionally after “recent negativity on Facebook”, likely referring to criticism levelled at the owners after they removed a Pride message from their store sign within hours of it being put up by their own staff. Ironically, Bill Hirtle said he removed the message—which read “LOVE WINS OVER JUDGEMENT – HAPPY PRIDE MONTH”— in order to avoid controversy.
It’s Election Day in Nova Scotia. Results will start getting posted online by Elections Nova Scotia at 8pm tonight, and you can tune in to CHMA Wednesday to hear the recap.
Sackville’s Corner Drug Store is hosting a walk-in Pfizer vaccination clinic this Wednesday between 10am and 6:30pm. The pharmacy will also be open for walk-in Pfizer appointments next Wednesday August 25th from 10am to 6:30pm. Monday’s numbers from the province show 71.5% of eligible people have received two shots of a COVID-19 vaccine. In Sackville, the number is higher, hitting 79% as of August 10.
The province announced another 40 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the provincial active case total to 105. … Continue