EV charger proposal for Dorchester back at council this week, after delay
A project that was delayed by council at their meeting on October 10 will be back up for consideration at a special meeting on November 1. Councillors voted to add the item to this week’s special budget meeting agenda in order to make sure it can be completed before the end of this year’s fiscal year on December 31.
At Tantramar council’s October 10 meeting, town staff brought forward a proposed project to install two Level 2 EV chargers beside the Dorchester Veterans Community Centre (DVCC), something which climate change coordinator Brittany Cormier said would be a “cost efficient, timely and effective way of increasing Tantramar’s electrical vehicle charging infrastructure.”
The project would be partially funded through NB Power’s Plug In NB program, and cost the municipality about $9500 on top of the rebates available. Cormier told council that staff saw the DVCC as a “valuable location” for the chargers based on access to a power connection, ownership by the town, and “high visibility for both accessibility and security.” Cormier also cited “the proximity to amenities, restaurants, shopping, museums, the public library and gorgeous green spaces right on the valley, seeing the river and the train passing by.” The DVCC is on Main Street, near access to the Station Road Marsh Loop Trail and about a 5-minute walk from the village centre.… Continue
Council sends back climate change advisory appointments as Estabrooks calls committee rules into question
Tantramar council has delayed a series of appointments to the town’s Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC) after one councillor pointed out discrepancies between the length of the appointments and the committee’s terms of reference.
Councillor Matt Estabrooks asked to send back a motion to appoint Sabine Dietz, Dan Matthews, and Mikko McGregor-Corson. Though councillor Josh Goguen, who sits on the CCAC, and councillor Mike Tower voted against, the rest of council agreed with Estabrooks and so the appointments were sent back to staff for corrections.
Dietz is head of CLIMAtlantic, and a former Sackville councillor. She also ran against Estabrooks for his Ward 4 seat on Tantramar council last year. Matthews is a retired meteorologist and head of Dorchester’s Emergency Measures Organization. McGregor-Corson is an Environmental Studies student and organizer with Divest MTA. The three would have been appointed to serve on the advisory committee for 1.5 and 2.5 year terms, until December 2024 and December 2025. But Estabrooks pointed out that according to the CCAC’s terms of reference, at least two of those appointments should have been made shorter, to coincide with the terms of the people they are replacing.
The CCAC will now be asked to recommend two people—one student and one community member—to serve on the committee for just six months, and then deal with vacancies again at the end of this year.… Continue
Sackville’s Matteo Mann takes hockey’s next big step as he prepares for NHL draft
It’s almost certain that Sackville’s Matteo Mann will be one of the 217 young hockey players drafted into the NHL this year, but Mann himself is not counting his chickens before they’re hatched.
18-year-old Mann just finished his third season with Les Sageuenéens in Chicoutimi, part of the Quebec Major Junior League, also known as the Q, one of the big three major junior leagues in the country. And now he’s being written about as an NHL draft prospect for 2023.
CHMA spoke to Mann last week from Ottawa, where he was starting his training in preparation for the NHL Combine, the big draft event that takes place in June.
Now that his season is over, Mann’s attitude is calm and even keeled. “Where I go, or if I go, is kind of out of my hands at this point,” says Mann. “Whatever happens, I’m kind of just waiting for the next steps, really.”
Yanick Jean says it’s almost certain Mann will be drafted this year. The head coach and general manager of Les Saguenéens says Mann is the type of player sought after by the NHL in recent years.
Jean describes Mann as a “big, stay-home defenseman, who is really efficient when he gets physical… He’s a good skater for a big guy, and this is what a lot of the NHL teams are looking for,” says Mann. “NHL teams want bigger guys playing on defense.… Continue
Third time’s a charm for Sackville’s new fast EV charger, even with Ward 4 candidates opposed on issue
Earlier this month, in one of its final votes ever, Sackville Town Council approved a project that will see electrical upgrades and the installation of an EV charger in its downtown parking lot between Goya’s Pizza and the post office. In the process, two candidates for a seat in the new town of Tantramar’s Ward 4 faced off with opposing views on the town’s EV infrastructure strategy.
This is actually the third time Sackville Town Council has approved the EV charger project. It first came up a year ago in budget deliberations when councillors agreed to set aside $108,000 for the project. Then this summer, council approved three motions that authorized staff to purchase the EV charger, to hire Tantramar Electric to do about $100,000 in upgrades, and to pursue funding to help pay for the project. At the time, three councillors voted against the project, Ken Hicks, Bruce Phinney, and Matt Estabrooks.
The project came back to council this month due to cost increases that came about in the six months it took to get outside grants approved. As treasurer Mike Beal explained to councillors, when the contractor, Tantramar Electric, took a fresh look at the parts cost for the project, they found significant increases. “We all know what inflation has done,” said Beal. “The contractor of course could not hold his price for the nearly six months it took [for grant approvals].”… Continue
Councillors express dismay at under-representation; ask for a single Sackville ward with reps at-large
On Thursday evening, Sackville’s municipal reform committee met for a third time, with a narrow mandate of providing input on whether Sackvillians would elect their future Entity 40 representatives at large, or in up to four separate wards.
But before they got to that question, councillors sounded off on a previous decision made by the province, to forego its own representation-by-population guidelines and allot just 50% of representatives to the former town of Sackville, which is home to 68% of the population of the new Entity 40.
Right off the bat, Councillor Allison Butcher asked Deputy Mayor Andrew Black if there was any chance of changing what she called “a skew as far as population goes?”
“No,” said Black. “That has been decided. That meeting that we had on the 15th, whatever decision was made at the end of that night with the advisory committee that was there, that decision was final.”
It’s become a theme of the municipal reform process so far: rushed decisions made in private meetings, with no substantive engagement with councils, much less the general public.
It was enough for Butcher to forego her usual attempts to put a positive spin on her comments: “At the risk of sounding really, really jaded, it probably doesn’t matter what I think should happen with the four councillors representing the 7000 people,” said Butcher, “because I’m starting to feel like it doesn’t matter what we think.”
Black told the committee that after a 1.5 hour meeting on February 15 with provincially appointed facilitator Chad Peters and the eight appointees to the provincial advisory committee, there was a consensus reached among all members, including himself and Mayor Shawn Mesheau.… Continue
Council lifts decades-old skateboard ban in a close vote
Skateboards are no longer banned on the streets of Sackville.
In a 4 to 3 vote, council passed second and third reading of a revised streets bylaw that will allow people to ride skateboards on streets with certain restrictions, such as wearing helmets and refraining from tricks.
In addition to a requirement for Motor Vehicle Act approved helmets, the bylaw requires people on skateboards to:
- wear reflective material between dusk and dawn,
- travel “in a straight line as close as is practicable to the right hand side of the roadway”,
- yield the right-of-way to pedestrians and cyclists, and to
- travel “in a manner and at a speed appropriate to the surface being travelled upon.”
A final vote on the revised bylaw was nearly delayed by a month, after Councillor Mike Tower requested copies of the communication from the town’s solicitor and insurance company, and asked for time to review them. CAO Jamie Burke agreed to provide it, and recapped the process for how staff came up with the proposed bylaw.
“Our lawyer originally said not to do this,” said Burke Monday. “That was very clear… We communicated that to council and council gave us direction to say, well, we want to explore ways to do it.”
Burke said the solicitor then advised that the town could limit risk or exposure by not simply allowing skateboarding, but by applying some regulations to the activity in town streets.… Continue
Tantramar Report: Amherst family killed in fire; COVID cases surge in NB; council approves lifting skateboard ban
On Tuesday’s Tantramar Report:
A family of six from Amherst were found deceased on Monday evening after a fire in a camper trailer in Millvale, Nova Scotia. The victims have been identified by family as 30-year-old RJ Sears, 28-year-old Michelle Robertson, and four children, eleven-year-old Madison, eight-year-old Robert Ryder, four-year-old Jaxson, and three-year-old Colin.
Sears’ father told the Canadian Press that the family had been at the trailer for a short stay. It’s not clear when the fire happened.
Police say preliminary investigations do not indicate the fire is suspicious in nature, though the fire marshall is investigating.
The Town of Amherst, in conjunction with Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, have set up a memorial in Victoria Square in Amherst where people can come and pay their respects to the victims and their family.
New Brunswick’s COVID-19 cases surged over the weekend, with 122 new cases reported and five more people admitted to hospital since Friday. The surge has prompted new rules for schools province-wide. As of Tuesday, students of all ages must wear a mask in school and while on school buses. Masks may be removed when students are eating, drinking or engaged in sports or physical education classes, says the province.
Skateboards are no longer banned on the streets of Sackville. In a 4 to 3 vote Monday night, council passed second and third reading of a revised streets bylaw that will allow people to ride skateboards on streets with certain restrictions, such as wearing helmets, yielding to cars, and refraining from tricks.… Continue