Tantramar Report: Kayak rentals coming to Silver Lake, walk-in vaccine clinic today, Higgs questioned about vaccine passports
The Town of Sackville put out another call for the unfilled Climate Change Coordinator position with EOS Eco-Energy. Amanda Marlin, the executive director of EOS, says that they didn’t find a candidate in the first round. The education requirements have been toned down from a masters degree to a bachelor’s with some experience, and an age demographic has been added. Those under 30 are encouraged to apply, since additional funding will be accessible to candidates of that age, but Marlin says that those over 30 should not be discouraged from applying. The position is only six months, and will serve as a coordinator of environmental projects between EOS and the Town of Sackville. Those interested should apply by September 12th.
The ParticiPACTION votes are in, and Matt Pryde of town recreation is excited to get to work on setting up kayak, canoe, and paddleboard rentals on Silver Lake. Of the four options, the kayak rentals were far and away the most popular, receiving over half of the votes. Pryde is optimistic that residents, and tourists, will be able to paddle on the lake starting next summer.
Premier Blaine Higgs and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell held a COVID-19 briefing yesterday, where they simultaneously congratulated 75% of eligible New Brunswickers who have been double-vaxxed and urged the other 25% to get the shot sooner rather than later. Reporters asked the two multiple times about the possibility of implementing vaccine passports in the province, which Premier Blaine Higgs did not commit one way or the other.… Continue
Tantramar Report: Fort Folly Habitat Recovery cleans up Johnson’s Creek, 14 cases of community transmission, Struts to pay artist to build Fall Fair float
Tomorrow night is movie night at Dorchester School, where they will be screening Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” for free. The only thing you have to bring is a lawn chair, there will be free popcorn and bug spray available for movie-goers. The show starts at 8PM behind the school.
Someone has defaced a campaign sign for federal Liberal candidate Dominic Leblanc on Main Street near the on ramp to highway 2. The large campaign sign has been spray painted with a swastika, or an attempt at one (it was backwards), and a message reading “COVID Nazi”. The hyperbolic historical comparison is not the first on Sackville streets. Posters have appeared recently in town comparing Mount Allison’s mandatory vaccination or testing policy to racial segregation policies once the norm in parts of the US and Canada. Dominic Leblanc posted a response to the vandalism on social media Tuesday, calling it “despicable”, and a “display of hate and intolerance”. The sign has since been replaced.
Struts Gallery is looking for an artist to design and build a float for Sackville’s Fall Fair. The artist will be given creative liberty to build a moving sculpture or performance of sorts, with funds to cover their time and supplies. Struts will provide a trailer to pull the masterpiece. Float proposals are due by this Monday, August 30th.
14 recent cases of COVID-19 have been categorized as “community transmission,” 13 of which are in Zone 1 (Moncton).… Continue
Tantramar Report: EV rebate’s impact on local dealers, CUPE march for frontline workers, and AWI nature school registration open
On Thursday’s Tantramar Report:
Erica Butler called up Tina Amador, the general manager of Atlantic KIA in Amherst, to see how the new EV rebate program might affect local car dealers. Amador says that while EVs are not yet available in Sackville or Amherst, they are in Moncton, and some of her staff have started the process of getting trained to sell and service electric vehicles.
There is a Pfizer clinic at the Tantramar Civic Centre today between 9 and 5 today, but Charles Beaver says those slots are all booked up. If you register with the Corner Drug Store online, you might be able to get in as soon as September 2nd.
CUPE is organizing a march in solidarity with frontline workers in Sackville, after local advocates insisted Sackville be included. Sackville was originally excluded from the marching plans, according to local volunteer Judith Weiss, because of its low population. The march begins at 10 AM at the local hospital, and ends at the bandstand in the Bill Johnstone Memorial Park. Anyone interested in participating in a Sackville walk with CUPE on behalf of frontline workers can show up on Saturday. Look out for a Facebook event published by Alana Best, of CUPE local 720-1, for more details.
And registration is open for the Atlantic Wildlife Institute’s forest school program. The year-round part-time enrichment program will continue to offer outdoors-based learning, and this year they are offering a Wilderness Skills program, and Creative Arts and Music program. … Continue
Tantramar Report: Three Beausejour candidates named so far, Pfizer walk-in clinic, and a visit to a micro press
Wednesday on Tantramar Report:
Keagan Hawthorne lets us witness the printing of broadsides, which will be sold to raise funds for the Tantramar Literary Society. The broadsides are being printed on Hawthorne’s micropress, a large and heavy mechanical device that uses a hand crank to roll paper across inked letters, which he affectionately refers to as “The Beast.”
There is a Pfizer walk-in vaccine clinic today at the Guardian Corner Drug Store (between 10AM and 6:30PM), and more kids will be permitted to get the jab since the government now allows 11-year-olds who will turn 12 this year to be vaccinated. Early Childhood Development Minister Dominic Cardy says the decision was made to “help support healthy and safe schools” with the first day of classes just around the corner. This represents 2,832 more young people who can now get the shot. Since the province bases its vaccination rates on the percent of eligible New Brunswickers, it may appear that the vaccine rate is lower from here on out since the number of eligible people increased. Also, unexpectedly, the province realized during a routine review that over 8,000 vaccinations were not recorded, of which around 7,800 were second doses.
And the Conservatives and the People’s Party have announced who from their parties will run against incumbent Beausejour rep Dominic LeBlanc, but there is no word from either the Green or NDP party. So far, Beausejour constituents can choose between the incumbent candidate for the Liberal party, Dominic LeBlanc, Shelly Mitchell from the Conservatives, or Jack Minor from the People’s Party.… Continue
Zoning by-law infraction may lead to evictions in Sackville
Fifteen people in Sackville, most if not all of them students, might be out of a place to live come the end of the month.
Tenants of 131 Main Street starting reaching out in search of new apartments on Tuesday, saying they were informed by their landlord’s lawyer that they would need to vacate their building by January 31st.
Town of Sackville CAO Jamie Burke says that a hearing regarding a by-law infraction on the property took place last Friday in a Moncton court.
That hearing was adjourned and will continue this Friday.
The owner of the building, Gordon Beal, said the matter is still unresolved and didn’t comment further.
131 Main Street is a Sackville historic landmark, known as Allison House, Fisher House or Fawcett house, among other names. It was first built in 1841, with a major addition built in 1997.
Up until recently, the building was occupied by commercial tenants.
In 2014, Beal applied for zoning changes to build an apartment building behind Allison House, on the same property. After passing first and second reading, Sackville town council rejected the zoning changes required to build the apartment building.
The property is zoned Residential Historic Commercial, and allows for a number of uses including boarding houses, restaurants, professional offices and funeral homes, but not apartments.… Continue
EOS to share Sackville’s emissions for climate change week
Local nonprofit EOS Eco-Energy is excited to present climate change week online starting January 30th.
The week is dedicated to environmental education and sustainable practices, including an online composting with worms workshop, meatless Monday, and checking in on Tantramar’s emissions.
The Tantramar area has been working on its emission targets with EOS Eco-Energy since 2011.
Now, ten years later, Energy Projects Coordinator and Mount Allison University alumna Lauren Clark has some promising statistics.
The Town of Sackville set an emission reduction goal of 10%, and Clark announced that the town managed to reduce its emissions by 31%.
Clark says that NB Power is largely responsible for the significant reduction in emissions.
She breaks down how that happened, and how it is calculated, in a conversation with Meg Cunningham.
Climate change week will take place from January 30th to February 5th.
Check out climate change week events on EOS Eco-Energy’s website.
For more information on the community’s emissions, Clark presented the information during a special town council meeting on December 7th which is available on YouTube.
Clark’s findings will be presented to the public on February 2nd, between 12 and 1pm.
She welcomes any questions about the data or about EOS in general.… Continue
Get it to-go: Sackville restaurants close their dining rooms temporarily
Some Sackville businesses are going above and beyond orange phase restrictions this time around.
Orange level restrictions require sit-down restaurants to check that all patrons are only sitting with their own single-household bubble, maintain social distancing and a capacity, and strict mask-wearing policies.
All establishments are also required to keep diligent records of all customers’ contact information.
A few restaurants and bars around town say that this is too much to ask, and not as safe as take-out.
Malcolm Campbell, a manager at Cranewood on Main, says the bakery is doing take-out only.
Malcolm Campbell: Number one, safety. We want to limit the exposure. They’re recommending that people don’t eat in restaurants sitting in confined spaces sharing the air. And also, there was talk last orange phase that restaurants were being forced to card people and ensure that people were sitting within their bubble, which is essentially impossible. In Sackville, where half of our clientele is students, whose address and bubbles do not reflect where they actually live. So someone may be in a bubble, two people may live together in the same apartment, but have addresses in different provinces because they’re university students. We have no way of verifying if people are actually in their bubble, and we want to follow the rules.… Continue
Province rejects Sackville’s request for federal COVID relief
Listen to this story on Tantramar Report, or here:
The province has rejected the town of Sackville’s entire funding request to cover COVID-related costs from a federal fund designed for that purpose.
The federal government allotted $41.1 million to local governments in New Brunswick, the province’s share of a $2-billion package announced back in July.
Most provinces opted to distribute funding on a per capita basis, immediately informing municipalities how much they would receive. In New Brunswick, local government minister Daniel Allain instead required local governments to do some paperwork.
Local governments were required to report the net impact of COVID-19 on their 2020 finances, and then have a resolution passed by their elected councils.
The request was light on details, says Sackville treasurer Michael Beal, but town staff went ahead and came up with a request of just under $291,000.
“We basically reviewed and spent a lot of time going through our books, our records and documenting a lot of this,” Beal told town council last night. “We did have savings that were non-COVID-related,” he said, which “would have happened either way.”
The province rejected the town’s claims, including:
- payroll costs relating to COVID-19,
- Levee on the Lake costs, as a COVID event,
- costs relating to use of the arena as a Mount Allison welcome centre,
- and sewage treatment costs that were credited back to customers as a form of COVID relief to ratepayers.
Sackville Film Society screenings postponed
New Brunswick’s COVID-19 cases continue to climb this week, resulting in the entire province sliding back to orange level restrictions.
These restrictions allow for entertainment venues, including cinemas, to remain open with a COVID-19 operational plan.
Such a plan includes an occupancy limit of 50, strict social distancing, continuous mask use, and record keeping.
Despite the province’s permission, Thaddeus Holownia says the Sackville Film Society is postponing all screenings until next week at the earliest, citing safety concerns.
Most of the members of the private club are older people, Holownia mentions.
On Wednesday, Holownia announced the decision on Facebook “after much discussion.”
The feedback from members, he says, has been “100% positive.”
The Sackville Film Society will reevaluate next week, and base their decision on COVID-19 case numbers.… Continue
Sackville says Happy New Year online
The town of Sackville marked the beginning of 2021 much like it has many events of the past year: online.
In a video posted to the town’s social media page, Town Crier David Fullerton delivered a New Year’s Message for Sackville in the town’s online version of its annual levee.
“My wish for 2021 is that we all be there for each other during this difficult time, in this new way of life,” says Fullerton. “It is amazing how uplifting and appreciated a simple phone call can be for someone who is alone and confined to home.”
The video also features a speech from Deputy Mayor Ron Aiken, a poem read by Sackville Poet Laureate Shoshanna Wingate, and a montage of photos from 2020 featuring many of the town’s rec programs in action.
The video also included a reprieve of this year’s COVID- friendly Canada Day celebrations featuring local fiddlers Stacey Read, The Carter Girls, Quinn MacAskill, Del Wheaton, Royal Hicks, Brianna Ogden, Hannah Wade, and Ray Legere.
In his message, Deputy Mayor Ron Aiken gave an overview of some of the accomplishments of the past year, including:
- adjusting programming and services to meet COVID-19 safety guidelines;
- hiring a new CAO (Jamie Burke) and senior manager of corporate projects (Kieran Miller);
- collaborating with Mount Allison on the Mt.