Mystery elections flyer which broke rules likely came from department of local government
Elections NB didn’t send it, the town of Sackville didn’t send it… so the question is, who sent an elections flyer to addresses all over the new Tantramar municipality? While the Department of Local Government refuses to answer that question, a complaint to the New Brunswick RCMP by Elections NB may lead to an answer.
The mailer certainly appears to be a well-intentioned, if not by-the-book, correction for an earlier mistake by Elections NB. Early in October, residents in Tantramar received notices from the provincial elections agency telling them they would NOT be voting in municipal elections on November 28. That was, of course, an error, and a big one.
A mix up by a contractor handling the mail out of important election information for Elections NB meant that about 260,000 households got exactly the opposite message they should have received. The reality is, all residents of the former town of Sackville, village of Dorchester, and parts of the Dorchester, Sackville and Point de Bute local service districts, can go to the polls by November 28 to elect the first ever mayor and council for the newly amalgamated town of Tantramar.
Elections NB immediately acknowledged their mistake, but also said that a corrected mailer to the homes in question would not be forthcoming, in part due to supply chain issues.… 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
Open house Wednesday for trunk sewer project alongside Waterfowl Park
The town of Sackville and Englobe engineering are hosting an open house Wednesday evening to answer questions about an upcoming project that will affect the Trans Canada Trail running alongside the Waterfowl park, as well as the properties adjacent to it.
The trunk sewer renewal project will run from Weldon to Princess Street, following existing sanitary sewer for the most part, with some realignments when necessary.
Town staff are inviting anyone with questions or concerns to drop in to town hall any time between 6:00pm to 8:30pm Wednesday to learn more about the project. Property owners will be able to find out where the trunk sewer will be on their property. Property owners who can’t make it will have information packages delivered to them.
Sackville’s Manager of Special Projects Kieran Miller says the Trans Canada Trail will be impacted at times during the course of the project. The design of the project will determine how much work gets done this year, says Miller, but the project is expected to be completed over the next three years, ending in 2024.
New Town Engineer arriving in August
Englobe was hired as the consulting engineer on the project in the absence of a town engineer for Sackville. Former town engineer Dwayne Acton resigned from his position in April to go work for Mount Allison University, and incoming town engineer Jon Eppell will take over in August.… Continue
Sackville ditches (most) single use plastics in advance of federal regulation
Sackville town council plans to reduce the amount of single use plastic garbage being generated by town activities with a new policy passed on Monday.
The Reducing Plastic Waste policy comes in anticipation of federal rules to eliminate plastic waste that might be in place as early as the end of the year.
The town’s climate change coordinator Kirsty Mrazek explained the basics of the new policy to council at their meeting last Monday night. “This policy would apply to all council members, town employees, and Sackville Fire Department,” said Mrazek, “during meetings and events, as well as in all of the town’s facilities, in the kitchens, public works and the [Visitor Information Centre], as well at all public events where the town would provide food or beverage services.”
Mrazek said the Town will provide dishes and access to dishwashers, to make the change more feasible.
The only times the policy would not be in effect is during an emergency, such as when firefighters go out on call, or at the canteen at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre.
Councillors Bill Evans chimed in last week with positive comments on the plastic ban, and to ask why the Civic Centre Canteen would remain exempt from the policy.
CAO Jamie Burke explained the town had yet to find a replacement for the Red Solo cups currently used to sell alcoholic beverages at the Canteen, so it was left out of the policy, but staff were still looking for a suitable replacement.… Continue
Sackville’s Ukrainian connections and the call for material aid
Christina Stasula and Iryna Zadorozhna are both concerned for their families in Ukraine, and also for the rest of the citizens in the country which has been under attack from the Russian army since February 24, 2022.
CHMA spoke with the pair from Zadorozhna’s Sackville home last Friday, with help from a niece in Ukraine, who provided translation services by phone for Zadorozhna. They spoke about the situation in Ukraine, and what people elsewhere can do about it.
You can hear that interview, edited for length, here:
Throughout the past week, donations boxes have been filling up in the lobby of Sackville town hall, collecting supplies that will be shipped by the Ukrainian Club of Moncton to Poland and then to war torn Ukraine, to help some of the estimated 1.5 million people now displaced by the invasion.
The families of both Zadorozhna and Stasula are being impacted.
“Ukraine is very scary right now,” Zadorozhna told CHMA. “The Russian occupants have destroyed a lot of cities in Ukraine. And they’re bombing hospitals, orphanages, schools, and many other civilian places… This is the situation in Ukraine and my family is suffering from the same situation, the same conditions.”… 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
“Now is not the time”: Sackville cancels 2021 Canada Day activities
The town of Sackville has cancelled planned activities for Canada Day. The announcement was made over social media on Friday morning, in light of recent findings at former residential schools in western Canada.
CHMA spoke with recreation manager Matt Pryde to find out more about the decision.
“It’s been a long process to decide what exactly we want to do with Canada Day,” says Pryde. The town consulted with Fort Folly First Nation and Mount Allison’s Indigenous Affairs Coordinator Patty Musgrave earlier in June to come up with a plan to “offer some activities in a respectful way,” says Pryde. That was shortly after the remains of 215 Indigenous children were located at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops at the end of May.
Then this week, the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan announced a preliminary finding of 751 unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School. “We further consulted with Chief Rebecca [Knockwood, of Fort Folly] and, Patty, the Indigenous Affairs coordinator at Mt A., and we determined that now is not the time to celebrate the country,” says Pryde.
Sackville is not alone in the decision to forego festivities on July 1 this year.… Continue