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Local ice cream and coffee businesses look to new locations on municipal property

The Sackville Visitor Information Centre on Mallard Drive. Photo: Erica Butler

Two small local businesses are interested in setting up shop on municipal property this summer.

The Ice Cream Coop, which moved to Lorne Street in 2022 and changed owners in 2023, is looking to make a move back to Main Street, in the Bill Johnstone Memorial Park between the Sackville Public Library and the bandstand. Before 2022 the Coop was located on the other side of the library building, in the parking lot of the Kookie Kutter.

A proposed agreement presented to council on Monday would see The Ice Cream Coop owners responsible for electrical upgrades and liability insurance, as well as paying $200 per month to rent the space for their summer season.

On the other side of town on Mallard Drive, Sackville Farmers’ Market coffee purveyors Deus Ex Macina are looking to set up a seasonal cafe inside the Visitor Information Centre (VIC). Pete Stephenson and Alice Cotton have proposed to do about $5000 in plumbing and electrical work to carve out a 200 square foot space inside the VIC, alongside The Craft Gallery, Robert Lyons Graphics, and the town’s summer tourism staff.

Tantramar staff are calling the first year of the VIC agreement a pilot, with a token rent of $1 per month in consideration of the necessary renovations. The agreement specifies that rent in future years would be on par with the other tenants in the building.… Continue

Council considers expanding subsidy program to high school hockey

On today’s show, we listen in to the initial discussion around the idea of expanding a rink fee subsidy program to include Tantramar’s two high school teams. Staff say the program is aimed at increasing enrollment in high-cost sports, and so are recommending against including the competitive high school teams. But most councillors expressed an interest in spending the estimated $11,000 to expand the program.

Plus: murder charges have been dropped against Dylan Murphy, and changed to manslaughter against Tyler Murphy, in the stabbing death of Shawn Mitton on March 16. And for the first time, Mount A’s screen studies program is debuting a student film production, The Yellow Wallpaper, next week. … Continue

Murder charges withdrawn, replaced with single manslaughter charge for Sackville man

Second degree murder charges against two Sackville men in the stabbing death of Shawn Mitton on March 16 have been withdrawn, and replaced with a single charge of manslaughter.

Tyler Murphy and Dylan Murphy appeared in Moncton provincial court on Wednesday morning with members of Shawn Mitton’s family present in court. Prosecutor Denis Sawyer withdrew the charge against 22-year-old Tyler Murphy, and replaced it with a charge of manslaughter. Murphy will remain in custody and return to court in six weeks time, on May 13, to allow time for the crown to release disclosure and for his lawyer to review it.

The charge against Dylan Murphy was withdrawn, and the 20-year-old was released.

Manslaughter is a homicide committed without intent to kill, through either unlawful act or criminal negligence. It carries no minimum sentence, unless committed with a firearm.

Shawn Mitton was found by police on March 16 shortly after 7:45pm, lying on the side of Lorne Street in Sackville suffering from apparent stab wounds. The 44-year-old father of four was transported to hospital where he died as a result of his injuries.

‘A family man’

According to his obituary, Mitton was “a family man who loved spending time with his sons. Whatever his sons were involved in, he was in 100%, announcing at their hockey games, outings in the woods, or enjoying an impromptu meal over a campfire.”

Mitton had recently moved his new upholstery business into a space on Main Street in Sackville, and was seeing considerable success and community support.… Continue

Climate change committee advises building audits as coordinator position draws to a close

On today’s show, we look at some of the decisions coming to Tantramar council at their April regular meeting, including the awarding of a $60,000 website contract to Blaze Studios of Moncton, and an energy audit project coming from Tantramar’s climate change advisory committee. This week also marks the end of Tantramar’s part-time climate change coordinator position, which town staff have yet to make permanent despite a budget allocation for the past two years. … Continue

Council discusses ceasefire request in response to petition signed by 226 residents

On today’s show, we listen in to Monday’s Tantramar council committee of the whole meeting, as councillors discuss a request from Sackville Ceasefire Now to write a letter to the prime minister, asking for federal action on a ceasefire in Gaza. Councillors were responding to a petition submitted two weeks ago by the group, which was on the agenda for the discussion meeting.

Plus in news briefs, councillors heard about plans by two local businesses to bring ice cream to Bill Johnstone Park and coffee to the Sackville Visitor Information Centre. They also heard about a proposal to rebrand town hall as the Tantramar Municipal Office, and replace other signs in the municipality to reflect the town’s new name and branding.… Continue

Opportunity to participate in climate anxiety workshops

Mount Allison University’s Department of Religious Studies hosted a workshop yesterday called Active Hope for anyone experiencing anxiety about the climate. It was held at Open Sky Co operative, hosted by Dr Barb Clayton and facilitated by Della Z Duncan. While another workshop is being hosted this evening from 5 until 6:30pm at Hart Hall 115. To register, email religion@mta.ca.

In other news, Tantramar council meets this afternoon at 3pm at Sackville Town Hall for its monthly Committee of the Whole meeting. … Continue

Future of Vogue uncertain due to possible bankruptcy, but group still ‘working behind the scenes’

The Vogue Cinema is a fixture of downtown Sackville, NB. Photo: Erica Butler

The for sale sign is down at The Vogue Cinema in Sackville.

The 78-year old theatre has been officially off the market for a few weeks, but not because a deal has been closed with a buyer. A real estate agent who formerly represented owner Jeff Coates confirmed the building is off the market, and said they were not authorized to give more details about the situation.

Coates, who ran the cinema for 17 years and worked there for a decade before that, refused to comment on the current status of the beloved cinema and venue.

The listing and sale of the building could have hit complications from an outstanding debt that was registered against the property in 2022, and a bankruptcy filing last month against Coates’ numbered company (059145 NB Ltd.), which owns the property and operated the cinema.

A search on Service New Brunswick’s Land Registry Services shows a $65,057.56 debt registered against the property at 9 Bridge Street, originally owed to the Canada Revenue Agency by Coates’ numbered company. The debt was registered against the property in December 2022, but dates back to five years before that, in December 2017.

The bankruptcy filing comes from another source, the Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC) Westmorland Albert, which provides financial and technical services to entrepreneurs and small businesses in the region. The filing from the CBDC says Coates’ company owes the organization $76,251.19, and asks that the numbered company which owns the Vogue be deemed bankrupt due to unmet liabilities.… Continue

Merger sees Live Bait and Performers’ join forces to make ‘one big happy theatre family’

Ryan Slashinsky is managing director of a new, yet-to-be-name theatre group that will operate out of the Performers’ Theatre space on Fairfield Road. Photo: Erica Butler

Live Bait Theatre’s annual New Works Festival kicks off this week with workshops, readings, and performances, running through to March 28.

But this year’s festival will be a swan song of sorts for the longstanding theatre company. Live Bait and Performers’ Theatre have announced a merger to create a new theatre company for the Tantramar region.

CHMA dropped by the Performers’ Theatre space on Fairfield Road to meet Ryan Slashinki, a local performing arts teacher who is taking on the role of managing director for the new theatre company during the transition.

Slashinsky is heading up a transition team which also includes Live Bait artistic director Ron Kelly Spurles who is continuing in that role for another year. The founding director of Performers’ Theatre, Steven Puddle, had previously stepped back from the helm of the community theatre group.

Slashinsky says the time was right for the merger. In recent years both companies were populated by the same people, says Slashinski, which meant “we were finding that we were burning out people that wanted to work in the theater.” While Live Bait is a professional company with a 35-year history, the productions coming from Performers’ had grown to become “of similar quality,” says Slashinski. “Over the past 15 years, Performers’ has kind of grown up… So the time was right, to just get together and make one big happy theatre family for the people of Tantramar.”… Continue

Vogue Cinema is off the market, future of building uncertain as owner faces bankruptcy filing

On today’s show, we look into the situation with the Vogue Cinema, the long-running beloved cinema in downtown Sackville which closed last summer, and has been up for sale since. The Vogue is now off the market, and a bankruptcy filing and an outstanding debt on the property could be complicating its future. We speak with one of the members of a group that is poised to help revive the Vogue as a community cultural space.

Plus in other local news, we talk with Tantramar’s Kieran Miller about an upcoming strategic plannning project for the new municipality, and we take a look at the agenda for Monday’s Tantramar council committee of the whole meeting. … Continue

Lansdowne Field to be converted to surface parking as part of $85 million library & athletics project

A Google maps image overlaid with locations of major changes as part of library & athletics project.

There will be big changes in central Sackville this summer as Mount Allison’s Lansdowne Field is converted to a parking lot, while the university starts construction of a new building to house an interim library and future multipurpose athletic centre on Lansdowne Street.

The school’s VP of Finance and Administration Robert Inglis shared the news with Tantramar council on Tuesday afternoon in a special meeting.

The $85 million project includes a major renovation of the Ralph Pickard Bell Library, but first the university must construct a building to house library services while that renovation takes place. The plan is to start construction on that building this summer, which means closing the existing Lansdowne parking lot next door. And that will mean one additional component to the project, Inglis told councillors on Tuesday.

Rendering of interim library and future athletic facility on Lansdowne Street. Image: mta.ca

“We are planning on improving our parking facilities by using Lansdowne Field,” said Inglis. The school’s communications department confirmed that the new parking lot is “intended as a permanent solution to address the growing need for parking on campus.” The new parking lot will be built starting this summer and is expected to open in the fall.

The Lansdowne Field is more than twice the size of the current parking lot on Lansdowne. CHMA has asked the university for details on the size of the proposed new lot, but have yet to hear back.… Continue

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‘A family man’