Category: Front Page

The town of Amherst has announced what it calls a “bold step” to kick start the number of new single family homes being built in the community: the purchase of 15 acres of land on the town’s east side, off Marshview Drive.

CHMA called up Mayor David Kogon on Wednesday to find out what the town has in mind.

“Everybody knows there’s a housing crisis across this country,” says Kogon, ”and Amherst is no different.”

Kogon says the town has been addressing housing issues across the income spectrum, including putting resources toward emergency shelter programs and affordable housing. “We have all kinds of developments in the works to create a lot of multiple unit buildings like apartments and townhouses,” says Kogon. “But the one thing in that spectrum that has been lacking was single family homes and executive-type homes. And we felt that’s something we also wanted to try to promote, because we’ve been losing out on, for example, physicians and other health care providers because they couldn’t find places to live.”

The town will buy the 15-acre property for $400,000 paid over thee years. A media release says the town plans to extend a small section Marshview Drive this spring which would make way to create about ten building lots. The rest of the land is expected to yield another 20 lots, to be developed at a later date.… Continue

One of Sackville’s longest serving watering holes, Ducky’s, has new owners. Sarah Poirier and Kate Cogswell took possession of the bar on February 1.

Poirier and Cogswell said they both discussed the idea of buying the bar with Darren Wheaton separately, but landed on becoming partners when they realized they shared the a vision for what the bar could be. “I think the biggest thing about Duckies is that it it needs to stay a community-centric space,” said Cogswell.

“Yes, it’s a student bar on Friday and Saturday, and the students are a big part of our community so they’re going to be a big part of our bar… but more importantly, we want to be accessible and important to the community as a whole,” she said.

The new owners want people to feel free to ask for a cup of tea, play a board game or simply sit and read a book. They also want to have more planned events like live music, open mic nights or comedians.

Poirier said another planned change is to have more non-alcoholic and low-alcohol drinks. “Because I have a lot of friends and I think Kate does too, who just are not drinkers,” said Poirier. “We really want to keep the vibe as is and just open it up.”

They both acknowledge the work of former owner Darren Wheaton.… Continue

For 25 years now, Sackville artists and art lovers have been gathering on Valentine’s Day for the annual fundraising art auction, The Sweetest Little Thing. The annual event raises funds for Sackville’s two non-profit galleries, the Owens and Struts.

Starting this week, over 90 different works are on display at thesweetestlittlething.ca, as well as in person at the Owens Art Gallery. Bidding is open online all week, culminating on Valentine’s Day, when people, whether they’re bidding or not, are invited to gather for a celebration at the Owens.

Paul Henderson is the director at Struts gallery. CHMA stopped by to hear from Henderson about the annual event.

Henderson says the partnership between Struts and Owens is special, and has helped The Sweetest Little Thing become “essential” fundraising for both galleries.

“It’s unique in this world to actually partner together with another organization and pool our resources to create an event that actually benefits both organizations really significantly,” says Henderson.

Every year, the list of artists invited to contribute to the auction grows. The contributing artists for the auction all have a direct relationship with the Owens or Struts, says Henderson, and the list includes local artists and those from farther afield who have shown at the galleries in the past. It also includes the third year cohort of Mount Allison’s Fine Arts program.

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Tantramar council will be asked to approve $110,000 in community grants to local organizations at their meeting next week, nearly half the total amount of requests for funding that the town received.

Grant requests for 2024 totalled just over $210,000, the largest amount ever in the grant program to date. In 2023, community groups asked for just over $156,000, and that amount reversed a trend that saw requests actually drop in 2021 and 2022, when the program covered just the former town of Sackville. Active Living director Matt Pryde says that expansion of the program to cover the vastly expanded territory and population of Tantramar is a “big part” of the reason for the increase.

This year’s increase in requests was met with only a small increase in budget, an additional $5,000 over the 2023 amount. That means many groups may be left unhappy, unless council choses to make budgetary changes.

The lion’s share of applications and funding go to sports, heritage and arts organizations, but this year’s crop of applicants also included poverty and food security related groups, like the Sackville Food Bank, the Sackville Farmers Market, the Sackville Community Garden, the Open Sky Cooperative, and Greater Dorchester Moving Forward.

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Mount Allison University has hired a new Dean of Social Sciences and Business.

Dr. Yves Bourgeois, currently the Dean of Studies at l’Université de Moncton’s Shippagan campus, will join Mount Allison on July 1, 2024. He replaces Interim Dean of Business and Social Sciences Dr. Jennifer Tomes, and before that, Dr. Nauman Farooqi, who formally parted ways with Mount Allison about one year ago when he took the position of president of St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

Bourgeois holds a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA. He is also a Rhodes Scholar, with graduate degrees from Oxford and Edinburgh in philosophy, politics, economics and technology studies.

In a statement published by Mount Allison, Bourgeois says he is “honoured and excited to join the Mount Allison community”. He says Mount Allison and its faculty are unique, and “very aligned with [his] own personal commitments” to a “vibrant academic environment, emphasizing collaborative growth and innovation.”

Bourgeois’ hire leaves Mount Allison still short on a number of key senior positions. Currently the university President, Vice-President Academic, and Dean of Arts are all serving on an interim basis. … Continue