Community News Archives » Page 37 of 178 » CHMA, Voice of the Marshes

Conflicting views on views: Lafford confident, neighbour critical of plans for six-storey building overlooking Waterfowl Park

Tantramar council voted unanimously on Tuesday to go ahead with a process to consider rezoning a property owned by John Lafford, and amending the town’s R3 zone to allow for buildings up to 65 feet high. Council set the date for a public hearing on both matters for June 27, 3pm, during its Committee of the Whole meeting.

The property in question is at 131 Main Street, a large historic white building that has served a commercial space and ad hoc apartments over the years. In 2014, under different ownership and a different council, it was turned down for rezoning that would have allowed for a three-storey, 18-unit apartment building in the rear part of the lot. Lafford’s proposal is for a six-storey, 71-unit building with one level of underground parking, on the same spot.

Rendering of Lafford’s proposed building from Plan 360 report presented to Tantramar council.

Despite previous failed rezoning attempts, Lafford is confident this time will go differently, mostly because of the state of the rental housing market. “There’s no housing, zero supply,” says Lafford. “I feel very strong and very confident that we’re going to get the nod from the council just based on that alone, without any bias of what developer, and who’s doing what, where, and how.”

Before Tantramar council voted on whether or not to consider Lafford’s two applications on Tuesday, they heard a presentation from the owner of a neighbouring building, Alexandrya Eaton, who told council she has concerns about the scale and location of Lafford’s proposal.… Continue

$498k approved for replacement of 57 metres of old, failing trunk sewer

Jon Eppell, Sackville’s new town engineer, on the rooftop garden at Sackville Town Hall. Photo: Erica Butler

A major trunk renewal project originally slated to begin last year will go ahead in 2023 but with a much-reduced scope. On Tuesday night, Tantramar council approved hiring Dexter Construction to replace part of an old trunk sewer pipe that starts at the Weldon Street end of the Waterfowl Park Trans-Canada Trail.

The town of Sackville decided to delay the project last fall after the lowest bid on the tender came in $250,000 over the approved amount in Sackville’s capital utility budget. “We realized we needed to increase the budget,” says town engineer Jon Eppell, “so that’s what’s been done.”

But the town fared only slightly better this spring, when just one company decided to bid on the project. That bid was still over budget by about $142,000.

“Prices went up significantly versus last year,” says Eppell, “and unfortunately, this is where we find ourselves. We had to take the scope that we’d hoped to do this year, and scale it back.”

Instead of replacing a planned 115 metres of trunk sewer pipe this year, Dexter Construction will replace about half that. But the project won’t cost half as much. Dexter’s original bid for 115 metres of replacement pipe was about $648,000. Scaling back to just 57 metres of pipe shaved just $150,000 off the project cost, bringing the total to about $498,000. That’s because the first section of the pipe is the most expensive to do, says Eppell.… Continue

Province announces $2.4 million for new Tantramar River aboiteau

The province of New Brunswick has announced $2.4 million in funding for the replacement of the aboiteau that empties into the Tantramar River.

Tantramar engineer Jon Eppell says the news is “very positive… This will facilitate phase 3 of the Lorne Street Stormwater Mitigation project and allow discharge of that stormwater effectively to the river.” The project will see a retention pond created near Fleet Street, along with channels connecting it to the St. James Street pond and draining into the Tantramar River when tide levels allow.

Image from presentation to Sackville town council by Pierre Plourde, Englobe, on Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Project engineer Pierre Plourde told Sackville town council last July that the current aboiteau built in the 1900’s was too small for the task.

The aboiteau replacement is one of 73 projects funded by the province’s Climate Change Fund. A total of $47 million was committed to the fund in this year’s provincial budget, however the estimated total for projects announced last week is $10 million higher, at $57 million. In a news release the department of environment and local government said it expects enough projects to come in under budget to make up for the $10 million gap.

Screencap from project descriptions for NB Climate Change Fund 2022-23.

Eppell says he is waiting to hear on the timeline for the construction of the project, which will be done by the department of transportation and infrastructure.… Continue

The beleaguered birds of Tantramar: Shep is good to go, but Erin the Heron is in rough shape

The new Shep the Sandpiper in Dorchester Village Square. Image: Facebook

When Tantramar council passed a resolution in early April instructing staff not to remove Shep the Sandpiper from its perch in Dorchester Village Square, it came with a caveat, that town engineer Jon Eppell would inspect the bird and its installation, to make sure all was safe and sound.

“I’ve had a quick look out in the field and there’s no immediate safety concerns that I see,” says Eppell, noting that he is due to update council with more information on that matter shortly.

The reason for Eppell’s inspection was that the Shep installation was done without staff knowledge or participation, by a team of local volunteers who also commissioned the sculpture, paid for it, and transported it from artist Robin Hanson’s studio near Oromocto.

Erin the Heron, on the other hand, was part of a by-the-book public art commission. Unveiled in 2016, the bronze heron was part of Heron’s Watch, by artist Christian Toth, also featuring ducks Gracie Ann and Willy. The three bronze birds sit in a garden bed at the corner of Bridge Street and Weldon in downtown Sackville, but recently the bronze heron has been boarded up.

Heron’s Watch at Bridge and Weldon has been boarded up for a few weeks now after sustaining damage to its legs, possibly due to an excessive load placed on its back sometime this spring. Photo: Erica Butler

“It looks like a significant weight was placed on the back of the bird,” says Eppell.… Continue

High CO2 levels in Marshview and Dorchester schools a ‘health and safety issue’

For two years running, two Tantramar area schools have tested high in carbon dioxide ratios for indoor air.

Marshview Middle School and Dorchester Consolidated were tested by the provincial department of education starting in 2021 because they don’t have full mechanical ventilation systems. In 2021, both schools showed peak levels of carbon dioxide above 1500 parts per million, which according to epidemiologist Colin Furness, speaking to U of T News, means staff and students are breathing “stale air.” It also means both schools qualified for another round of testing in 2022.

The province stopped testing in schools with results under 1500 parts per million, testing fewer schools in 2022 than in 2021. That’s despite the fact that some schools, such as Marshview and Dorchester, showed increases year over year. In 2022, Marshview hit 3914 parts per million, the highest of the 37 schools tested that year. Dorchester Consolidated showed peak levels of 2916 parts per million. For comparison, outdoor air is about 400 parts per million in carbon dioxide, according to Furness.

Data from New Brunswick department of Education and Early Childhood Development Indoor Air Quality Testing.

30 out of 37 school showed peak levels above 1500 parts per million, but the Department of Education says that “no concerns have been raised by Public Health about the [Indoor Air Quality] testing results.”

Meanwhile parents like Sackville’s Dave Thomas are concerned. “It’s not a good learning environment when you have CO2 readings that high,” says Thomas.… Continue

Tenants’ voices, rural focus missing from housing summit: critics

A housing summit organized by the Higgs government — in partnership with an association representing realtors — took place in Saint John this week, attracting protesters who believe the provincial housing strategy is bound to fail if it doesn’t include a rent cap.

Critics say the event, which took place on Tuesday in Saint John, was heavily weighted towards business interests, leaving tenants’ rights advocates feeling steamrolled.

Listen to the report from CHMA:

“I found out when we got there that it was actually the New Brunswick Real Estate Association that co-hosted this summit,” Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton said in an interview with CHMA.

“Real estate and developers are part of the conversation when we talk about housing. But for those voices to be there, but then not other voices, is extremely problematic, especially because… what’s at stake is people’s lives, and people’s housing. And there are literally people who are dying outdoors.”

*MLA Megan Mitton at a Mount Allison Students Union Q&A session March 8, 2023. Photo: Erica Butler.*

She said the event was also marked by a lack of focus on rural homelessness.

“Sometimes the issues around being unhoused can be more hidden in rural areas,” she said. “And sometimes people end up moving to urban areas because they don’t have services in rural areas. So it’s all connected.”

The Government of New Brunswick says it’s using information from the summit to create a housing strategy that’s expected to be released in June, just a few weeks from now. … Continue

The Vogue Cinema is closed, but owner Jeff Coates is hoping for a community takeover

Downtown Sackville has suffered plenty of slings and arrows in the past few years. Between fires, structural issues, repeated COVID shutdowns, and an ongoing and painfully slow COVID recovery, the downtown core is radically different today than it was back in 2019. And the slings and arrows are about to strike again.

The 77-year old Vogue Cinema is closed, and owner Jeff Coates says he will not be able to reopen the historic theatre, due to debts that have become too large to handle.

Jeff Coates, owner and operator of the Vogue Cinema, says the business is closed and for sale. Photo: Erica Butler

“I’ve been fighting and struggling and clawing to stay above water, to keep the place open and functioning,” Coates told CHMA this week. “I never wanted to lose it, but now we’re there. We’re closed, and the place is for sale.”

Coates is heartbroken, but is trying to be realistic after years of taking on increasing debt to keep the cinema technologically up to date, and the building sound.

That said, he’s also still hopeful that the Vogue might have a future, even if he’s not at the helm.

The Vogue is “more than movie theatre,” says Coates. “It’s a cultural centre where so many other things happen than just Hollywood movies. And I think that’s the direction the theatre needs to go.”

Between the Sackville Film Society, concerts by Sappyfest and other local promoters, and Sackville’s vibrant theatre scene, Coates thinks the Vogue’s future might be as a community-run arts space.… Continue

Listen in: ‘Telling it slant’: Robert Lapp delivers Mount A’s (and his) Last Lecture

Every year, members of the graduating class at Mount Allison University choose a professor they would like to hear from one last time. It’s called “The Last Lecture” and this year, that last lecture was delivered on April 4 by Robert Lapp, head of the Mount Allison English Department.

Lapp began by noting that this literally will be his last lecture since he’s retiring this spring after 25 years of teaching at the university.

In this radio piece produced by local journalist Bruce Wark, we hear excerpts from Robert Lapp’s last lecture called “Telling it slant, How to tell the truth.” We’ll also hear his thoughts on retirement, how poetry helps us to see the truth and, also, how eco-poetry helps us to cope with the often unpleasant and paradoxical truths of climate change.

Robert Lapp was introduced by Mount Allison graduating student Erin Dumville:

… Continue

Pottie pleads to manslaughter, discrepancy in agreed facts to be cleared up at sentencing

A first degree murder trial ended on Tuesday with the second of two people originally accused of the crime pleading guilty to a lesser charge.

Henry Alexander Joseph Pottie pled guilty to manslaughter by unlawful act in the murder of Jamie Leard, which took place just under two years ago, on May 25, 2021, in Upper Cape, between Cape Tormentine and Port Elgin.

Two people were originally charged with first degree murder in the case, Henry Pottie and Sean Patterson. Patterson pled guilty to second degree murder on April 13, just a few days before the jury trial began on April 17.

Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, Pottie’s lawyer Nathan Gorham told reporters that Pottie had been willing to accept a lesser plea for quite some time, and that the change happened on the prosecution’s side.

Defense lawyers Breana Vandebeek and Nathan Gorham speaking to reporters outside the Moncton courthouse on May 2, 2023. Photo: Erica Butler

“Mr. Pottie felt bad that he had any involvement in the case whatsoever,” said Gorham. “He didn’t want Mr. Leard to die like this, and he didn’t know what was going to happen. And he was willing to accept responsibility for his own actions.”

Gorham told reporters that, “under Canadian law, a person can be guilty of manslaughter if they commit any dangerous unlawful act, and that act causes death.”

“In Mr. Pottie’s case,” explained Gorham, “he’s pled guilty as being a party or a secondary actor, on the basis that he was aware that there was going to be a confrontation of some kind, and that he knew that his behaviour assisted or encouraged the confrontation, knowing that it was a dangerous situation.”… Continue

Sackville-New Zealand collaborators longlisted for Sobey Art Award

A pair of artists based in Sackville and New Zealand have been longlisted for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s most generous art prize.

Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux are partners and artistic collaborators who split their time between Sackville and New Zealand. Last summer, the pair exhibited their work Terrarium at the Owens Art Gallery in Sackville, curated by director Emily Falvey.

Falvey says she felt the Terrarium exhibition was “so well done that it would probably have a good chance with the Sobey award. So we all agreed that we would kind of pursue that together.” Falvey wrote a letter of support for Bellamy and Fauteux, and then last week, the award foundation announced the pair made the longlist of 25 Canadian artists, five from each of five regions across the country.

Fauteux and Bellamy’s collaboration is remarkable, says Falvey. “They bring out the best in each other,” she says. “It’s such a wonderful, creative partnership that they have, and their approach to the subject of inter-species collaboration and working with plants is just very unique and thoughtful.”

In Terrarium, the pair created two bodies of work, one based in New Zealand, and the other in Sackville. They recorded electrochemical signals from plants in habitats that have been “profoundly altered” by human activity and translated those signals into sounds and images.… Continue

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