Category: Community News

A new Tantramar council spent just over two hours on Monday afternoon reviewing the details of the municipality’s $15.5 million operating budget for 2023.

CAO Jennifer Borne pointed out that it was unusual for such a presentation to happen in mid-February, just over 6 weeks into the fiscal year. “I would say that’s probably a career first for all of us,” said Borne in her opening remarks. “We’re checking off a lot of firsts with Tantramar, but that’s kind of an interesting first.”

The province’s approved budget for Tantramar was handed over to town staff on January 6, with just basic line numbers providing very little detail or specifics. Borne and acting treasurer Michael Beal have spent the last number of weeks going through the budget line by line to make sure all departments are covered.

About $1.5 million of the new town’s budget is raised through rents, grants, and fees charged for services, but taxes provide the lion’s share of the budget, approximately $14 million. How that money is raised—and how it’s spent—is more complicated than ever this year, thanks to amalgamation.

There are five former entities in Tantramar, and each had their own tax rate in 2022. Those five entities will remain on the books as sub-units in the new municipal budget, with five separate tax rates. Two of those rates will remain almost flat, but some—those in the local service districts—will start to climb.… Continue

Sackville Farmers Market board chair Kent Coates presented to Tantramar council this week, and renewed the market’s plea for municipal help in securing a permanent downtown location.

Coates made the case that the market is worth the investment, because it brings people downtown, fosters community, serves as an incubator for local businesses, and opens up a pathway federal and provincial funding to which the town might not normally have access. Coates also pointed to other neighbouring examples of municipally-supported markets, rattling off a long list including Tatamagouche, Wolfville, Pugwash, Bouctouche, Sussex, Salisbury, Moncton, Dieppe and Shediac.

“All of these municipalities have identified a farmers market as a priority,” said Coates. “And the municipality has supported those markets in significant ways.” Coates said in almost all the places he named, the municipality has provided a facility, either inside or outside.

This was the first market presentation to the new Tantramar council, but the conversation over a permanent location goes back years with the former Sackville council. In November 2021, just weeks before Local Government Minister Daniel Allain announced the amalgamation of Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding local service districts, Sackville town council heard a rough estimate for a multipurpose building that would provide a permanent home for the farmers market, as well as additional recreation space for the town.… Continue

With the amalgamation adventure just barely underway, you can’t blame some residents of Dorchester village from getting nervous when they noticed a dumpster behind the Dorchester Veterans Community Centre chock-a-block full with furniture from the centre.

A picture of the overflowing dumpster garnered concerned comments on social media, so CHMA reached out to Tantramar recreation director Matt Pryde for an explanation.

Pryde says the furniture that was discarded in the dumpster is all being replaced. “There was a lot of old, broken chairs and tables there,” says Pryde. “And the ones that weren’t broken were heavy, and filthy, quite honestly. So we’re replacing a lot of the stuff with new tables and chairs that will be lighter and easier to use.”

The new equipment should be in place within a couple of weeks, says Pryde. The old equipment was thrown out instead of being repurposed, says Pryde, because it was not in a state fit for donation to another facility.

In addition to concerns sparked by images of the discarded furniture, there have also been worries over rumours that part of the Dorchester VCC might be used as a location for the Bob Edgett Memorial Boxing Club. A letter dated January 31 and signed “Residents, Organizations and Community members of Ward 1”, expresses the concern that giving up a portion of the building to a full-time tenant would limit space availability for community events.… Continue

For a few weeks now, Bagtown Brewery has been closed with paper covering the windows to hide the mess of an interior renovation in the works. The microbrewery, which started as a student entrepreneurship class project back in 2016, is expanding into the rest of its current building at 45 Main Street in Sackville, taking over the space previously occupied by Sip, and before that, Pi by Crow.

“We’re really excited about it,” says owner Anthony Maddalena. The expansion will double the indoor seating capacity of the brewery, and will also make room for a kitchen space to be operated by an as-yet-unnamed partner.

“We’ve got a great patio in the summertime, but in the offseason, through the colder months, we really want to have a bit more seating to have it be a bit more functional, so we can maybe offer a few different types of events inside,” says Maddalena.

As for the brewery side of things, it will be mostly business as usual, he says, though there will be new products on offer. “We’re taking the opportunity to sort of expand what we’re doing with the bar in terms of what taps we have, and what products we’ll be offering,” says Maddalena.

The bigger change will involve more than drinks. “We’ve also taken the area that was Sip’s kitchen and service counter area, and we’re sort of reworking that a little bit,” says Maddalena, “making it into a space that will hopefully be a functional kitchen for someone else to come in and operate.”… Continue