Student Remembered

2009-06-01 09:48:14

They should be getting ready for graduation and the start on the journey for the rest of their lives.  Instead, students at New Germany Rural High are being dismissed early today to get ready to say goodbye to a fellow classmate.  17 year-old Jacob Alexander Noonan was killed last Wednesday afternoon walking along Highway 10 in Springfield.  The Grade 12 student was from North River and was a part-time employee of the New Germany Irving.  A funeral service is being held this afternoon (at 3pm) in the New Germany High School gymnasium.   A Memorial Bursary fund is being set up in Jacob's name.

V-I-C SOLD

2009-06-01 06:23:19

The Bridgewater Tourist Bureau has a new owner.  The land the building sits on at the corner of Elm Street and Aberdeen Road is owned by the Town, but the  building  used as a Visitor Information Centre was owned by the Bridgewater and Area Chamber of Commerce.  The VIC was offered to the Town for a dollar, but after no sale the Chamber called for public tenders.   It was announced Friday afternoon the building has been sold to Sea Coast HVAC Limited of Bridgewater. The new owners have until June 30th to remove the VIC from its present location.

Friday Politics

2009-06-01 06:19:43

Liberals in Lunenburg West are challenging a statement by Conservative Candidate Carolyn Bolivar-Getson.  Mark Furey is speaking out against a statement she made at a debate in Bridgewater this week.  Bolivar-Getson made the claim her Conservative government had produced eight consecutive balanced budgets.  Furey adamantely denies that.  He says the only way they could have balanced the spring budget was if they broke the rules.  A proposed amendment to the Finance Act had to pass for the Conservative financial plan to balance. That change would have allowed them to spend extra money on programs instead of putting it on the province's 12-billion dollar debt.  Furey says it's time for the Conservative government to be accountable for their actions and realize Nova Scotians are smarter than that.

Political rhetoric, or a pledge to set the record straight?   Pam Birdsall has paid for a print ad to refute what she says are untrue statements by Premier Rodney MacDonald.   The NDP candidate in Lunenburg says the premier claimed publicly the Firefighter tax credit would be cancelled if the government changed.  Birdsall says the $500 credit for 2009 is law and was approved in the Legislature in 2007 with the NDP fully supporting the measure.  She says the election makes no difference to the law or the ammendment extending it to ground search and rescue along with firefighters.

Judy Streatch is calling on the South Shore Region School board to keep Big Tancook Elementary school open.  The facility is one of the last one-room schools in the country and it sits on an island in the waters of Mahone Bay.  Declining enrollments at the school in recent years have lead board members to order an impact assessment report.  Streatch says Big Tancook Elementary has a long standing history of educating the children who call the islands home.  She adds it is a wonderful school in a unique situation and she says that has to be remembered in any move forward plan for the P-5 facility.  It's thought there will be an enrollment of between five and ten students over the next five years.  Streatch says she does not support closing Big Tancook Elementary and will work to make sure parents have input on where their kids are educated.

It's a political challenge of a different sort. Rick Welsford, the Liberal candidate in the riding of Lunenburg has challenged the other candidates to remove their signs from the Towns lawns and gardens. Welsford issued his challenge during his closing remarks of a candidates debate in Lunenburg last night.  He planned to remove his signs immediately after leaving the debate.