Age-Friendly Community

The Municipality of Chester is looking at ways to become an "age friendly" community. Warden Alan Webber says Chester is pretty much a retirement community. Council is applying for funding of 5 thousand dollars through the Age-Friendly Communities Grant Program of the Nova Scotia Department of Seniors. The money will be used to assess the age friendliness of the Municipality. Webber says once the assessment identifies barriers or specifics that need to be addressed, the Municipality will be in a better position for future funding opportunities related to senior projects and initiatives.

Grants to Organizations

Over 41 thousand dollars has been approved for grants to organizations by Chester Municipal Council. The amounts range from 100 to 75 hundred dollars. Warden Alan Webber says there's never enough money to fund all the requests every year. He says Council looks at the necessity of the grant request and what the project is. Webber says Council also looks at the amount of money the organization itself is putting into the project . He says they didn't expend all of the money, there's still 33 thousand 500 dollars left in the grants funding. Webber says there's a lot of year left and they know more grant requests will come in.

South Shore in Motion

The South Shore in Motion festival gearing up for this weekend in Bridgewater. Town Council has approved closing a portion of King Street from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday night to accommodate a meet and greet show vehicle display. The street closure takes in the main street between Dominion and Dufferin, and includes the old bridge. Most of the events for the festival are set for the Exhibition grounds between August 6th to the 8th and feature burnouts, truck pulls, celebrity lawn tractor races, a motorcycle poker run and an ATV challenge.

Stockwell Day to Address Chamber

The President of the Treasury Board of Canada will be in town on Friday (Augsut 6th) . Stockwell Day will be the featured guest speaker at a luncheon sponsored by the Bridgewater and Area Chamber of Commerce. Friday's event
is set for at the Days Inn and Convention Centre on North Street in Bridgewater. Tickets are $20.00 for chamber members and $25.00 for non-members. Registration starts at 12:00 and the lunch will start at 12:30. All tickets must be reserved prior to the event. Please email bacc@eastlink.ca or call 902-543-4263 to reserve you seat.

South Shore Exhibtion Seeks More Safety

The South Shore Exhibition is adding new safety features after four people suffered injuries last week.

Organizers will add a new exercise area, in the rear parking lot, for pull horses next year.

South Shore Exhibition Commission Board Member, Christine Sarty, says the "scoot" area will help prevent any further accidents.

She says the board considered adding the pen this year but a lack of government funding hampered their plans.

Sarty says the commission doesn't take accidents lightly and will be discussing more safety measures at next month's board meeting.

Three young girls and a horse handler were injured when a horse became spooked and ran freely through the grounds.

Sarty says this year's fair was a success despite the unfortunate accident.

More than 44 thousand people attended the event, almost twelve hundred more than last year.

FIRE DAMAGES BRIDGEWATER SAVE EASY

Police and officials from the Fire Marshall's office are investigating a fire that took place early Sunday morning at the Bridgewater Shopping Plaza.

They suspect that the fire began after someone set a stack of wooden pallets on fire behind the Save Easy store.

The fire scorched the side of the building and sent flames to the roof before firefighters were able to bring the blaze under control.

There was smoke and water damage to the area of the plaza nearest the fire.

COMPUTER THEFTS FROM PENTZ ELEMENTARY

The RCMP are continuing their investigation into a weekend burglary at a Lunenburg County school.

Thieves made off with a number of items from Pentz Elementary School.

Among other things, they stole a computer laptop and two desktop computers.