Federal Agency Confirms ISA in Shelburne Harbour

An outbreak of a serious salmon virus has been confirmed at a Shelburne Harbour fish farm. The operation is owned by New Brunswick based Cooke Aquaculture. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed the results on Wednesday and determined infectious salmon anemia was present at the company's operation in Shelburne. The virus does not affect human health or food safety. It can, however, kill up to 90 per cent of infected fish depending on the strain. The federal agency says measures are being taken to prevent further spread of the disease, and it will continue to test the rest of the salmon at the facility. The fish farm remains under quarantine. Thousands of salmon were destroyed after ISA was suspected at the operation last month.

Bird Construction awarded LCLC contract

Bird Construction has been awarded the contract for the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre. Chair Paul Belliveau confirmed Wednesday morning after a meeting with officials. Belliveau says things are almost ready to go.

"We're very pleased that we've finally got to the point where we have awarded the contract, you know we're still negotiating the final price, we're getting close to our budgeted amount, we are not there but we're getting closer than what we were two weeks ago."

 Belliveau says the project manager and architects have been able to cut down costs between $500,000 and $600,000 so far to Bird Construction's bid of just under $24.4-million. Belliveau says they still have roughly $300,000 to either cut or deal with. He hopes negotiations will wrap up within the next couple of weeks and workers will be on site later this month.

Diamond Jubilee Medal for Hebbville Fire Fighter

A South Shore man is receiving a very special recognition for his lifetime of volunteering as a fire fighter. Harold Conrad is a retired chief of the Hebbville Fire Department and he will be presented with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal later this spring. He is still an active firefighter, 64 years after he joined the department. "The Chief" says he's happy to be given the honor and will wear the medal with pride. In 2010, Conrad was also awarded the Canadian Volunteer Fire Services Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.

New Era: Historic Lunenburg Academy's Final Class

It will be the end of an era and there will be a lot of reminiscing today as Lunenburg Academy holds its very last day of classes. The 117-year old Academy closes at the end of the day to make way for the opening of the new Bluenose Academy on March 21st. Lunenburg Mayor Lawrence Mawhinney tells us this morning, he and a lot of other people have many mixed feelings heading into today. "Everyone who has grown up in the Town of Lunenburg has attended that school, my children did, my wife taught there, my grandchildren attend there...I think for the people that have been around for a long time this will be a day of emotion and memories," There will be a special ceremony this morning for students and teachers at Lunenburg Academy to mark the event. The historic Academy as well as Centre Consolidated and Riverport Elementary will be closing and students moved to the new Academy for its start of classes on the 21st.

SSRSB special meeting to discuss electoral boundaries

The public is getting a chance to hear how the local school board is approaching electoral boundaries. The region of Queens and Municipality of the District of Lunenburg have been granted requests by the province's Utility and Review Board to change their boundaries. With the change, the South Shore Regional School Board is contemplating the size of its board before October elections. Bridgewater town council says it would like to see the board shift from 12 members to nine. A decision is expected to be made during a special board meeting Wednesday night at 7pm at the School Board office.