Clipper Grounded

It's the end of a south shore community newspaper - at least in a format that you can light the woodstove with. This week's edition of the Chester Clipper says their last publication will be coming up on November 10th. An article on the front page says owner Colin MacDonald is assessing it's future because ad revenues have dropped to a level that the paper is no longer viable. The website associated with the Chester Clipper will continue to operate though. The paper was started almost ten years ago and they show a current circulation of just over 10,000 copies.

Pot Seizure

A Gold River man is facing charges after a seizure of more than 70 pounds of processed marijuana . Officers of the South Shore Integrated Street Crime Unit searched two homes in Gold River on Monday, one on Bridgeview Drive the other on the Beech Hill Road . Thirty-nine year old Leroy James Hatt is facing charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for illegal production of marijuana and possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. Hatt is slated to appear in Bridgewater Provincial Court on December 16th for election and plea. Police are continuing their investigation.

Crime Sheet

Bridgewater Police being kept busy with a rash of break-ins.Sometime during the overnight hours Sunday October 11th to Monday morning, October 12th, a person or persons broke into the Bridgewater Memorial Arena as well as the Senior's Club upstairs. A sum of money was stolen and items damaged. During that same time period the Olde Town Gold Course was also broken into. An undisclosed amount of money was taken and items were also damaged. Police are also investigating a broken window at a business located at the corner of Empire and King Streets. That incident happened sometime overnight Saturday, October 10th. And between Friday evening October 9th and Tuesday morning, October 13th, a laptop computer was stolen from an office at South Shore Regional Hospital. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Bridgewater Police or CRIMESTOPPERS.

Lunenburg Light Concerns?

Maybe it's something they should consider in the town of Lunenburg office. A recent power outage has Antigonish council rethinking a plan to install energy efficient lighting throughout their community. The Town had been installing L-E-D lighting in street lamps after 60 of the units were provided free-of-charge on a trial basis. But none of the L-E-D lights came back on after power was restored following last week's outage. Mayor Carl Chisholm says plans to convert the entire town to energy efficient lighting may have to be put on hold. Lunenburg Council is getting ready to install 48 L-E-D streetlights that have been provided to them - along with several other Nova Scotia municipalities for evaluation and testing.

Drug Bust

A Gold River man is facing charges after a seizure of more than 70 pounds of processed marijuana . Officers of the South Shore Integrated Street Crime Unit searched two homes in Gold Rive on Monday, one on Bridgeview Drive the other on the Beech Hill Road . Thirty-nine year old Leroy James Hatt is facing charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for illegal production of marihuana and possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. Hatt is slated to appear in Bridgewater Provincial Court on December 16th for election and plea. Police are continuing their investigation.

Some might call it a steal.. a used visitor information centre for $25.00. The Region of Queens put out a request for proposals to purchase and remove the old tourist bureau from the Liverpool waterfront. Only two bids came in, one for $2, the other for $25. Council decided to reject both bids and demolish the building and salvage what materials it could. However, that motion was defeated 9 to 1 . Mayor John Leefe says the view of council was two-fold. He says they felt it was environmentally sound to re-use the existing building that would have generated property tax when it was moved to another piece of property. As well, Mayor Leefe says there was no minimum price suggested so they felt they had to honour the highest bid. The VIC has to be removed by October 26th. Government funding of more than $200,000 was announced in August for a new structure to replace the 30 year old tourist bureau.

White Point Beach Resort won't be the same without him. After some 30 years, Doug Fawthrop is retiring. Region of Queens Mayor John Leefe says Fawthrop has provided tremendous leadership in promoting tourism and has been more than a good-will ambassador for the Region. Leefe says before Fawthrop took over White Point Beach it was a seasonal business operating only about 3 months of the year, and local folks were not welcomed on the property.

Race Charges

Race on the track, not on the street. It's a message they didn't hear and now they are lucky enough to still be alive to face charges. Lunenburg County RCMP confirm there was a two vehicle accident in Lower Branch on Thanksgiving Day around 4:30 in the afternoon. Staff Sergeant Mark Furey says police were able to establish both vehicles were racing on the public road at the time. And that contributed to the crash. One vehicle left the road, ending up in the woods and according to witnesses, barely missed two telephone poles. One of the male drivers was taken to South Shore Regional where he was checked out and then released. Police say both drivers are charged with "racing" under the motor vehicle act and will be in court December 2nd to enter plea.

NSCC Strike Averted

Nova Scotia Community College and the Nova Scotia Teachers Union have reached a tentative collective averting a strike scheduled for tomorrow. A date for a ratification vote by the membership will be confirmed soon. Details of the agreement will not be available until the agreement has been ratified. There are Community College campuses in Bridgewater and Shelburne.

Quotes from News Release:

This has been a very difficult set of negotiations and the NSTU has worked diligently to arrive at a tentative agreement and avoid a strike,” says NSTU president Alexis Allen. “We feel this is the best deal possible for our members. The goodwill and spirit of cooperation shown between the NSTU and the College during this trying time have greatly assisted in reaching this agreement.”

“I am so grateful to our employees, students and partners who have demonstrated such a strong commitment to learning under enormous pressure,” says NSCC President Joan McArthur-Blair. “We must now ensure our NSTU colleagues have time to consider and vote on this tentative agreement while continuing to deliver the first-rate education our students deserve.”

School Bus Safety

Avoid Harm, Obey the Stop Arm. This is School bus safety week and a Halifax-based group is launching an awareness campaign in Bridgewater. Members of Safety Services Nova Scotia are at the South Shore Regional School Board bus garage on St. Phillips Street. This hour, they are doing a tour of the garage where they are explaining the twice-a-year inspection process. Then a police checkpoint will be set up to hand out safety information to drivers. They will be handed a card that explains the penalties for passing a school bus. For information on school bus safety or the school bus campaign, see http://www.schoolbussafety.ca/. For more information regarding Safety Services Nova Scotia, visit thier website at http://www.safetyservicesns.ca/.

No Tax Break

A local insurance company won't be getting any tax break from the Town. Danny Carey's Insurance Agency on North Street asked Bridgewater Town Council for an exception to keep his tax rate at the present commercial rate without adding on the extra rate to make up for declining Business Occupancy assessments. Carey says because the Property Valuation Services has changed the class his business falls under, he'll be paying an extra 9 percent over what other businesses in the town will be paying. Mayor Carroll Publicover says Council's hands are tied on the matter. He says they referred it to staff for study and they checked the Municipal Government Act and with advisors and he says they are not allowed to change the rate.
Publicover says Carey's situation was not unique and his was not the only business to be affected.

H-1-N-1 Response Plan

South Shore Health is gearing up for a second wave of H-1-N-1 flu to strike the area. Acting CEO Alice Leverman says the H-1-N-1 Response plan is expected to be completed within the next couple of weeks. Leverman says the District has been working with Public Health who is gathering information on possible case numbers on the national and international level. Leverman says they have developed a Flu Plan Checklist and Tips for Caring for Someone with the Flu which are available on their internet site available here.

Ship Shape Support

The Town of Shelburne is getting a boost from the province to develop a festival and tourist attraction based on the history of loyalist longboats. The department of Economic and Rural Development committed nearly $47,000 towards the project. The theme of the new longboat festival will be based on last year's Loyalist Celebrations that helped establish the longboat as an icon for the area's tourism industry. The total cost of the project is about $130,000.

Boat Building Help

Nova Scotia is offering up money to help the province's boat building industry open new global markets. And seven businesses along the south shore will be benefiting. Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau announced the 155-thousand dollars in funding this week. He says the long-term viability of boat building is important to our rural communities and the province's economy. The funding will allow companies to participate in market research, marketing activities and the development of marketing materials. The investment is part of one million dollars in cost-shared boat building funding over two years previously announced from the Community Development Trust Fund. Companies that have received funding from the south shore are: ABCO Industries Ltd., Lunenburg; Covey Island Boatworks, Lunenburg; Goreham's Marine 2000 Inc., Woods Harbour; The Dory Shop, Lunenburg; Lutwick's Boatbuiling, Mahone Bay; Norseboat Ltd., Lunenburg and Nova Trawler Company, Shelburne.

Suspicious Activity

RCMP are investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle in the Chester Basin area. An unknown male allegedly approached two kids waiting for the school bus on Wednesday and asked them to get in his vehicle. The car is described as a large sedan with four doors and beige in colour. The male driver was wearing a grey knitted hat with a red lumber jacket, and he had a crooked tooth on his bottom row of teeth. Anyone with information concerning the incident is asked to contact the Chester RCMP or Crimestoppers.

And Then Some

South Shore/St. Margaret's MP Gerald Keddy will be handing out more federal funding today. Keddy will be making multiple announcements with respect to the Government of Canada’s investments in the community of Shelburne. The announcements are set for 11 o'clock this morning at the Shelburne Yacht Club. Yesterday Keddy announced more than 400 thousand dollars for Bridgewater's Riverfront Renaissance, to revitalize the LaHave River waterfront and downtown core. He also announced funding of 113 thousand dollars to be used for upgrades to the Mahone Bay Community Centre.

More Money

The Government of Canada is contributing more than $400,000 through the Government of Canada’s Economic Action Plan for the revitalization of downtown Bridgewater. The announcement was made Thursday by South Shore/St. Margaret's MP, Gerald Keddy. The funding is for Phase 1 of a five-phase concept to revitalize the LaHave River Waterfront and the downtown core of the Town. This phase will include site upgrades and the installation of a fountain in the King Street Court Park as well as a floating gazebo, gangway ramp, stairs, and look off point, site furniture, and interpretive panels and signage. Keddy then travelled to Mahone Bay for another funding announcement.The Town is receiving more than $100,thousand through the Innovative Communities Fund to support a series of upgrades to the Mahone Bay Community Centre. The investment will allow for the creation of resource space for youth, local groups, and entrepreneurs as well as reduce the operating and energy costs of the facility.

Lunenburg School Site

Lunenburg's new school will be built on the same site as the town's old school. Education Minister Marilyn More says the future home of the Primary to Grade 9 building will be the location where the existing Junior-Senior High school building is. The minister advised members of the South Shore School board in a letter that said the property at 12 Knickle road was the most appropriate for the new facility. It was one of three proposed by the Board which were then reviewed by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal. Construction of the new school is expected to get underway in mid-2010 and to be completed in late in 2011. Student populations of Lunenburg Junior High, Lunenburg Academy, Riverport & District Elementary and Centre Consolidated School will be moved to the new $23-million facility. Lunenburg Jr/Sr High was turned into a grade 6 to 9 school and the senior students were sent to Parkview or Bridgewater.

Another Apartment Fire

Another fire in an apartment building in Bridgewater and thankfully, no one was hurt in this incident either. Volunteers were called out to the 26-unit building on Pleasant Street around six last night. The flames in one of the apartments was doused quickly and the cause is still under investigation. Red Cross officials say tenants from up to seven apartments that received smoke and water damage may be out for at least a day or two while cleanup and repairs are carried out. Most found family or friends to stay with last night. It was a month ago that crews had to put out a fire on the balcony of an apartment building on North Street. No one was hurt in that incident September 15th.

More Riding Money

More money is being made available for South Shore towns today. South Shore-St. Margaret's MP Gerald Keddy will be making funding announcement in Bridgewater and Mahone Bay with respect to Government of Canada investments in the communities. The Bridgewater announcement is set for 10 o'clock this morning at the Day's Inn, while the Mahone Bay announcement will take place at noon at the Mahone Bay Community Centre.