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The Shoreline Journal is a monthly community newspaper based in Bass River, Nova Scotia, and serving the Fundy Shore/Glooscap Trail from Truro to Parrsboro. See submission deadlines...
Established in 1994, the paper was originally published as the West Colchester Free Press by Ken Kennedy Publications, and later renamed to The Shoreline Journal. In January 2008 The Journal changed hands and is now under the management of the husband and wife team of Maurice & Dorothy Rees. They initiated a redesign of the paper, with the addition of several colour pages in each issue. Each monthly issue concentrates on the many community events which involve residents of all ages, from the elderly to the very young, and those young at heart. A primary focus is those activities which involve students, whether it be school or 4-H club activities.
Maurice has extensive experience in the community newspaper & advertising field, and has been running several businesses in Maitland for the past few years. Dorothy is a lady of many interests who added new features to the Journal; and since November 2008 has operated her own business, Dorothy’s T-shirt Factory, later renamed to “tshirtsrus.ca”. The energetic couple have a busy schedule as they are also sales agents for Nelson Monuments and also travel frequently to annual Nova Scotian festivals selling t-shirts.
On-line issues: This Month Issue Archives - April 2009 to last month
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Features
The Shoreline Journal understands that rural communities want to know about news and events in their communities, so that's our focus, the things that directly affect our subscribers, sponsors and customers. Watch for regular items:
| Rees' Pieces (Publishers) | Letters to the Editor | Community Calendar |
| Heritage Notes | Sports Events | Classified Ads |
| Senior Affairs | Nature Notes | Credit Union News |
| MLA Activity Report | Community Centres | Fire Brigade |
| Favourite Pet Photo | Parish News | 4-H Clubs |
| Dorothy's Kitchen Korner | Poems & Photos | Obituaries |
| Front Page Briefs |
plus notes from many communities and organizations such as:
Bass River, CCJS Student Council, Chiganois, Debert Elementary, Debert Legion, Great Village, Londonderry Council, MacCarell Villa, Masstown, Onslow Belmont, skating clubs & other groups
The Shoreline Journal
June 2017 Issue follows:
Rees's Pieces - June 2017
Important Things to do
There are several things which we must be aware of and respect the importance of each with sincerity on a regular basis. They include: pay attention to health; protect family and loved ones; be a good citizen; know and protect the integrity of our county; do the best we can at work; respect the rights and freedoms of others.
In addition we must do what we can looking out for the welfare and betterment of seniors, youth, armed force members, veterans, law enforcement and those not as fortunate as ourselves. Yes, it’s a tall order but as Canadians that is who we should be.
Sound philosophical? No. It’s just being Canadian.
To be all of that there is just one thing we need to do. We need to vote on May 30th.
There were lots of smiles and mutual admiration at the May 2nd, Volunteer Recognitiion, when 31 volunteer firefighters serving a combined 1,678 years, were recognized by the County of Colchester and Town of Truro. Pictured above are Crawford Purdy, 60 years chats with Doug Boyce, 71 years, while Mayor Christine Blair stays close to Mr. Boyce. Special Feature on pages 14-15. (Rees Photo)
Little Dyke Residents Fight Back
By Maurice Rees
People who live in West Colchester’s Little Dyke area are demanding a moratorium on plans by New Brunswick’s Irving Family to expand a gravel pit in their neighbourhood to ten times its current size. At a public meeting held on May 19th residents agreed to take their fight to candidates of the three main parties in the May 30th provincial election.
Property owners formed the Little Dyke Residents Association and have held several information sessions. Approximately 50 properties border Little Dyke Lake which is close to the proposed expansion. The May 19th meeting included representation by nearly 50% of the property owners.
When contacted concerning the May 18th meeting, Karen Casey responded, "I have attended and initiated meetings with residents to hear their concerns and to have OSCO administration and site management attend. That previous information session was organized by me so that residents could pose their questions to the company".
She continued, "I have also delivered a letter on behalf of...and. signed by some of the residents ...to the Minister of Environment". I was not aware of nor invited to the May 18th meeting.
The association has discovered the area contains five "species at risk" and one "Endangered Species". According to the Provincial GS ranking, there are 49 Rare Species within five kilometres of the proposed expansion. Of the 49 Rare Species five Species at Risk are: Red Knot, Common Night Hawk, Barn Swallow, Olive-sided Flycatcher and Canada Warbler. The Red Knot is now listed as "Endangered" by COSEWIC.
Little Dyke Lake is fed by an intricate series of underground springs. Residents fear expanding the current gravel pit to 10 times its current size could affect the groundwater system, jeopardizing successful farming operations, in addition to damaging the environment.
Ian MacFadden, a member of the Association, is a property owner on Little Dyke Road for 25 years, and his family's connection with Little Dyke Lake as property owners goes back over 85 years. MacFadden says residents in the area have already tolerated a major expansion by Irving-owned OSCO in 2007. "And now to hear the Irving Group has plans for other 20-years of noise, the destruction of natural water tables and marine life? We’re not going to stand for it, and we want our political representatives to declare that they stand with us."
Carol McNutt, a member of the Little Dyke Residents’ Association, has studied the 91-page proposal put forth by Irving-owned OSCO Aggregates. She says, "The proposed 75.4 acre gravel pit expansion cannot help but have a devastating effect on everything in its midst. You cannot extract 1.13 million tonnes of aggregate from the earth over a 20 year period and not have a negative impact on the environment. This new expansion will border on wetlands which form a rich and delicate ecosystem that serves as a natural habitat for countless animals and birds, some of which are designated as "Species at Risk" and one of which has been upgraded to "Endangered".
MacFadden and McNutt argue it’s time Nova Scotia had an environmental bill of rights, putting the onus on developers to prove they won’t harm the environment.
Some residents feel their opposition is just beginning and will soon become much more public potentially involving councillors and other government departments. A couple of residents suggested the Department of Environment needs to be put "on notice" landowners are concerned about the approval process and flaws in the regulations.
Another resident commented they were not comfortable with Environment’s commitment to; ability to properly enforce compliance and accountability. Professional opinion will be sought as many feel the project proposal should never have been allowed to be registered as it does not meet the requirements.
Residents feel being able to operate within 100 feet of a marine habitat should not be allowed and have expressed concerns possible disruption of the intricate underground springs, could negatively impact the water table and if underground aquifers are damaged it might even drain the lake.
McNutt agrees with the concerns of others saying, "The scope of the project will include clear cutting, pit development/aggregate extraction, screening, mobile crushing, stockpiling of aggregate and transport to the Wash Plant facility located 700 meters along Little Dyke Road. The operation is set to run 12-14 hours/day, 6 days/week and there is potential for increased operations to 22-24 hours/day depending on product demand. In addition to the devastating effect this mammoth operation will have on nature, it will also eliminate quality of life for residents. Little Dyke Lake has been a popular swimming spot for generations. Let's work towards keeping it a beautiful and tranquil location for generations to come."
The group plans more meetings with the Province of Nova Scotia in the days and weeks ahead. With a provincial election just days away, the Shoreline Journal sent a series of ten questions to candidates representing the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives and New Democratic Party of Nova Scotia.
Responses
from the candidates are contained in an adjoining story.
A pair of bald eagles discuss their future plans in Lower Debert (Harrington Photo)
Taggart Focuses on High Speed Internet
By Maurice Rees
At a recent meeting of Colchester council, councillor Tom Taggart had set his sights on doing whatever was possible to bring high speed internet to resident of the entire county. He originally asked for council’s consideration to host a summit to bring all the players together to see what could happen. After discussion, it was decided to send letters to try to get some activity moving forward.
In recent months municipalities were encouraged to apply for funding under Ottawa’s $500-Million Connect to Innovate fund, but the application deadline was April 20th.
Following council’s meeting, I spoke with Emerich R Winkler Jr who operates NCS Network and is busy setting up fibre like internet services where a cluster of customers would benefit from beaming signal from another location. For instance he is going to beam fibre over the air to Port Greville from Canning but would still have to erect poles or towers as repeater to send the signal to other residents not in the "line-of-site" from Cannning.
During our meeting, I inquired what might be possible along Highway #2 from the Masstown / Glenholme area to Parrsboro. He explained Bell Aliant already had fibre along Hwy #2, but they ask very high fees to tap into the service. Even though there is fibre in Port Greville, Bell Aliant asked $213,752.80, plus other fees to tie into their equipment in Port Greville.
If initiatives evolved to install backbone fibre it would cost approximately $15-30K per km to implement, which is totally uneconomical based on population density in West Colchester. To run from Masstown to Parrsboro would cost at least $3-Million to run along the highway, plus costs to take from the main cable to individual properties for fibre to the home or business.
Yes, it is possible to improve internet speeds in rural areas, it’s a matter of the magnitude of investment and possible return on investment. The situation gets even more muddled, because efforts are afoot to deliver the fastest high speed internet possible from satellites. Even though rural areas need and are demanding immediate availability of high speed internet, an investment of large sums of money might not be a wise decision.
Based on what is happening globally, there is an understandable reason why governments, federally and provincially, have been unable to direct creation of a high speed service to all areas. Current global initiatives, if developed successfully, would cause the larger players like Bell, Rogers, Eastlink, Seaside High Speed and others to suffer a dramatic loss in internet business.
The race to build global, high-speed, satellite internet is on. Billionaire Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines fame along with the telecommunications company Qualcomm, have tossed about $500-Million towards former Google Satellite executive Greg Wyler's satellite-internet company OneWeb.
OneWeb, previously called WorldVu, aims to bring internet access to those without it, including third world countries, rural areas in developed countries like the US, and airlines. The service will be powered by a constellation of 648 satellites.
OneWeb will launch the 250-pound satellites with the help of Virgin Galactic's LauncherOne, a rocket created to launch cargo into orbit. Originally the plan was to introduce the service in 2017, but the deadly crash of Virgin Galatic’s satellite has pushed the launch date back to possibly late 2018, or 2019.
At an altitude of around 1,200 kilometers (745 miles), the satellites should reach a throughput capacity of 8 gigabits per second. If the initial launch is successful Branson says the company could launch up to 2,400 satellites. In other media reports, Branson says, "It's much more efficient than the big rockets of the past. We can literally take off every three or four hours".
Currently based in Britain’s Channel Island, OneWeb is in the process of creating smaller user terminals which will provide internet access at the rate of 50 megabits per second. Branson and Wyler are not the only players. Another initiative under SpaceX is in the running to test low-latency internet broadcast after its billion dollar investment from Google and Fidelity.
Media reports indicate OneWeb will be focusing on development of its satellite technology, as well as stations on the ground for mobile providers to further distribute internet access via LTE, WiFi, etc. The company aims to have its internet services up and running by 2019. The ground stations will be built by Hughes Network, which already provides high-speed satellite internet to certain markets from satellites in geostationary orbit.
The emerging technologies are part of the reason Canada’s larger communications and internet suppliers are loath to make significant investments for smaller and rural markets. The advent of OneWeb or SpaceX satellites will forever change the delivery of extremely high speed internet regardless of your location.
If they are successful the only local component would probably be the installer who comes to your house to set up the service. Local installers would simply point your receiver towards a satellite and you would receive service at the same speed as customers in the largest urban core.
Peacekeepers Day at Veterans Memorial Park
By Janet Maybee
May 28 is International UN Peacekeepers Day and once again Canadian peacekeepers will be honoured by a special ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Park in Bass River.
It has become a tradition the event begins with a Peacekeepers Motorcycle Parade at 10:30, followed by a march of all veterans from the Bass River Fire Hall to the park. This year, in recognition of Canada’s 150th anniversary, there will be a special and stirring addition to the parade: the Stadacona Band of the Royal Canadian Navy.
The program for the 11:00 a.m service includes recognition of RCMP Peacekeepers by a stalwart Newfoundlander, Gerry White, and the presentation of a tall metal yellow ribbon (the familiar Support Our Troops symbol) donated to the park by UN-NATO.
Peter Stoffer will speak about his experience at the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge; a longtime supporter of veterans in his many years as MP, Stoffer now works with Trauma Healing Centre. Following the ceremony, everyone is welcome to join the peacekeepers, veterans and the Stadacona Band at a reception up the hill at West Colchester Consolidated School.
Janet Maybee is public relations coordinator, Veterans Memorial Park
Page One Briefs - June 2017
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STRESS RELIEF - The human
brain works slower in old age, said Dr. Michael Ramscar, but
only because we have stored more information over time. The
brains of older people do not get weak. On the contrary,
they simply know more. On May 7th, a dead bottlenose dolphin was reported on the shoreline of the Shubenacadie River, near South Maitland in Nova Scotia. Reports of a few other stranded bottlenose dolphins in Nova Scotia in the past, it is uncommon to see them. A field assessment of the carcass confirmed it to be an nearly 10ft adult female. Working against the extreme tides of the Bay of Fundy, measurements were taken and an on-site necropsy was performed by MARS staff. While collecting samples, the necropsy also revealed the dolphin to be pregnant with a near full-term fetus. However, the cause of death has not yet been determined.Cobequid Eco-Trails Society wins Summit Award at Hike Nova Scotia’s annual Hiking Summit held in Tatamagouche on April 29th. The Summit Award is presented to an organization or individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to the growth and development of hiking in Nova Scotia. The Cobequid Eco-Trails Society (CE-TS) formed in 2007 focuses on development and promotion of non-motorized trails in Colchester County. It has an emphasis on environmental appreciation and stewardship. CE-TS and community volunteers have designed and developed the Gully Lake Trail system creating over 30 kilometres of hiking trails. Local dignitaries were on hand to launch the Summit including the Honourable Karen Casey, MLA for Colchester North, Her Worship Christine Blair, Mayor of the Municipality of Colchester and Jim Baird, Chair of the Tatamagouche Village Commission. Nova Scotia Moose hunters hoping to win a license in the annual lottery must apply by May 31st. 345 licenses will be available in five moose-management zones within Victoria and Inverness counties, the only counties in the province where moose hunting is permitted. Hunters who held a moose hunting licence in the last five years (2012-16) cannot apply this year. The application process closes at midnight, May 31. It costs $9.25 (HST included) to apply online or by phone and $13.45 (HST included) to apply by mail. The draw will be held in June. Details will be announced as soon as they are available. Hunters can apply online, by phone or by mail: online go to http://novascotia.ca/natr/draws/moosedraw/ ; by phone, 1-900-565-3337 from a landline and the application fee will automatically be added to your phone bill. The phone option does not work with cellphones and it cannot be billed to a different phone number. To apply by mail please contact your local Natural Resources office.The 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion will be recognized later this fall. Boston gets lots of publicity about their efforts to help, but rarely is much said about the efforts of fellow Nova Scotians, particularly those from Colchester County. The Shoreline Journal is starting to collect data about the heroic efforts of people from Colchester who helped in any way. We are looking for copies of newspaper articles, family photos, notes from family diary, or details which have been passed down through the family over the past 100 years. Please contact: Maurice Rees, publisher, 902-647-2968, or email: maurice@theshorelinejournal.comDebbie Buott-Matheson, BA, BPR, Senior Communications Manager, Chignecto-Central Regional School Board is taking a leave of absence from the school board effective Thursday, May 11, 2017 until April 1, 2018. Efforts are underway to fill the position. Until such time as a new person is hired inquiries should be directed to Jo-Anne Jarvis-Jordan, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools at 902-897-8910 or Jarvis-jordanja@ccrsb.ca.Doug MacKenzie, long time Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture for the Town of Truro, plans to retire within the year and will be handing the reigns over to Ashley Simms. In the meantime, Ashley has taken on the position of Assistant Director. Yard Sale followers will be busy marking July 8 & 9 on their calendar for the annual West Colchester 75 Mile Yard sale along Highway #2 from Mingo’s Corner to Parrsboro. Community Groups and individuals should start preparing for the gigantic event. Those interested in partnering with the organizers should contact Clair Peers, 902-897-5951. |
Read the Journal on-line!
The entire issue is available on line in pdf format - browse through the paper page by page, read as little or as much as you like. Click for Issue Archives...
| May 2017 (June coming soon) | |
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THE SOUTH CUMBERLAND NEWS May issue (June coming soon) |
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| Issue | Deadline | Published |
| March 2017 | February 21 | March 1 |
| April 2017 | March 21 | March 29 |
| May 2017 | April 18 | April 26 |
| June 2017 | May 23 | May 31 |
| July 2017 | June 20 | June 28 |
| August 2017 | July 18 | July 26 |
| September 2017 | August 22 | August 30 |
| October 2017 | September 19 | September 27 |
| November 2017 | October 24 | November 1 |
| December 2017 | November 21 | November 29 |
| January 2018 | December 121 | December 20 |
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