Debris found on Beach Meadows Beach in 2021 allegedly from the fish farm near Coffin Island. (Rick Conrad photo)

By Rick Conrad

A group opposed to fish farms in Liverpool Bay will hold a public information session on Saturday afternoon.

Volunteers with the group, Protect Liverpool Bay, will be at Mersey Point Hall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to answer the public’s questions about proposed fish farm expansion in the area and an upcoming regulatory hearing on the proposal.

Protect Liverpool Bay has been fighting efforts by Kelly Cove Salmon, which is owned by Cooke Aquaculture, to expand its fish farming operations off Coffin Island, and to create new sites off Mersey Point and Brooklyn. 

A Nova Scotia aquaculture review board hearing into Kelly Cove’s application is set to begin at the Best Western Hotel in Liverpool on March 4. 

Protect Liverpool Bay was granted intervenor status at the hearing, along with the Region of Queens, and representatives from Acadia First Nation, Brooklyn Marina and a group of Liverpool Bay fishermen.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to a QCCR news update below.

Hank Snow Playground. Photo courtesy Brookyn Recreation Committee

Kids in Brooklyn no longer need to worry about losing their playground.

The Brooklyn Recreation Committee announced they are receiving funding from the province to help refurbish the Hank Snow Playground.

Funding through the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage will cover roughly a third of the approximately $20,000 it will cost to refurbish both swing sets, replace the maypole (spinning rings), and install a new merry-go-round.

The remainder will be paid through money raised by the local area rate.

The playground had been in danger of closing after community members raised concerns the equipment may no longer be safe.

Board member Wendy Vissers says the committee checked with their insurers and performed inspections on the equipment after reaching out to the Canadian Playground Safety Institute.

Vissers says through those conversations the board learned that playground doesn’t need to be shuttered just because equipment doesn’t meet the most up-to-date standards.

“The way it was described to me is OK if you build a house in the 40’s you build it to the code of the day which is the same as with the playground, and then as building codes change you don’t tear down your house and start fresh,” said Vissers. “You just, any work going forward is done to the new code.”

The board presented what they learned to the community at a public meeting.

A motion to close the playground was unsupported and died on the floor, keeping the playground open.

The only question now for Vissers and her team is when they can expect to see the new equipment on site.

“We’re in the queue so the equipment is officially, the order is in but it’s looking like some of the swing parts will be here in in August. So, hopefully you know, sort of as soon as that stuff arrives within a week or two, we could get that project done,” said Vissers. “The other larger pieces of equipment unfortunately, it’s looking like it’s probably going to be December by the time they arrive.”

Once it arrives, the Brooklyn Recreation Committee will be installing the new equipment themselves as the only certified installer in Nova Scotia is booked up.

The committee has confirmed they can perform the work without voiding the warranty or jeopardizing their insurance.

Vissers says when they are ready to install, they will be putting a call out to the community to lend a hand.

She’s confident there will be no shortage of volunteers.

“An announcement like this, yeah we’ve had nothing but positive feedback and suggestions from community members like, hey can we do any sort of fund-raising activities to help offset the cost and people coming forward to say yeah we’ll help, you know, donate some time to make it happen, and so you know it’s been very positive.”

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com

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Photo Ed Halverson

Residents in the Brooklyn area will have their say on how much more they will pay in area rate on top of their annual property taxes.

The Region of Queens describes area rates as special tax rates over and above the normal tax rates which are applied specifically to one or more assessment districts only. Property owners in other districts do not have to pay this charge.

Brooklyn Recreation Committee has requested that Municipal Council levy a 4 cent per $100 of assessment area rate in the Brooklyn area across Assessment Districts 5 and 6 for the upcoming fiscal year. That would provide the recreation committee with the $32,000 they’re looking to raise to cover some of their costs.

Brooklyn Cemetery Committee is asking the Region to levy a 1.5 cent per $100 of assessment area rate in the same area for repairs and maintenance of the grounds of the First Brooklyn Cemetery, Seaside Cemetery and Brooklyn Community Cemetery.

Residents will cast ballots on the area rates in a non-binding vote which will be considered by Region of Queens council when they are preparing the 2023/2024 budget.

A Public Area Rate Meeting will be held on Monday, March 27, 2023, at Liverpool Fire Hall from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Residents can vast their vote on the proposed area rates Thursday, March 30, 2023, at Brooklyn Community Hall from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Region of Queens Council is reviewing the budget in March and will set tax rates, including area rates for the upcoming year in April.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Community mailboxes. Photo courtesy Canada Post

A notice indicating they had less than 24 hours to claim their mail came as a surprise to some residents of Brooklyn last week.

Canada Post left the notices in post boxes at the Brooklyn office Tuesday October 11 and before noon the next morning, the mailboxes were cleaned out.

In an e-mail, a spokesperson for Canada Post said, “that due to reasons beyond our control, we were notified that the Brooklyn Post Office would close at end of day Wednesday, October 12. Customers were notified of the closure on Tuesday, October 11 by letter and flyers posted on-site.”

Letter sent by Canada Post to Brooklyn residents. Photo courtesy Vicki Amirault

The post office was in the Wa-Su-Wek building on Hillside Road and operated by one of their staff members.

Board member Grace Conrad says they just couldn’t afford to operate the postal outlet any longer.

“One person is supposed to be doing that plus being able to look after some of the Wa-Su-Wek stuff,” said Conrad. “We don’t actually get enough money from [the] post office, or whatever, to pay a worker. We’re only getting a little bit of money.”

Conrad says the Wa-Su-Wek board members met Friday October 7^th and decided they couldn’t continue to operate the post office at a loss.

She contacted Canada Post that day to inform them of the board’s decision.

The board was prepared to continue running the postal service for 30 to 60 days to give Canada Post time to come up with an alternative method of delivery.

Conrad was surprised when a postal worker showed up at 10:00am on Wednesday and cleared out the mail.

Anyone with an outside post box is unaffected by the change while roughly 300 people who used the interior boxes, as well as those looking to buy stamps or collect larger parcels now need to travel to Liverpool for postal service.

District 4 Councillor Vicki Amirault has been working to get answers for her constituents since the notices went out.

She says it’s not just the 5 km drive to Liverpool that is a problem for Brooklyn residents.

“They are very upset. It’s the drive and as you know, our parking spaces are very limited in front of the Liverpool post office,” said Amirault. “So, if those parking spaces are full that means they either have to park in back of the Royal Bank or they have to park down in the parking lot and walk. It’s very inconvenient.”

Canada Post will be installing 19 community mailboxes on the Wa-Su-Wek property to service the 300 customers who have been displaced.

While that solves the problem of getting letters and smaller parcels to Brooklyn residents Amirault is concerned moving services to Liverpool could cause other issues.

“It’s creating confusion for Liverpool post office workers as well. They have taken on a lot of extra work. And the residents of Liverpool as well, there’s only so many workers so their mail is going to slow down, probably, as well,” said Amirault.

The Canada Post spokesperson says the community mailboxes have been ordered and will be installed as soon as possible.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Xaver Varnus and his newly installed pipe organ. Photo contributed by Xaver Varnus.

A musician bringing Bach to his venue in Brooklyn is hoping the public will help repair the building.

Organist Xaver Varnus bought the former pilgrim church in Brooklyn last year to transform it into a live music venue.

He has already installed a pipe organ and has now set his sights on restoring the exterior to its former glory.

Varnus has been gathering pictures from the early 1900s showing the church clad with brown brick instead of the white vinyl siding it has today.

“I really don’t understand why this fashion came in the 60s and 70s to cover most of the Nova Scotian churches with this, kind of, white condom but it’s terrible. Maybe it’s very good against the weather but it’s terrible for the look,” said Varnus.

However, before the siding can be replaced, there are some structural issues to contend with as time has caused the walls to go out of alignment.

The pandemic has cut into his plans for performances so he has turned to a GoFundMe page to help get the work done.

To date, he has raised over $6,000 of his $48,000 goal.

Varnus credits his popularity on YouTube for the number of donations he is receiving from around the world.

“I get donations from everywhere, from New Zealand, from Japan, from Korea, everywhere,” said Varnus. “And now I can realize how many people are listening to the YouTube recordings because the people are mostly reacting because of the YouTube Videos.”

Videos of Varnus playing some of the world’s most famous pipe organs have been viewed more than 15 million times.

The organ master has more grand plans for the former church including installing a clock in the tower, something that was not part of the original design.

Varnus says the work he has done on the newly christened Varnus Concert Hall is not going unnoticed by the classical music world’s elite.

“One of the most famous string quartet of Europe at this time is the Kelemen Quartet and they are coming to Carnegie Hall, to New York, at the end of August,” said Varnus. “They just called me two weeks ago and they said after the Carnegie Hall concert they are coming to visit me in Nova Scotia for a week and they want to play two concerts here in my church.”

Depending on what COVID restrictions are in place, Varnus is planning to hold a concert on March 21. Besides being the start of spring, the date is significant for him.

“I always play the great concert on the twenty-first of March because that is the birthday of Bach,” said Varnus.

He understands it can be difficult for someone who hasn’t been raised on classical music to find it accessible. But that’s a perception he hopes to change.

“Maybe I can take a little part of, for local people to opening the gate of the beautiful country of classical music for them.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Xaver Varnus and his newly installed pipe organ. Photo contributed by Xaver Varnus.

World-renowned organist Xaver Varnus plans to host a series of mini-concerts during the holidays at the former Pilgram Church.

Varnus bought the church earlier this year and installed a pipe organ shortly afterwards.

He’s made many friends of the neighbours who would stop in to check on his progress.

“In Toronto, in one year, I met only one of my neighbours,” said Varnus. “Since I’m here, I don’t know how big is the population of Brooklyn, perhaps one thousand, I think I already met 999.”

Initially, Varnus had hoped to mount a concert in his church to repay the warm welcome he has received.

Because of COVID-19, he needed to rework his plan. Instead of one gathering of over a hundred people, he will host five nights of organ music for up to 20 people at a time.

“I don’t want to play a very long concert. Maybe 30 minutes or 35 minutes and then after, maybe we have some chat outside the church,” said Varnus.

The program will feature selections from Bach, a personal favourite of Varnus since he was a five year-old child.

In fact, he calls Bach, “his first language.”

“It’s very easy to understand Bach for the twentieth century because, like Shakespeare, of course, one-third of his work was made for his own age but the other two-thirds is general for all over the ages and people.”

Varnus says some of the people who stop in to visit have had little experience with classical music prior to his arrival in the community.

He’s touched to see them embrace the genre so fully as evidenced by a performance by a visiting musician friend.

“This very nice lady was sitting in the first bench next to the piano and during Walter’s wonderful performance of Brahms, she was crying. I thought, this is the first touch, when classical music was touching this lady’s heart.”

Varnus is already making plans for a larger performance in the fall of 2021. Several of the top figures in classical music from around the world have committed to perform in his Brooklyn Church, now rechristened ‘Varnus Hall’ at a festival in September.

“I want to give some hope to people that after COVID we still have light, we still have sunshine, we still have Debussy and Bach and we still have big red apples, so everything, you know?”

Varnus will play his mini-concert series at 5:00pm each evening from December 26 – 30. Admission is free but a donation towards his 2021 festival and ongoing renovations is appreciated.

Unfortunately, if you haven’t secured a seat, you’re out of luck. The concerts were announced Thursday and by Friday, all performances have been filled.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

Xaver Varnus looks on as his pipe organ is taken apart before transport. Photo credit: Xaver Varnus

One of the most renowned pipe organ players in the world is making his home in Queens because of a mosquito bite.

Xaver Varnus was searching online for a church to buy when a mosquito bit his hand.

While swatting it, he moved the cursor away from the Ontario map he had been looking at and had the good fortune to land in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia.

“And I just realized that in Nova Scotia, there’s a huge beautiful, building, it’s a church with amazing acoustics,” said Varnus. “ So finally I said, this is the mosquito of God.”

That building is the former Pilgram United Church in Brooklyn.

Varnus says he was drawn to the church because of its location and all wood construction.

“Some of the new churches, which is made by [with] dry-wall, actually the acoustic is very dry, like a carpet store, it’s terrible. But somehow the wood church, even if small, has a very rare, very unique acoustic,” said Varnus.

The former Pilgram United Church has an all-wood interior. Photo credit: Xaver Varnus

He is renovating the parish house as his home and is making some upgrades to the church itself.

Still the church was missing one key feature and that’s a pipe organ.

He quickly set about looking for one and as luck would have it, the First Baptist Church in Truro had posted theirs for sale.

Not only was an organ available locally, but, it fit the Brooklyn church perfectly.

Moving a 14 ton organ made up of 3,000 pipes is no easy undertaking.

Some of the 3,000 pipes that make up the new pipe organ. Photo credit: Xaver Varnus

Varnus hired Colin Walsh and his team to dissemble, transport and reassemble the pipe organ.

The crew have moved the organ from Truro and have been putting it back together in its new home all week.

Varnus estimates it should be in place and operational before the end of the month.

He has been overwhelmed by the reception from the people in his new home. Since arriving in Brooklyn from Ontario, he had to follow the COVID-19 quarantine protocols. He says once he was finished his isolation, his neighbours , curious about the church’s new owner, have been bringing him food and gifts to welcome him to the community.

He intends to return that kindness by treating them to a short concert program of Bach once the pipe organ is installed, and according to Varnus, the best tea they’ve ever had.

That will be the first of many performances Varnus has in mind as he plans to put both the organ and his phone book to good use.

Over the years he has become friends with musicians from around the globe and he will be inviting many of them to visit Brooklyn.

Despite the massive renovations, for Varnus, owning an independent church with it’s own great pipe organ is a dream come true.

He says even when he falls to sleep at night exhausted he wakes with a burst of energy, eager to experience another day.

“What is the only difference between me and most of the other organists at age,” said Varnus. “I think God made a mistake and he put three more batteries in my back.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson