An asbestos abatement crew cleans up the site at 89 Main St. in Liverpool on Wednesday. (Rick Conrad)
An abandoned property in downtown Liverpool destroyed by fire in the spring is finally being cleaned up.
The historic and unoccupied Hendry house at 89 Main St. was leveled in the May 13 blaze.
The Liverpool Fire Department referred it to the RCMP for investigation. The RCMP declared it suspicious and asked the public to come forward with any information.
An RCMP spokesman told QCCR in July that officers have closed the file for now, because there was insufficient evidence to keep the investigation open.
Fire services from around Queens County and RCMP officers responded to the fire at 4:40 a.m. on May 13. Nobody was injured.
On June 11, the Region of Queens declared the property dangerous and unsightly and ordered owner Rosemarie Jacob to clean it up, or the region would do it at her expense. Jacob didn’t appeal the order, so the region began the process to clean up the site.
Mayor Darlene Norman said Wednesday that initial testing found that there was asbestos in the siding of the house.
The region hired Asbestos Abatement Limited in Dartmouth to do the work. Norman said the company expects to have everything cleaned up by the end of the week.
“They say they’ll be finished by Friday,” Norman said. “The material is being deposited at another facility in Nova Scotia that accepts this material.
“The company indicated that they would have both the asbestos-containing materials removed, other debris on the property removed and the building foundation removed. … It is being done so that’s the important thing.”
Norman said the company has assured municipal officials there is no danger to nearby residents from the asbestos on site.
The cost of the cleanup isn’t known yet. But the mayor said it would be added as a lien to the owner’s taxes this year.
“(It) would be payable in 2025. And if at that time, the taxes are not paid in full, including the lien, then you would go to our policy regarding uncollected taxes. I believe one year of unpaid taxes and then the tax sale process would start.”
The property had been unoccupied for some time before the fire. And the owner had been difficult to reach, but Norman said the municipality was finally able to find her.
Norman said she’s happy to see the cleanup underway. And while she won’t be running for re-election, she said a future council may decide to try to do something with the property once it’s cleaned up.
“I know many people have been wanting that corner widened. There are some people who want it left historically the way it is. But there’s lots of vocies from people who work at Queens General (Hospital), from people trying to get 18-wheelers around that corner, there’s going to be a huge amount of housing development that’s going to require vehicles going that way, but that will be future decisions by a future council. But at this time, our main goal is to have that corner cleaned up so people can be free of the black tarps and the fencing and the things that are there at this point in time.”
Norman added that because the cleanup cost will be applied to the property owner’s taxes, the region likely won’t release the figure because of privacy concerns.
A house on Wolfe Street in Liverpool was gutted by fire on Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured in the blaze. (Rick Conrad)
Emergency crews were busy in Queens County on Tuesday as a house fire in Liverpool left a family homeless, and a motor vehicle collision snarled traffic in the Brooklyn area.
The Liverpool Fire Department was called to 61 Wolfe St. shortly after 2 p.m. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the house was fully engulfed, according to Liverpool Fire Chief Trevor Munroe.
“We encountered heavy fire conditions on arrival. No one was injured. We did check the homeowner but he seemed fine.”
Munroe said the home’s residents and their pets were outside when firefighters arrived.
Fire crews clean up after a house fire in Liverpool on Tuesday afternoon. (Rick Conrad)
Six fire departments from Liverpool, Port Medway, Mill Village, Greenfield, North Queens and Italy Cross were at the scene.
Munroe didn’t have many more details on Tuesday afternoon.
“We’ll do a preliminary investigation and then turn the home back over the homeowner and they’ll bring in their insurance company.”
Also on Tuesday afternoon, traffic was being diverted in Brooklyn after a motor vehicle collision in the Sandy Cove area.
Few other details were available late Tuesday afternoon. RCMP could not be reached for comment.
QCCR will publish more details as they are available.
Deborah Raddall and Jean Robinson are part of the team organizing this year’s Liverpool International Theatre Festival. (Rick Conrad)
It happens every two years, it’s less than two months away and the organizers of the Liverpool International Theatre Festival want you to be part of it.
The festival is looking for local residents to open their homes and help welcome the almost 90 people coming to Liverpool from 10 different countries for the four-day event.
The volunteer-driven festival is celebrating its 16th edition from Oct. 17 to 20 at the Astor Theatre.
This year, amateur theatre troupes from Morocco, Egypt, the country of Georgia, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, Wales and the U.S. will be putting on one-act plays in an event that celebrates theatre and international friendship. Winds of Change from Liverpool will also be putting on a play at the festival.
“For those that haven’t been to the festival in the past,” says festival chairwoman Jean Robinson, “they are one-act plays and they have to be between 25 minutes long and 50 or 55 minutes long. And so, it’s a great introduction to theatre and different types of theatre.”
Deborah Raddall is in charge of LITF’s marketing and promotions.
“LITF is a celebration of culture and theatre and community. And it’s a chance for us, meaning Liverpool, to experience the world.”
The festival relies on 40 to 60 volunteers from the community to make it happen.
Members of the theatre troupes are billeted at homes around Queens County. This year, organizers are putting an urgent call out for people to open their homes to the actors and crews coming to Liverpool.
LITF asks hosts to provide a bed and some breakfast for festival participants. The festival looks after everything else, including other meals and transportation. Hosts also get two free tickets to the play involving their guests.
Raddall and her husband Blair have hosted troupes in their home for many previous festivals.
“It’s a wonderful experience, my experience has been really great with that. We’ve been hosting almost every year and we’ve made wonderful friendships and connections. It’s quite unique for a theatre festival.”
“All you need to do is have a bed. It’s a bed and breakfast situation. What we ask of our hosts at a minimum is to provide a bed, provide a breakfast for them in the mornings and to pick them up when they arrive, if it’s a reasonable time. … At a minimum interaction, make them welcome in your home, give them something to eat in the mornings and our festival is designed to pick up all the rest of the stuff. … We’re really looking for a welcoming space and a little bit of breakfast.”
Robinson said hosts and guests have made lasting connections.
“Hosts can be as engaged in the festival as they want to be. We know that these have become lifelong friendships and also new experiences. People have gotten to go skating for the first time with their host, even being taken to the ocean to see a beach for the first time, going out on a lobster boat or things like that that have really cemented those relationships.”
Raddall says they’re still looking for space for about 40 troupe members. Troupes and potential hosts fill out questionnaires so that organizers can help make sure the experience is as positive as possible for everybody.
“It’s a process that’s not just we’re just going to chuck somebody on your doorstep without having a conversation about what works best for you and what works best for them.”
If you’re interested in becoming a host for the Liverpool International Theatre Festival, you can contact info@litf.ca , check out their website at litf.ca or message them at their Facebook page.
Hundreds of Sarah Mitton fans cheered on the Olympian on Friday afternoon at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)
It was a disappointing result for Brooklyn’s Sarah Mitton on Friday in the shot put at the Olympics in Paris, but for the hundreds gathered at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool, she’s still a hometown hero.
It was a boisterous crowd that cheered Mitton on at the live viewing party as she tried for Olympic gold in the shot put. People were decked out in red and white and waved Canadian flags. Every time Mitton showed up on the big screen, people erupted into cheers and applause.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t Mitton’s day.
After three throws, Mitton did not make the cut for the final eight competitors. Her best throw was 17.48 metres in rainy and wet conditions.
Her third throw appeared to be close to the 20-metre mark, but she fouled out after losing her balance and stepping out of the throwing circle.
Mitton was a favourite going into the Olympics, after dominating most events this year. She won the World Athletics Indoor Championship in March and broke her own Canadian record three times. She also qualified easily for the Olympic final, with her first throw of 19.77 m.
Before the event, anticipation was building for the 250 people gathered at the Astor to watch Mitton compete live.
People travelled from around the South Shore and beyond to cheer her on.
Karen Hofrichter of Hubbards was there with her granddaughter Lily Lantz of Chester. Hofrichter and Lantz arrived an hour before the viewing party and snagged seats front row centre.
Lantz is a 14-year-old shot put athlete herself at Chester Area Middle School. She said she was at the Astor to cheer on her idol.
Hofrichter said the result wasn’t what they expected, but she’s confident Mitton will be back.
“Unfortunate. It was a tough day, tough with the weather, I think. Not everyone was doing their best. But you know what? We still love her. She gave it her all. And she can regroup and come back. We know she’s got it in her.”
Lantz said that the conditions didn’t help. Early on in the final round, another athlete slipped on the rainy surface and fell after her throw.
“I personally feel like (Mitton) might have gotten in her head after that one girl had slipped,” Lantz said.
“She tried her best and unfortunately lost her balance on that one throw, her good one out in the 20s. Which is OK, she tried her best and she’s gonna come back and she’s gonna hit harder.”
Ruth Anne Zwicker of Liverpool said despite the result, she’s still proud of what Mitton has accomplished.
“I’m so proud of Sarah. She’s worked so hard. My heart’s sad for her today because I know this isn’t where she wanted to be. But I’m excited that her mom (Bonnie) is there with her today. And proud to be a Canadian.”
Dave McKiel of Alberta was visiting his parents and watched Mitton compete.
“I know that the community is very proud of her and her efforts up to this point. It’s kind of disappointing that she didn’t advance today but she’ll receive a hero’s welcome the next time she’s back because everybody is super proud of her efforts.”
“The turnout and the crowd, you can tell the community loves her and supports her.”
German athlete Yemisi Ogunleye won gold in the event, with New Zealand’s Maddison-Lee Wesche taking silver and China’s Jiayuan Song capturing bronze.
Liverpool artist Jane Stevenson created this tribute to Sarah Mitton on Wednesday in the sand at Summerville Beach. (Jane Stevenson photo)
For most people, a day at the beach might involve some swimming or lounging on the sand.
For Jane Stevenson, a day at the beach involves creating a 120-by-60-foot piece of sand art as a tribute to Olympic shot putter Sarah Mitton.
The Liverpool artist’s creation on Summerville Beach featured an 85-foot Eiffel Tower with a Canadian flag in the middle and the Olympic rings at the base, with Paris 2024 on one side and “Go Sarah!” on the other.
“She’s a friend and she’s a marvellous person,” Stevenson says of Mitton, who is from Brooklyn.
“I’m enjoying drawing in the sand and I thought what a great thing to be able to do. So I started with the rings one day and I thought that’s not enough. So I stuck a little Eiffel Tower on it and looked at it at home and said that’s not good enough. So, four more tries and not succeeding. Finally, new strategies and a little more homework on the design, on the fifth try, it all came together.”
Stevenson created it in about two and a half hours late Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s gone far and wide, so that’s kind of cool. And lovely comments about it. So that’s really nice too. People really enjoyed the picture and the sentiment behind it. It was fun.
“That’s the most far-reaching anything I ever do will get. So that’s quite a compliment to have them want to do that with it. So I’m pleased with that, it’s more than I thought would happen with it.”
It was Stevenson’s fifth time trying to get her design down in the sand, after plotting it out precisely on paper.
“The first one went down on the sand on the 27th of July, so between then and yesterday I finally got it right.”
She and her husband Garth used a very long tape measure and a homemade compass to plot out the basic lines of the piece. And then she used a rake to fill in the detail of the Eiffel Tower and the Olympic rings.
Stevenson says that she used the drone only once as she was putting it together.
“Just eyed it. Did it by eye. My lines and my paper that I was going off of were really precise and then we really measured precisely this last time. I had my homework really well done on the fifth try. And then you can just can tell visually that it looks alright. It was math, and drawn lines.”
Stevenson has created eye-popping pieces of public art before, most recently for a Privateer Days parade float for the Mersey Rose Theatre Company. That featured a huge tea party set for the company’s upcoming production of Alice in Wonderland Jr. She’s also created displays for the Astor Theatre, including a life-sized Barbie doll package.
She’s done six or seven other beach art pieces this summer, but this one was the biggest and most complicated. She started at 4 in the afternoon near low tide and finished it around 6:30, racking up about 50,000 steps along the way.
“I thought I’d won the gold medal, the gold medal in the Olympic sand drawing. It was a very good feeling to get the result I wanted.
“This was fun to do. I really wanted it to work for Sarah. … Not bad for a day at the beach.”
She’s not sure if Mitton has seen it yet, but she knows her mother Bonnie has. Stevenson says she’ll be at home on Friday afternoon cheering on Mitton as she goes for gold.
Mitton qualified for the final on Thursday with her first throw, which was also the farthest in the field.
“On the edge of our seats. She’s looking pretty good. This morning it looked effortless for her. She qualified so easily. I have good feelings for her tomorrow. I think she’ll do well. She’s worked hard, she’s ready.”
Stevenson says she appreciates all the positive feedback she’s received on her beach sand tribute.
“Thank you to everybody who has commented on it. That means a lot as well that they have enjoyed it so. That’s made it even more worthwhile. And, go Sarah!”
Sarah Mitton of Brooklyn, Queens County, has qualified for the shot put final at the Paris 2024 Olympics. This is a photo from the World Athletics Indoor Championship in March where she won gold. (Sarah Mitton photo)
Brooklyn’s Sarah Mitton qualified for the shot put final at the 2024 Olympics in Paris this morning on her first throw.
The 28-year-old world indoor champion made it through to Friday’s final with a throw of 19.77 metres, which was the best of the qualifying round. The qualification standard is 19.15 m.
“That’s the way I like it,” Mitton told CBC Sports. “It’s a lot less stressful when you’re one and done.”
Mitton’s mother, Bonnie, was in the Stade de France to see her daughter go through to the final.
The top-rated American and two-time world champion Chase Jackson did not make it to the final. She missed her first two attempts and threw 17.6 m on her third.
New Zealand’s Maddison-Lee Wesche was the second-best qualifier at 19.25 m and Germany’s Yemisi Ogunleye was third with a throw of 19.24 m.
The final is scheduled for Friday at 2:37 p.m.
The Astor Theatre in Liverpool is holding a watch party so that Mitton’s Queens County fans can watch the event live. That goes from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday.
In a letter to members of the Astor Theatre Society, the board said Southcott is resigning for personal reasons.
In an interview on Tuesday, Southcott told QCCR she didn’t want to go into details. But she said she decided to return to her career with the federal government.
“At this point, it’s a personal decision and it’s the right one for my family and me right now.”
Before she took the Astor job, Southcott worked in communications for Health Canada and with other federal departments. And before that, she worked as a journalist with CBC and Advocate Media.
Southcott said that did not play a part in her decision to leave.
“I have a real passion for the organization, for the Astor Theatre. I see a lot of potential and hope there is somebody who will take over and realize its potential.”
John Simmonds, chairman of the Astor Theatre Society, said Southcott did a lot of great things in her short time as executive director.
“She’s been a stalwart and accomplished some significant things with grants and operations and community outreach and contact. So we’re very sad to see her go.
“Jerri was very much happy in her job. She loved what she was doing and she saw the contributions and she had the support, for the most part, of the board. But I think she decided maybe this is a better route for (her) to go.”
Simmonds said the board hasn’t decided yet when or if it will search for a new executive director. It’s been difficult for the theatre to find and hang on to one.
When Southcott was hired, it had been four years since the Astor had had a full-time executive director. Jean Robinson-Dexter filled in on an interim basis at various times since September 2020.
In May 2023, the theatre thought it had found a new manager, but that person decided not to take the job after all. Another search resulted in the hiring of Lesli Chandler, who began the job in July 2023 but resigned that September.
“We’re going to regroup,” Simmonds said. “We’re going to do some fundamental thinking, both staff and board, to determine what our best next approach should be.
“Our staff is very loyal and committed to doing what they need to do to get us through this. … We can take the time with a clear head and sort out what the best future for the Astor might be and how to prepare for that future, whether it be staffing or organizational change.”
Simmonds said that Southcott has committed to do what she can before she leaves to ensure the transition is smooth. And he said regardless of what happens, the board wants to make sure the Astor continues to serve the community.
A 24-year-old Sable River man is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after fleeing an RCMP checkpoint early Saturday morning. (File photo from RCMP NS Facebook page)
An early-morning checkpoint and a flight from police have left a 24-year-old Sable River man in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
About 1 a.m on Saturday morning, Queens District RCMP officers had a checkpoint set up on Milton Road near Liverpool. A Volkswagen Golf approached and then made an abrupt U-turn to head north on Highway 8.
According to a news release, an RCMP officer immediately left the scene to try to stop the Golf.
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay told QCCR on Monday that the cruiser was not involved in the crash. The officer found the car off the road and on its roof.
Along with the driver who was sent to hospital with life-threatening injuries, the car’s passenger was also injured. She is a 25-year-old woman from East Green Harbour. Her injuries were not life-threatening.
Cpl. Tremblay did not have an update Monday on their conditions.
“Our officers will do checkpoints at random times throughout the day. From my experience, 1 a.m. is not abnormal. We often do checkponts through the night to conduct traffic enforcement such as impaired drivers that might be out there,” he said in an intervew.
“Oftentimes, there could be many reasons why someone may conduct a U-turn before a checkpoint. It could be a legitimate reason, but it could also be a reason because the person could be impaired, it could be because they don’t have a drivers licence, it could be because they’re wanted. And oftentimes our officers will then get in their vehicle and try to pull over the vehicle that proceeds with the U-turn.”
Cpl. Tremblay did not know exactly where on the Milton Road the checkpoint was set up.
Highway 8 was closed for several hours, while a collision reconstructionist visited the scene.
Cpl. Tremblay says officers continue to investigate.
“The investigation remains ongoing. That could involve criminal charges such as flight from police. The same goes for any impairment level. Our officers would be looking to obtain search warrants or warrants to seize any blood … just to determine if the person was impaired at the time of the crash or not.”
