A consultants report does not recommend installing traffic lights at the Main and Market intersection in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

A study of the troublesome three-way stop in downtown Liverpool has found traffic isn’t that bad and that it doesn’t warrant installing traffic lights.

Engineering firm CBCL presented its findings to council this week about the intersection at Main and Market streets.

“We found overall that the intersection has sufficient capacity for the current traffic volumes and the future traffic volumes with the current stop control configuration. We found that the traffic signals are not warranted,” David Copp, a transportation engineer with CBCL who conducted the on-site traffic study in February, told councillors at their regular meeting Tuesday.

Copp said that opinions about the intersection are mixed. While some pedestrians and business owners believe there’s no problem, others told him it is hazardous.

“There was a number of folks who identified that cars or trucks were not yielding to pedestrians. They were sort of blasting through the stop signs and just ignoring any pedestrians who were waiting. 
There definitely seems to be a bit of a lack of trust on the part of the pedestrian that vehicles will actually stop where they’re supposed to when they approach the intersection.”

Collision data for the area is very limited. There have been 36 reported collisions within a 100-metre radius from 2009 to 2024. Most of those were vehicle collisions. Five of them involved pedestrians.

“So it made it very challenging to draw any conclusions or highlight trends or causation between these incidents,” he said.

Overall, the study found traffic flow and vehicle speeds were within acceptable limits. And it also found that five new housing developments planned for the Mount Pleasant area just outside downtown Liverpool won’t make volumes a problem in the next 10 years.

Copp said some changes could make the area safer for pedestrians.

He said combining the through and right-turning westbound lanes at the post office on Main Street would shorten the crosswalk there and improve visibility.

There would still be an issue of cars entering and leaving the angled parking spaces next to the post office. He said most of the collisions in the area were related to those spaces and that council should consider removing or reconfiguring them.

Councillors voted this past February to spend $24,000 on the traffic study after a crosswalk collision in January 2024 sent a 79-year-old woman to hospital.

The intersection has been the scene of lots of close calls over the years.

District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy said he doesn’t believe combining westbound lanes on Main Street is enough to protect pedestrians.

“We’ve had people hit and I think due diligence, if we just walk away from this and say we’re going to combine those two lanes, I don’t think we’re doing our job,” he said.

“I can live with the car to car (collisions), you can fix those. Car to pedestrians, you can’t fix. 
So I think the car to pedestrian is our biggest concern.”

He wants to see some kind of pedestrian-activated signal to alert drivers when somebody wants to cross.

District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault said the intersection and the sidewalk approaches have to be improved to be more accessible for people with visual, hearing or mobility impairments.

“It’s very scary to go through that intersection for pedestrians, very scary. So I think there’s a lot of work we have to do there, and if it doesn’t warrant traffic lights, maybe put up the lights for the signals for the pedestrians. 
But I think this is a situation where we really have to do a lot of a lot more conversation, a lot more work. We just cannot leave it the way it is.”

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton told QCCR after the meeting that even though the traffic count was done in February, when numbers would be typically lower, she said it still gives a good baseline for council to consider.

“And so our conversation with that particular intersection, I think, is far from over, and we should consider if there’s any improvements that we can make to the parking there (at the post office), how we make that the best it can be, given the information that was presented today.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Thomas Bjerke of Waterloo Street in Liverpool during an appeal hearing Tuesday of a proposed development next to his house. (Region of Queens YouTube)

A 10-unit apartment building in Liverpool, geared toward health-care workers, will go ahead after regional councillors turned down an appeal by local residents on Tuesday.

Thomas Bjerke and his wife live next to the undeveloped land on Waterloo Street. Bjerke told councillors he was worried about how the development would affect his and his neighbours’ quality of life. He appealed the site plan filed with the region.

“We are opposed to this project from the get-go,” he said at the appeal hearing, which was held during the regular council meeting.

“You’re taking the essence out of the neighbourhood by plopping a big building into essentially a house lot. 
So now we’re just foregoing any stage of quality of life.”

Bjerke said he and his neighbours are worried about increased traffic, noise and light pollution from the two-storey complex once it’s built.

He said that an enclosed garbage area planned for the property would be less than six metres from his bedroom window and about two metres from his backyard fence.

He said the area already has a problem with raccoons and rodents.

“But rats are the biggest issue in that area and we fear that by putting a garbage area that close to us and any of our neighbours is a deterrent to any healthy living because we have a backyard that will be right behind this and this is where we do most of our recreation during the summer months.”

The Housing Trust of Nova Scotia has been working on plans for the building for about a year.

They have a contract with the Nova Scotia government to build 116 modular units for health-care workers around the province.

Jordan Rogers, an engineer and project manager with the trust, told councillors that the plan is to build six two-bedroom units and four one-bedroom units on Waterloo Street, just around the corner from Old Bridge Street.

He said tenants are required to be nurses, doctors, hospital cafeteria workers or others who work in health care. If workers from that sector don’t fill the apartments, then they would be offered to those in the skilled trades. But Rogers said that the housing trust hasn’t had a problem finding tenants who work in health care.

He said they worked closely with Region of Queens officials to ensure they complied with all bylaws. He also said they could look at relocating the garbage enclosure to another part of the property.

“We had to go through and check all of the boxes based on the bylaws, working with Mike (MacLeod) and his team to ensure that everything meets all those requirements with respect to, for example, garbage and parking, for meeting the absolute minimum and where we can, go further and beyond to those requirements.”

Mike McLeod, the region’s director of land use, told councillors that the Housing Trust’s proposal meets all municipal requirements.

Councillors voted unanimously to deny the residents’ appeal.

After the meeting, Bjerke and other residents said the municipality’s appeal process was rushed and excluded some adjacent property owners.

“The engineer himself said they worked on this for over a year now and we got two weeks to appeal something that affects our lives and everybody in the neighbourhood,” Bjerke said in an interview.

“I find that unacceptable.”

Dina Dexter of Liverpool was at the meeting to speak on behalf of her father and brother who live next door to Bjerke. Their backyard also borders the lot where the new building will be.

She said her family didn’t receive a notice that they could appeal, and when she asked municipal officials about it she was told the appeal period was over. Then she was given the wrong date for the hearing. On Tuesday, she wasn’t given a chance to speak.

“And if it wasn’t for my neighbours telling me about this we would not have even known,” Dexter told QCCR. “There’s no posting of a sign. There’s nothing.

“We desperately, desperately want more housing, but in a place like Liverpool, Nova Scotia, where there is so much space. There’s been a derelict abandoned piece of land since the Canadian Tire burnt down in the ’90s on Main Street. Why is it that (this building) is being placed in such a bizarre manner in essentially a backyard lot?”

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton told QCCR that she understands the residents’ frustration but that the region fulfilled its obligations under the Municipal Government Act.

She said if residents encounter any problems with the development, they can report those to the region’s bylaw enforcement officer.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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The emergency department at Queens General Hospital in Liverpool will be closed Wednesday. (Communications Nova Scotia)

The emergency department at Queens General Hospital in Liverpool will be closed on Wednesday. It will reopen Thursday at 8 a.m.

The ER is usually open 24 hours daily from 8 a.m. Monday to 1:30 p.m. Friday. Nova Scotia Health gave no reason for the Wednesday closure.

Virtual urgent care is available for some conditions at Queens General every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Patients of Queens Family Health can access the same-day clinic for problems that require urgent treatment by calling 902-354-3322.

Anyone experiencing a medical emergency should call 911. For general health advice and information, people can call 811 to speak to a registered nurse 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Workers were cleaning up in front of 194 Main St. on Wednesday morning. The construction barricades have been removed and work has stopped. (Rick Conrad)

UPDATED Wed., July 9 at 1:55 p.m.

A rundown building in downtown Liverpool will go back on the market after regional council denied a developer’s request to turn it into apartments.

Councillors voted Tuesday not to change the municipal land use bylaw to allow Eric Fry to build up to 16 apartments at 194 Main St., known locally as the old Stedmans building.

Fry, president of SDL Investments Limited, told QCCR in an emailed statement on Wednesday evening that he won’t pursue the project any further.

“Unfortunately, we will be ceasing any further work on this project and putting the building up for sale immediately,” Fry said.

“While I understand that Liverpool does not wish to abandon its commercial presence on Main Street, we firmly believe that this decision is very short-sighted and does absolutely nothing to move the town forward, encourage new residents to move here or assist in revitalizing the downtown.”

He could not be reached for a followup interview about his statement.

The municipal planning strategy allows residential development downtown only in buildings with a primary commercial use. The bylaw requires that residential buildings in the downtown core have at least 50 per cent commercial space on the ground floor. 

Fry’s proposal was to transform the whole building into living space.

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton told QCCR on Tuesday morning after the council meeting that even though councillors voted 5-2 against a bylaw change, she hopes Fry continues with some apartments in the space. She made the comments before Fry’s evening statement.

“I think our community and our council members have made it very clear that they want there to be a downtown core commercial presence. And that is our Main Street,” Charlton said in an interview. She chaired Tuesday’s meeting because Mayor Scott Christian was on vacation.

“And there is allowance now for residential units to go in there to still allow for some housing. 
So there is flexibility there. I do certainly hope that the developer will continue with this project in the revised way that it reads in our bylaws now, but certainly if he chooses not to, that’s certainly up to him.”

Fry bought the building in January for $235,000. In February, he applied to the region for a bylaw amendment to allow a residential-only development with indoor parking.

Councillors considered three options: to allow residential development as a main use in downtown, to allow it by development agreement with council’s approval or to keep the bylaw unchanged.

Before Fry acquired the property, it sat vacant for a few years and was heavily damaged by extreme weather. Before that, it housed a dollar store and office space on the ground floor.

Workers have been cleaning up the building’s interior and fixing damage since early spring.

“We are extremely shocked and disappointed in council’s decision this morning to deny our application to amend the Land Use Bylaw and Municipal Planning Strategy language,” Fry said in the statement.

“Having owned properties in Queens for more than 10 years, our understanding was that Liverpool needs more housing.  Our initial residential building, The Falls in Milton, has been fully occupied since it opened last fall and there is a list of residents wanting to move in when a unit becomes available. This led us to approach RQM about an additional project that would create 16 additional units in the heart of Liverpool. Not to mention, convert an otherwise dilapidated structure into a signature building to anchor the town’s Main Street.

“Liverpool needs residential housing and not additional commercial space clearly demonstrated by the number of For Rent signs in the downtown core.”

The region hired consultants UPLAND Planning from Halifax to hold two public engagement sessions and an online survey on the potential bylaw change.

Thirty people responded to the survey, and only seven people attended the information sessions at Queens Place Emera Centre.

Eighteen of the 30 survey respondents said they were supportive of removing the commercial requirement from the bylaw.

But local business owners told the consultants they were worried about how it could potentially erode the downtown commercial zone. 

The region’s planning advisory committee met on Monday to discuss the consultants’ report.

They recommended sticking with the status quo and keeping the bylaw unchanged.

District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy voted against the motion to maintain the status quo.

He said the building needs a lot of work and he’s worried Fry might sell it. 

“So in order to make it so it’s profitable, it has to be a lot of money coming back,” he told his fellow councillors. 

“
That’s the whole idea. You don’t put money into something if you’re not going to get your money back out of it.”

Fry also owns The Falls in Milton, a three-storey apartment complex on the Mersey River, geared toward people 55 and over.

His plan for 194 Main St. was to have apartments on two levels, with a parking entrance at the back of the building on Water Street.

“I’m not an expert,” Fry said in his statement to QCCR, “but from my experience, I don’t think this type of thinking is going to move the needle in a town with so much promise and potential.”

Here is what councillors voted on and how they voted:

MOTION: That Council of the Region of Queens Municipality maintain status quo and deny the application to amend the Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use Bylaw to allow new multiple unit residential dwellings as a permitted main use in the Downtown Commercial (CD) Zone.

FOR: Maddie Charlton, Courtney Wentzell, Stewart Jenkins, Vicki Amirault, Wanda Carver

AGAINST: Jack Fancy, Roberta Roy

ABSENT: Mayor Scott Christian

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Ryan MacLean with UPLAND Planning and Design Studio takes people through the options regarding a proposed change to how residential developments are handled in downtown Liverpool. (Rick Conrad/File)

It was a small group, but an opinionated one.

Some Queens County business owners and residents who responded to a survey don’t want a bylaw change that could dramatically alter Liverpool’s Main Street commercial landscape.

Developer Eric Fry of SDL Investments Limited wants the Region of Queens to amend its land use bylaw to allow him to build a 16-unit apartment building in the old Stedmans space at 194 Main St.

The bylaw allows residential development downtown only in buildings with a primary commercial use.

Fry doesn’t plan any commercial presence in the building. So he applied to the region in February to change the bylaw.

The region held public engagement sessions on June 17 and 19 for business owners and residents. It also created an online feedback form that was available from June 12 to 24.

Consultants UPLAND Planning of Halifax conducted the sessions and survey. 

​​The public had three options to consider: to allow residential developments in the commercial district as a main use by right, to allow them by development agreement which would require council approval, or to stay with the status quo and reject any amendments to the bylaw.

In their report for this week’s regular council meeting, UPLAND said seven people who weren’t members of the region’s planning advisory committee, the media or council attended the engagement sessions at Queens Place Emera Centre.

Thirty people replied to the online survey. Nineteen of those said they live in Liverpool, while 17 said they live in another part of Queens County.

Eighteen of the 30 respondents said they were either fully or somewhat supportive of changing the bylaw to remove the commercial requirement.

Ten were either fully or somewhat against it.

But 90 per cent of the business owners who responded were against a bylaw change. They said they were concerned about eroding the commercial area.

Half of the business owners said they would support standalone residential use by development agreement. And 40 per cent said they wanted no change to the current bylaw.

Many people were concerned that there seems to be no vision or strategic plan for Main Street or downtown Liverpool. They want to see a plan driven by the community, not by developers.

Some were also frustrated by the lack of communication from the region about the proposal, the engagement sessions or the survey. 

And the consultants found that there was a divide between those who want to see more housing downtown and those who want to preserve Main Street as a commercial zone. 

Councillors are due to discuss the report at Tuesday morning’s council meeting, which begins at 9.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

The Region of Queens Dogwood Festival kicks off Friday evening. (Rick Conrad)

For the past 25 years, they’ve brought vibrant pops of pink, yellow and white to front yards in many parts of Queens County.

And this weekend, the inaugural Region of Queens Dogwood Festival will celebrate the 1,000 dogwood trees planted in the area since 2000.

Stephanie Miller Vincent is organizing the three-day festival. While there have been some garden tours and teas around the dogwood in the past, she says this is the first time an event has focused solely on the trees.

“The end of April, something caught my eye and I was like, holy, this is the 25th anniversary of those original trees. If we don’t do something intentional this year, we really missed an opportunity. You know, it’ll be small, but it will be a celebration. The trees are going to bloom every single year.

“It’s time that we start taking notice of them and welcome people to explore the community.”

Christopher Clarke is the dogwood father of Queens County. He wanted to make the region the dogwood capital of Nova Scotia.

As mayor, he began a millennial planting project in 2000, with the municipality selling 750 dogwoods at a relatively low cost.

“Those 25-year-old trees are very large,” Miller Vincent says. “Not everyone knows what they are, so I think they really catch people’s eye and their attention because they’re kind of like, my gosh, that is beautiful. And then they want to know more. And really, that’s part of the celebration that we’re doing is that these trees have been here for 25 years. And if you’ve driven through the community or come to the community since 2000, you may not know the reason why they’re here.

“That pink pop of color is very different for people as they drive down the street, and it really does catch their eye.”

Stephanie Miller Vincent (Courtesy of Stephanie Miller Vincent)

An opening ceremony and tree planting are planned for Friday evening at the Queens County Museum. On Saturday, local artist Andre Haines will be leading a dogwood painting session in Cobb Park. That’s where a dozen trees were planted after being donated by officials from the region’s former sister city Dryden, Ontario.

Also on Saturday, stained glass artist Scot Slessor will be holding a workshop at his studio in downtown Liverpool.

On Sunday, photographer Amy McGowan will be in Cobb Park taking keepsake photos of people, their families and pets among the dogwoods.

Miller Vincent has also created a crowdsourced map on the event’s website with more than 100 dogwood tree locations from Port Medway to Port Mouton.

“They are absolutely gorgeous. We’ve had the perfect weather for big, bright, beautiful blossoms.”

Miller Vincent plans to make the Region of Queens Dogwood Festival an annual event. And just like the trees themselves, she says she hopes the festival grows bigger every year.

“Absolutely. Bigger and better next year. We thought any celebration is a good celebration and we’ll add things to it next year.”

For more information, visit regionofqueensdogwoodfestival.ca or follow their Facebook page.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Vina Moses in front of the Hank Snow Home Town Museum in Liverpool. The museum is planning a summer country music festival beginning Friday. (Rick Conrad)

If you’re a fan of country music, Liverpool will be the place to be this weekend as the Hank Snow Home Town Museum kicks off Summerfest on Friday evening.

More than 25 acts are scheduled for the two-day event at the Hank Snow Gazebo Park, including the Saltwater Cowboys, Autumn Carver, and Dave Burbine.

Friends of Hank Snow Society administrator and longtime QCCR volunteer Vina Moses says fans from near and far will get a chance to listen to some great music.

“We’re going to have a lot of great acts, some that are new to Liverpool, some that … everybody has asked for and they’re coming back,” she said in an interview.

“And we’ve got a great lineup for the whole entire weekend.”

The summer festival took root during the pandemic when the museum couldn’t hold its traditional Hank Snow tribute.

“So this is a really key fundraiser for us,” Moses says.

“Every fundraiser that we have continues to support the continuation of this museum.”

The museum gets more than 3,000 visitors a season who pay tribute to Canada’s first major country music star. Hank Snow was born in Brooklyn, Queens Co., and recorded more than 140 albums and had more than 85 singles on the Billboard country music charts. He’s the only Canadian in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

The summer festival is also a good warmup for the main event, the Hank Snow Tribute from August 14 to 16.

“I am so excited for the tribute because it is youth-oriented,” Moses says.

“And I can tell you this, some of them have been coming here since they were five and six. And they are now teenagers. They’re touring all over the Maritimes. They’re going to Nashville. We have two of them just got back from Nashville. So we feel like we’re their parents because we have helped them become performers that everybody knows now.”

More than 40 acts will be coming to Liverpool for the tribute.

“We have young folks like Carson Fullerton, who’s like seven years old, has been to Nashville and back. Carson actually did a recording while he was there. We have folks like the Jovial Joes. They’re a young group of sisters from Halifax. We discovered them here. We asked them to come to our summer show. And boy, now they’re touring all over the Maritimes.”

Moses says organizers this year wanted to highlight young musicians while welcoming older favourites.

“You know, it’s interesting because you think of Hank Snow and you think, oh, old, nobody’s going to know Hank Snow. If you see the people who come here to visit, you would not believe it. They come from all over the world. And they all love music. They love country music. And they know that for a lot of these folks, Hank Snow started it for them. He’s the reason that people in Canada can go down to Nashville.”

As for this weekend’s festival, Moses says organizers tried to keep ticket prices as low as possible.

A weekend pass for one person is $55 or two for $100. And if you can make it for only part of the festival, ticket prices range from $15 for Saturday afternoon to $20 for Friday or Saturday evening.

“This weekend, we just want you to come and have fun. And we’ll have lots of food and we’ll have lots of fellowship and we’ll have lots of great music.”

More information about the Hank Snow Hometown Museum Summer Fest 2025 can be found on their Facebook page.

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The Liverpool International Theatre Festival has issued a call for submissions for its 2026 event. (LaRocque Photography via Liverpool International Theatre Festival Facebook page)

The Liverpool International Theatre Festival is now accepting applications from amateur theatre troupes around the world to participate in the 2026 festival from Oct. 14 to 18.

“LITF is one of the Top 10 amateur theatre festivals in the world, and we’re incredibly proud to invite
troupes to bring their stories and artistry to our community,” festival chairperson Jean Robinson said in a news release.

“Each festival is a vibrant celebration of culture, creativity and connection.”

LITF features five days of performances which are usually one-act plays, along with workshops and many social events, which give audiences an opportunity to connect with the artists. Local residents are also given a chance to host the actors, writers and directors in their own homes, enhancing the cultural exchange component of the unique festival.

Amateur theatre groups can download the application form and guidelines from the festival’s
official website at www.litf.ca.

The Region of Queens is recommending that water rates should double to deal with rising deficits. (Rick Conrad)

Most residents in Liverpool and Brooklyn will likely have to pay more than double what they pay now for water.

The 1,233 customers of the Region of Queens Water Utility will be on tap to pay an average of 106 per cent more this year to stem rising deficits.

Under a rate proposal to the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board, most customers who now pay $75.61 every three months would have to pay $170.32.

Region of Queens councillors approved the three-year water rate study at their meeting on Tuesday evening.

Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR that the large proposed increase as of Oct. 1 will help dam mounting deficits at the municipality’s water utility.

“But the biggest challenge that we were looking at was this structural, perpetual, persistent, operating deficit where the thing would be in a deficit position, more and more and more with each passing year. … 
It just put us in a position really, where we’re recovering enough revenue from the water utility to run it.”

2021 was the last time rates for the region’s water utility were reviewed. They were set for the following three years until 2024. The region has been holding the line on rates since then, but it has racked up a deficit of about $516,000.

If rates don’t increase, that deficit is projected to swell to $3.344 million by 2027/28.

The costs of the utility are borne by its users. 

The region hired two consulting firms to conduct the three-year rate study. They found that revenues have to rise immediately by more than $430,000.

The proposed average increases in years 2 and 3 are 3.8 per cent and 2.7 per cent.

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton said Queens water customers had been paying some of the lowest rates in the province.

“I just want to note that because 106 per cent is significant, but when you look at it as a whole, our water rates are really too low, which is what is prompting us to go through this process.”

If the proposed rates are accepted by the provincial regulator, it would put Queens in line with the Town of Lunenburg, which has an unmetered rate for residential customers.

But the new levies would be higher than those charged in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and the Town of Bridgewater.

A staff report for council prepared by Adam Grant, director of infrastructure, and Joanne Veinotte, director of finance, partially blames the heavy damage sustained at the water treatment plant by a lightning strike in July 2023. An insurance claim covered only part of the damage, according to the report.

The lightning strike led to a boil-water advisory for water customers that lasted almost nine weeks.

After public demand for a break on rates, the region gave a one-time 70 per cent discount on water bills.

Grant and Veinotte also point out in the report that the utility has struggled operationally for years.

Knowing that water users would be on the hook for much higher rates, Queens councillors earlier this year created a $15,000 fund to give rebates to low-income residents.

Christian told councillors that regulators don’t allow separate rates for low-income households.

“But what we are trying to do is find effective and creative solutions to provide a rebate to those customers who cannot bear the financial impact of increased water rates.”

Customers will have a chance to participate in the provincial regulator’s public hearing once dates are set.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Brian Muldoon of Protect Liverpool Bay says he hopes people will come out for the New Privateer Film Fest at the Astor Theatre. (Rick Conrad)

Hearings into fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay have been on hold for more than a year, but a group that fights ocean-based aquaculture says the issue isn’t going away.

To help keep awareness alive, Protect Liverpool Bay is holding a mini film festival on Thursday at the Astor Theatre.

Brian Muldoon, spokesman for the group, says they’re teaming up with Healthy Bays Network to put on the event.

“And we thought this would be a perfect time to bring people up to speed, show a couple of documentaries, and so the New Privateer Film Fest is this Thursday, June 26th at the Astor Theatre. (It’s) free to get in, and it’s from 6:30 to 9:15.”

Documentaries being screened are the CBC-produced The Salmon that Divides the Maritimes, a Greek documentary called The Sanctuary of Poseidon and Scale of Change from Hooke and the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

“It’s three excellent films,” Muldoon says. “I hope the community will come out and watch them, and then there’ll be an update on Protect Liverpool Bay and where the application stands with the Aquaculture Review Board.”

Last March, Nova Scotia’s ARB suspended planned hearings into an application by Cooke Aquaculture’s Kelly Cove Salmon to expand its operations near Coffin Island in Liverpool Bay and add two new fish farms off Brooklyn and Mersey Point.

Since then, there has been no movement on the hearing and no word from the aquaculture review board.

“It hasn’t gone away, and when I speak to different individuals in town, they go, ‘Oh, I thought it was a done deal,'” Muldoon says.

“I think it’s good to keep them updated and to keep top of mind, and here’s an opportunity leading up to our infamous Privateer Days weekend of celebration to give people an update. This will kind of bring them up to speed on what’s happening with fish farming on the East Coast.”

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told a business crowd in Liverpool in February 2024 that he was personally opposed to the expansion. But he has since talked about the need to expand resource development in the province.

“On the West Coast, they’re closing down fish farms, not renewing licences, trying to get them out of the waters and yet on the East Coast the message is ‘we’re open for business, come and let’s expand.’

“And we just don’t think that’s right.”

The New Privateer Film Fest begins Thursday at 6:30 at the Astor Theatre. It’s a free event, but Muldoon says donations to Protect Liverpool Bay are welcome.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Customers of the Region of Queens Water Utility will see their rates rise. (Kawita Chitprathak via Pixabay)

Municipal water customers in Liverpool and Brooklyn could see their rates double.

The Region of Queens is almost ready to submit its water rate application to the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board.

Councillors are set to discuss a report from senior staff at their meeting on Tuesday evening.

2021 was the last time rates for the region’s water utility were reviewed. They were set for the following three years until 2024. The region has been holding the line on rates since then, but it has racked up a deficit of about $516,000.

If rates don’t increase, the water utility’s deficit is projected to swell to $3.344 million by 2027/28.

According to a three-year water rate study done by G.A. Eisnor Consulting Limited and Blaine S. Rooney Consulting Limited, the utility needs revenues to jump immediately by more than $1.6 million to stem the tide of rising deficits.

The staff report for council prepared by Adam Grant, director of infrastructure, and Joanne Veinotte, director of finance, blames the heavy damage sustained at the water treatment plant by a lightning strike in July 2023. An insurance claim partially covered the damage, according to the report.

• Read the report to council here

But Grant and Veinotte also point out that the utility has struggled operationally for years.

The lightning strike in summer 2023 led to a boil-water advisory for water customers that lasted almost nine weeks.

After public demand for a break on rates, the region gave a one-time 70 per cent discount on water bills in 2023.

The region has been warning for the past year that its 1,233 customers should prepare to pay much more for water.

The water rate study done for the region recommends an average increase in rates of 106 per cent immediately, 3.8 per cent in 2026/27 and 2.7 per cent in 2027/28.

Once councillors approve the rate study, it will be submitted to the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board, which will schedule a public rate hearing.

The public will be allowed to give their input on the proposed rates at the hearing.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Min Smale is the chair of the Privateer Days committee. (Rick Conrad)

It’s the celebration that kicks off summer in Liverpool with a bang.

And the organizers of this year’s Privateer Days festival hope it’s bigger and better than ever.

Min Smale is the chair of the Privateer Days committee. This is her fourth year with the event.

“We’ve tripled our sponsor dollars over last year and it’s enabled us to do a lot more than we did last year. We keep posting new things and we keep getting great feedback,” Smale said in a recent interview.

“I think everybody is going to be thoroughly excited and have a great time.”

Last year’s festival almost didn’t happen, as organizers struggled to recover sponsor dollars and volunteers after the pandemic. Smale says there’s no fear of that this year, as their budget hovers around $70,000.

They doubled their board members this year to 10. And they have about 30 additional volunteers to help run the packed event schedule over the three-day festival. 

“I don’t think we’ve ever had this many eager volunteers come and help us. It’s overwhelming in a good way.”

Big sponsors like Atlantic Lottery Corp. and Coldstream Clear Distillery have come on board to help bring back the entertainment and beer tents.

Thirty artists are lined up to keep those tents hopping all weekend.

“I think the main thing I’ve heard in the last four years was, ‘When’s the beer tent coming back?’ And so we were very fortunate to be able to partner with a Nova Scotia brand like Coldstream Clear Distillery to help us get there.”

More than 60 craft, food and clothing vendors are expected to be set up in the park for the weekend.

Over a dozen events and booths are planned for kids and families, including bouncy castles from Yarmouth Big Bounce, a foam dance party and a superhero dance party.

And the popular Pirates of Halifax will return to this year’s event.

The weekend will also feature traditional historical re-enactments, like the encampment in Fort Point with the King’s Orange Rangers.

“My big things are family friendly, creating moments, support local and drive some business into the community as well as coming together as a community.”

A centrepiece of the weekend is the parade through downtown Liverpool on Saturday morning. And this year, the grand marshal will be well-known local musician and volunteer Dick Henneberry.

Smale says having a great team of volunteers has helped make preparations for this year’s festival go smoothly.

“Come out, enjoy yourself and we try to make everything as free or low cost as possible, just so we can all come together and have a great weekend.”

Privateer Days runs from June 27 to 29 at Privateer Park on the Liverpool waterfront. A full list of events is available on their Facebook page.

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Ryan MacLean with UPLAND Planning and Design Studio explains the options regarding a proposed change to how residential developments are handled in downtown Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

It was a small turnout for the first public engagement session about a proposed change to downtown development in Liverpool.

Developer Eric Fry wants to turn the old Stedmans building at 194 Main St. in Liverpool into 16 apartments. 

The Region of Queens land use bylaw allows residential development downtown only in buildings with a primary commercial use.

Three options are on the table for the public to consider: to allow residential developments in the commercial district as a main use by right, to allow them by development agreement which would require council approval, or to stay with the status quo and reject any amendments to the bylaw.

The first drop-in session on Tuesday evening was geared toward the business community. The second session is focused on hearing from residents. That is scheduled for Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. in the community room at Queens Place Emera Centre. There is also an online survey available.

The region hired UPLAND Planning and Design Studio from Halifax to lead the public engagement. Two representatives from that company were at Tuesday’s session, along with Mike MacLeod, the region’s director of land use.

Ryan MacLean, an engagement manager with UPLAND, said they’ve already heard a variety of opinions.

“People have expressed great support for any opportunity to increase residential development, expressing their concerns around the housing crisis, but then we’ve also heard concern around the potential for if you permit more residential uses, then it could erode the commercial character of the downtown.”

Beach Meadows resident Mary White is a member of the region’s planning advisory committee, which recommended having the public sessions.

She doesn’t want the bylaw to change. And she said she’d like to see the region do more to support local businesses.

“I think that we need to maintain the commercial spaces on Main Street and I think that we need to decide as a community what we want the future of our community to be. And if that’s to have a main core then we need to support that. And as a municipality, I would hope they would get together and decide some intitiatives to help the (businesspeople) that are there that have been struggling and hanging on for so long.”

Rigel Jones, executive director of the South Queens Chamber of Commerce, said she was staying open-minded about any changes to downtown development.

“I know the feedback we’ve gotten from members in the chamber is they’re struggling with foot traffic and that having more residents on main street could change that.”

Liverpool resident Paul Deveau said he’s against the bylaw change, though he’s in favour of more residential development on Main Street.

“I firmly believe that, yes, we should allow some apartments to be built down there under the current use. All across Canada municipality have come up with urban plans for their main streets. … It’s a work-live-play. So they should have apartments on top of these businesses but still have the businesses stay. The moment you start allowing them to be converted into residential that’s the moment that all the street is going to be turned into residential because that’s where they’re going to make the most money.”

He said he’s happy the municipality is “finally” having some public engagement, but said two sessions aren’t enough for such a significant discussion.

The consultants will prepare a report for council by the end of June. The region’s planning advisory committee will then review the report and make recommendations to council.

If there are proposed amendments to the land use bylaw, councillors would vote on those. If they’re approved initially, then there would be a two-week notice period for a public hearing to be held before the final vote.

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Andrew MacVicar is the executive director of Queens Manor Home for Special Care in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

As the new long-term care home in Liverpool takes shape, Queens Manor executive director Andrew MacVicar says the years of planning are paying off.

“Walking into the building and seeing it in 3D and seeing it unfolding, it’s pretty rewarding,” he told QCCR in a recent interview.

“It’s just really exciting to see it coming alive and it’s also really rewarding to see design elements that we spent a long time thinking about and now seeing that we were right.”

The new 112-bed facility will replace Queens County’s two existing homes – the privately run Queens Manor and the municipally owned Hillsview Acres in Greenfield. Located across from Queens Place Emera Centre, it will add 22 long-term care beds in Queens County.

“Anybody that’s driven by can see that we’re moving really quickly. It’s an 11-step process and I believe we’re at Step 9. The external envelope is up. You can clearly see bedrooms taking shape, dining rooms taking shape.”

Construction began on the $100-million complex in November 2023, after two years of intensive planning and design consultations with residents, families, staff and the community.

“I have to say the first couple of years were really labour intensive because you have one chance to design the right building,” MacVicar says.

“So we spent a lot of time asking a lot of questions about what we don’t like about our existing buildings, where we see the future of how we deliver care. We always ask the question, ‘Is this idea, this design idea, is it friendly to our staff?’”

Queens Manor shared this photo on its Facebook page of the progress of the new long-term care home in Liverpool. (Queens Manor Facebook page)

All bedrooms in the new manor will be single occupancy with private bathrooms. And each room will also have ceiling lifts that extend to the bathroom, which will make it easier for staff to help residents with mobility issues move anywhere in their room or bathroom.

“It enhances dignity for our residents, but it also enhances safety for our staff. So some lifts that may have been one- or two-person assist can be done by one person. And so it frees up staff, it prevents workplace injuries. It’s a real enhancement to our facility that you won’t see in others.”

MacVicar says that’s only one of many improvements over existing facilities. 

From better multi-use spaces to help with infection control to something as seemingly simple as how the complex is oriented on the site, he said it was important to emphasize the dignity and safety of residents and staff alike in the design.

“There are two elements to providing care – the people and there’s the environment, your infrastructure,” he said.

“Our people provide excellent care, they demonstrate excellence every day, but our building hasn’t matched that. I think you’ll see a building that is friendly to its staff, which in turn means that it just enhances their ability to provide excellent care. Residents will have more privacy, more dignity. Spaces will be bright. It will be very difficult for you to find a space in that facility that doesn’t have a window. And it is a facility and institution that does not feel like a facility or an institution. It will feel like a home.”

He said staff and the design team spent a lot of time investigating what worked at newer facilities elsewhere in the province and talking to people at those facilities to see what they would improve if they could.

“So to address the future, we looked backwards a bit to some of the facilities that have already been built and we used these visits as an opportunity to test our ideas to see if what looks good on paper actually works in practice.”

MacVicar said it was also important to choose a new location that would make the manor visible to the whole community.

“So there was a shift towards a location that would take our residents and embed into the centre of the community rather than what I call warehousing seniors on a hill out of sight, out of mind. And when your community is forced to look at your long-term care facility every day it prevents them from being forgotten, which I think quite clearly this location will prevent that from happening.”

Construction is on track for residents to move in sometime in the fall of 2026. 

Before that, though, the new facility needs a new name. 

“We want to make sure our new home captures the legacy of both organizations but we also want to make sure we come together under a new brand, a new name.”

MacVicar said the community will have a chance during a naming campaign this fall to give their input on what the new long-term care home in Queens County will be called.

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The Region of Queens has greenlit design work to begin on improvements to the town bridge. (Rick Conrad)

The Region of Queens is going ahead with design work to make the town bridge safer and more accessible for pedestrians and cyclists.

The two-lane bridge over the Mersey River is the main thoroughfare into downtown Liverpool.

The steel structure was built in 1958 and spans about 100 metres with an inside width of 9.6 metres. It has a narrow sidewalk on each side. There are no paved shoulders, dedicated bike lanes or barriers to separate traffic from pedestrians.

Two years ago, regional council commissioned a technical evaluation from engineering firm CBCL to look at active transportation upgrades. Council at that time decided to hold off on any work until more funding became available from the provincial or federal governments.

Simply to maintain the bridge with no improvements would have cost $325,000. To realign the two lanes and expand one sidewalk would have cost $700,000. An active transportation expansion with a dedicated space for pedestrians and cyclists had a price tag of $3.4 million. A totally separate pedestrian bridge over the river was estimated at $4.4 million.

Adam Grant, the region’s director of infrastructure, discussed the issue this week at council’s regular meeting. He said those estimates from 2023 would now likely be about 10 per cent more. He recommended the $3.4-million option.

“I think we get rid of a lot of the challenges that’ll be found working inside the existing structure,” he told councillors.

“Going that way would open up an avenue to create bicycle lanes on the existing bridge once the sidewalks are removed, as well as it wouldn’t require a realignment of the street from lanes all the way through to Water Street so it would be less invasive on the existing street structure, and would probably be able to provide a more fulsome solution on the exterior of the bridge as opposed to trying to fit within a kind of more refined area.”

Grant said he wanted to get the design work started so that the project would be shovel-ready if funding is secured. Councillors had set aside $181,749 in the region’s capital investment plan.

Under the municipality’s current agreement with the province, maintenance and repair work on the bridge is cost-shared 50/50.

But improvements to the bridge would require a new funding agreement, he said.

“At this point under the agreement we have, they’re under no obligation to entertain any upgrades.”

Councillors supported the less costly $3.4-million active transportation expansion, but said they need to look for funding from other levels of government.

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton said she wants to see the expansion go ahead, but the region needs help from the province.

“I feel like we need to address this certainly. It’s not safe. If you’re walking on the bridge now, you’re quite high up, people misstep, and you could very easily be on the road. … We do have cyclists in Queens and so that’s a bit of a problematic place as it is,” Charlton said.

“We’re funding the design work. We should have some really meaningful conversations to look for support (for the expansion) because I don’t think we can take that on on our own, nor would it be fair for us to take it on on our own.”

Councillors voted unanimously to spend the money for the design work, while directing staff to look for funding for the improvements from the federal and provincial governments.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Region of Queens councillors are trying to address concerns about safety at Cameron’s Corner in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

Region of Queens councillors want municipal staff to investigate another hazardous intersection in Liverpool.

Coun. Courtney Wentzell brought up complaints from constituents this week about the intersection at Cameron’s Corner.

“It’s an accident waiting to happen that could very well be life-threatening,” Wentzell told his fellow councillors at Tuesday’s regular council meeting.

The intersection is a busy one, at the corner of Main Street and Old Port Mouton Road, which connects with White Point Road. It has one stop sign on Main Street, but the traffic coming from Old Port Mouton Road has the right-of-way.

“People are speeding, coming from Main Street towards Milton,” Wentzell said.

“
They’re not signalling. They’re going way too fast. There’s confusion, people coming from White Point, especially if they don’t live here. 
They don’t know if they should stop, if they should turn left, if they should turn right. They’re not looking to see if somebody is crossing on that crosswalk, the line of sight is absolutely horrific.”

Wentzell said that when he was campaigning in October 2024, he heard lots of concerns about the area. He’s referred those to the police advisory board, but he appealed to councillors to do more to address it.

“I was berated pretty badly here a week, two weeks ago that nothing is taking place. There was a near-miss, a lady was almost struck on that corner, trying to cross the crosswalk.”

Mayor Scott Christian said he finds the intersection challenging too.

“Ever since I moved to this community, that intersection has always kind of concerned me. … I think it would make sense for us to try to do something to address it.”

Councillors voted to refer it to the region’s traffic authority to investigate and return with a staff report with recommendations. They also wanted to know whether the Nova Scotia government would have to be involved since it may include a provincial roadway.

In February, councillors voted to spend about $24,000 on a traffic study at the three-way stop near the post office on Main Street.

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Joe Wood of Liverpool has been inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. (Photo courtesy of Joe Wood)

Joe Wood serves up a little music history every week from a Tim Horton’s in Liverpool.

The veteran of the Canadian country music scene is now part of history himself. He is this year’s inductee in the Stan Klees builder category in the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

For the past 35 years, Wood’s RDR Music Group, which he co-founded with his ex-wife Trudy Wood, has been helping independent country artists and others in Canada and elsewhere get their music onto radio stations.

“At this point, we’ve sent over 10,000 songs and albums and videos to radio stations across Canada and the United States.”

Wood’s wife Lauren Tutty is also involved in the music business. Lauren Tutty Promotions tracks the music for artists once it gets to radio.

QCCR spoke to Wood recently on the phone from Toronto, where he was visiting family.

Originally a singer-songwriter in the late 1970s and ’80s, he started out in Toronto pressing vinyl, cassettes and CDs for other artists. 

And when things got less physical, he pioneered digital delivery for independent artists. His was the first company in Canada to send music to radio stations over the internet. His office is anywhere he can get a connection.

“Sometimes I’ll go to MacDonald’s or Tim Horton’s or sometimes, I’ll tether my computer to my phone and I’ll go out and sit in Western Head or I’ll go out and sit in Milton and work in the car for an hour especially if it’s a beautiful day. And that’s the wonderful thing about this job. I can work anywhere that there’s internet.”

Wood says music lovers likely wouldn’t have heard of Yangaroo/DMDS, the service he uses to push music to radio, but they’d be familiar with the artists.

“They’ll hear Lennie Gallant, Jimmy Rankin, they’ll hear Valdy, they’ll hear Gord Bamford, they’ll hear Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, all those clients have come through my hands and actually, the majority of those clients came through Liverpool.”

He was among the first to create a compilation CD of independent artists for radio, called Country Pak. And he launched one of the first toll-free services for artists to market their music.

About five years ago, from his home in Liverpool, Wood helped a Garth Brooks song debut at No. 1 on the Billboard country charts.

“So I was part of the team in Canada and there were three others in the United States. … We all got on the phone at the same time. Literally from Mersey Avenue, we counted down the time and it was like 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, click, we all pushed go at the same time, said goodbye to everybody, hung the phone up, and the next day, Garth Brooks debuted at No. 1 on Billboard.”

Wood’s involvement with the Canadian Country Music Association goes back to 1991. He served on its board of directors from 1992-96 and helped establish the CCMA Independent Awards in 1997.

As part of the induction, Wood’s name will be displayed on a wall at the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame at the National Music Centre in Calgary. And he says he’ll likely donate an original copy of that first compilation CD as his piece of memorabilia.

Wood isn’t the first Queens County resident to be named to the hall. He’ll join Brooklyn’s Hank Snow and Port Medway’s Carroll Baker.

He said being honoured by his peers with an award named for his friend, Canadian music pioneer Stan Klees, is pretty special.

“When you work in the sector of the industry I do, the independent sector which is massive now, it just means that they acknowledge it, they understand that that sector, that the people that are the up-and-coming artists have a voice. And for me to be recognized in that area means everything.”

After almost five decades in the music business, the 71-year-old says he’s still passionate about it. 

“I love the music. It’s not work. It’s certainly not work. I get to sit down every day and there’s fresh stuff on my laptop that I get to hear. And you get to help people too. That’s the great fun. I help people go to radio. And I make sure people don’t make mistakes, the mistakes I made.”

Wood says someone asked him recently when he plans to retire. 

“You know what, I’m getting the kids of the parents I put out many, many years ago, 20 years ago. And now I get to work with them. And they’ll tell me at the end, “Oh, you worked with my Dad or you worked with my Mom.’ And I’ll say, ‘Oh my you tell them I said hi.’

“It’s fun. I think I’m gonna hang in there till I get the grandkids, then I’ll retire.”

Wood will be formally inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame with artist Lisa Brokop in a ceremony during Country Music Week from Sept. 10 to 13 in Kelowna, British Columbia.

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Abigail Smith will be going to the World Judo Cadets Championships in Bulgaria in August. (Rick Conrad)

Abigail Smith is booking another international flight to wear the maple leaf.

The 17-year-old judo athlete from Queens County will be representing Canada at the World Judo Cadets Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, Aug. 27 to 30.

There are three divisions in judo: cadet for athletes under 18, junior for those under 21, and senior.

“I’m so excited,” she told QCCR.

“It’s been my dream for so long. Years now, I’ve been wantitng to go to a world event, and cadet worlds, it’s what I’ve been working for. I moved to the city to be able to train for this goal, so to know that all my hard work paid off and I’m actually getting to go, it’s such a surreal feeling.”

Smith decided five months ago to move to Halifax and stay with a family there so she can train full time at Nova United Martial Arts.

“When I was living in Liverpool, I was only able to train three days a week on the mats because it’s such a long drive — two hours there, two hours back. I was getting home at 11, and not getting to bed until 12. This is my last year to make the cadet worlds, this is the last year I could qualify, so I said I really wanted to go for it and I talked to my coaches and my parents and everyone that’s been helping me, and they said, ‘Yep, let’s go for it’.”

• RELATED: Read more about Abigail Smith’s journey here

Smith began judo lessons when she was four years old. She’s now ranked in the Top 10 in Canada.

She’s been racking up the frequent flyer points in the past few months, joining Team Canada for the European Judo Tour in March. 

And she grabbed two bronze medals, in her usual U18 or cadet division and the U21 division, at the national judo championships in Calgary in May.

Like the fierce competitor she is, though, she was disappointed because she had her sights set on a gold in the U18 division.

“I was very upset with the results actually. To get selected for worlds, you have to win nationals. I didn’t win, but Judo Canada has the option to select another (athlete). They selected me to go also.

“I went there to win. My first fight was a good fight. And I went into my second fight, it went into golden score which is overtime and I was dominating the whole fight controlling it and a few seconds into overtime I made a mistake, I got caught and I lost that fight. Then I was very upset. Then my coach talked to me, my dad talked to me and they said you can still podium, so I fought back up to the repechage and I won the bronze medal after a few more fights.”

She’ll have a big cheering section in Bulgaria for the worlds. Her coaches Jason Scott and Jamie Slaunwhite plan to be there, along with her parents.

“It’s special, it means a lot to me, they’re my biggest supporters, my mom and dad, for them to come it’s going to be great for them to see me fight.”

Smith says she’s excited to show, again, what she can do on the world stage.

“I think i just want to go out there and fight and show my judo and leave everything on the mat. I don’t want to have any regrets after this. I just want to go out there and fight and give it my all.”

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Picturesque fishing villages like Port Medway could be an attraction for film and TV crews considering productions in Queens County. (Rick Conrad)

Crews have been touring Queens County this spring scouting out possible locations to film a television series.

Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian said recently he’s been approached by “three or four” different crews considering production in the area.

“They want to do it here. I think that there’s one big project that they have the creative greenlight on and they’re just looking at crossing the Ts and dotting the Is and it seemed like it was pretty promising the conversations that they had,” he said in a recent interview.

“There was a lot of nodding heads and excited ideas that they were tossing around. I don’t know anything about that industry but it was pretty cool to be involved in.”

Christian didn’t say who he met with, but he said he showed some crews around Liverpool and other areas of Queens County.

The Nova Scotia government’s distant location incentive is one reason productions are looking farther outside the traditional Halifax and Chester-Mahone Bay-Lunenburg areas.

Introduced in 2024, it provides up to 10 per cent additional funding for film and TV shoots that film at least 150 kilometres away from downtown Halifax.

“It’s really cool. It’s a bit of a game changer for small to medium-size productions and so it’s sort of all eyes on Liverpool. We’re really, really well-positioned with respect to that because we’re just outside of that threshold, we’re 158 kilometres away from downtown Halifax.”

Laura Mackenzie, executive director of Screen Nova Scotia which helps bring productions to the province, told QCCR that Nova Scotia is a very attractive place for international and domestic productions.

It can stand in for any location on the northeastern seaboard such as Maine or Martha’s Vineyard, as well as places like San Francisco and other cities. 

And she said with the new incentive, more places in rural parts of the province are being discovered.

“Untapped locations are really exciting for productions and there’s not a lot of them left in Canada so this distant filming bonus gives productions the opportunity to go look in areas that would never have really been taken advantage of.”

About 100 productions are filmed in Nova Scotia each year. But very few make it outside the metropolitan Halifax or Chester-Mahone Bay-Lunenburg areas. 

Mackenzie says that’s because crews based in Halifax want to keep travel costs low.

“And now that we have the distant filming bonus, we can highlight areas of Nova Scotia that we know they will consider because it’s not cost prohibitive anymore, like Liverpool. So this is great news for all of us.”

She said “more than a handful” have already taken advantage of the incentive, with Cape Breton being an early choice for a couple of productions.

She didn’t know which specific companies may be looking at the Liverpool area. 

“If they’ve travelled down to Liverpool to have a look at your area then there’s something there they want. They wouldn’t go there if there wasn’t something there they want. It’s definitely a good sign. It’s encouraging if you see production companies and their creatives travelling around and meeting with some of the decision-makers.”

Mackenzie cautions, though, that there are many factors that decide whether a crew will film in an area, including the ability to close roads, to use local community centres to feed their crews, and the support of the local business and artistic communities.

Melanie Perron, the co-owner of Hell Bay Brewing in Liverpool, says having film and TV crews in town would be a big boost for her business and others.

“It would be fun because I know they’ve done things like that in Mahone Bay before and it just sort of puts a place like that on the map. I think it would just be great for our area, just to show it off and let people know what we have to offer.”

Mackenzie says Screen Nova Scotia has been working with local economic development officers to give them tips on how to make their area attractive to a production.

She said locations like Lunenburg have streamlined the process, to eliminate as many obstacles as possible. Those municipalities also have one person available to help productions work through permits, deal with police, set up security and work with the community and local business.

Screen Nova Scotia also has a guide on how locations can become film-friendly.

“Ultimately the economic impact is pretty great,” Mackenzie says.

“Productions really want to make sure that they’re giving back so if they can use the local restaurants they’re going to use them, if they can hire the artists and the unique talents and skill sets that come from that community, then they will.“

Mackenzie said a couple of Hallmark Christmas movies wrapped up filming in Nova Scotia earlier this year. Perron at Hell Bay thinks Liverpool would be a great location for one of those.

Something like Love is Brewing at Christmas?

“That would be great. They can come to Hell Bay and I’ll make them a special brew.”

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Easton Goodwin and Desmond Smyth tied for the People’s Choice Award at the Atlantic International Film Festival’s youth film competition. (Rick Conrad)

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Two young filmmakers from Liverpool have won the People’s Choice Award at this year’s Atlantic International Film Festival youth film competition.

The short films by Easton Goodwin and Desmond Smyth tied for the award, which was decided by a round of online voting. Their films were among 16 finalists out of 40 submissions.

Desmond, 16, says he’s happy that he and Easton are sharing the award. 

“I got an email that said I had been selected for the People’s Choice Award but there were two really great films that tied for the category. And I was like, man, if there is one person that should have gotten this award it was Easton. So I texted him to see if he got anything and it ended up he did.

“It’s a very cool experience and I’m glad that Easton got the award because he really does deserve it. He put a lot of time and effort and he put all of his heart into the film.”

Desmond’s film November Moon is an homage to David Lynch’s movies. It follows a teenager who has visions of creatures haunting him.

Easton’s film Past Echoes is a more personal look at a young boy dealing with depression, anxiety and bullying at school.

“I couldn’t believe it honestly,” Easton, 17, said Wednesday in an interview.

“Growing up, film was one of my biggest dreams and to get to share this award with one of your best friends, it really is a pleasure. I loved Desmond’s film so much and so much work was put into it, it was great and I loved it. I think it’s awesome that we get to share it.”

The two students at Liverpool Regional High School have collaborated before on a short that also got attention at the Atlantic film festival’s youth competition. Last year, they and some friends made The Absence, which was the runner-up in the people’s choice vote.

Desmond and Easton are members of the Astor Theatre’s filmmaking club, which began in September. More than a dozen youth meet every week to work on their own projects and collaborate on bigger ones.

The club is overseen by three adult mentors, Desmond’s parents Kyle and Lori, and Dan Williams.

“There’s a lot of really, really talented kids at the film club,” Desmond says. “They certainly helped me with my film. They’re very supportive of the whole thing, which I think is awesome.”

Easton says that being part of the film club has helped him hone his filmmaking.

“The film club we can’t thank them enough, they were really helpful. They all have talent and they really did help our (pictures).”

The club wraps up for the year when school’s out for the summer. But Easton says more kids should join when the club starts up again in September.

“If you have children who might be interested in film tell them to come out because we have a great group of people and they’re all so welcoming.”

In the meantime, Easton and Desmond say they’re going to keep working on their own projects and help spread the word about the film club and the Astor’s stop-motion animation club, which will also get going again in September.

“I guess keep making films and hope for the best,” Easton says. “The best advice I ever got is to just making films, keep writing, keep filming every day and eventually it will improve and then hopefully I’ll be in the industry at some point.”

To see all the finalist films in the Atlantic International Film Festival’s youth competition this year, go to the festival’s YouTube channel.

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Eric Fry of SDL Investments Limited is hoping to build 16 apartments in the old Stedmans building on Main Street in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

UPDATED Mon., June 2 at 4:45 p.m.

The public will be able to give their feedback on a proposed new apartment building on Main Street in Liverpool that may result in a significant change to the downtown landscape.

The Region of Queens is considering an application from Eric Fry, president of SDL Investments Limited, to turn the former Stedmans building at 194 Main St. into 16 apartments. It was most recently used by a real estate development company. And before that, it housed a discount store and office space on the ground floor.

The region’s land use bylaw permits residential units on Main Street only in buildings with a commercial storefront.

The proposal from Fry’s SDL Investments Ltd. does not have any commercial element.

That means the land use bylaw would have to be amended for the project to go ahead. And that requires a public hearing.

The region’s planning advisory committee discussed the proposal in May.

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton, a member of the planning advisory committee, said the committee wasn’t comfortable giving a recommendation on the potential bylaw change without “some thorough public engagement”.

“PAC was uncomfortable moving a recommendation forward without public engagement, knowing that either allowing this use by right or by development agreement, could open it up to some significant change,” she told councillors at their regular meeting last week.

Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR on Monday that the committee wanted a “more robust public information opportunity” before a public hearing “to be able to provide more information to the public about what the shape of the amendment to the land use bylaw that’s being envisioned, what that looks like.”

“So as a way to get a full package of information to engaged members of the community and then providing them with an opportunity to have their say. It’s not required by the province. It’s best practices, I think,” Christian said.

“We know that this is an important conversation for us to be having and so we wanted to make sure that we have lots of opportunity for getting the information out there and giving folks an opportunity to provide their feedback.” 

Public information sessions are planned in the community room at Queens Place Emera Centre, on June 17 and June 19, both from 5 to 8 p.m. One will be geared more toward the business community and the other toward residents, Christian said.

“A formal notice and some promotional materials will be coming out early next week,” Christian said. “It’s going to be a drop-in, drop-out type of engagement and information session as opposed to a town hall with a microphone. … And the organization will be set up with information and with some ways for folks to give their input.”

He said this type of consultation is more effective at getting information to people and gathering feedback.

UPLAND Planning, the consultants that helped draft the region’s land use bylaw and municipal planning strategy adopted in 2022, will lead the public consultation.

Originally, residents and business owners were also going to be able to complete an online survey. But Christian said Monday that may not happen.

According to a report from Mike MacLeod, director of land use, members of the planning advisory committee “felt that opening up the (commercial downtown zone) to residential development as-of-right was not in the best interest of the community and that if council was to permit this use, controls would need to be established.”

MacLeod said the committee asked for draft amendments to be prepared for them to examine before they made a recommendation to council.

The consultants will prepare a report for council by the end of June. The region’s planning advisory committee would review the report, and then council would discuss the committee’s recommendations at its July meeting.

Christian said if there are proposed amendments to the land use bylaw, councillors would vote on those. If it passed first reading, then there would be a two-week notice period for a public hearing to be held before the final vote.

Fry gave councillors details of his proposed development at their April 22 meeting.

He wants to build 16 one- and two-bedroom units over two floors. Parking for the units would be indoors on the ground level, where there would also be storage units and four apartments. One-bedroom apartments would be about 800 square feet, while the two-bedroom units would be from 1,100 to 1,500 square feet. 

Rents would be similar to his apartment building on the Mersey River in Milton, he said, which are around $2,000 a month.

Fry bought the 30,000-square-foot building in January for $235,000.

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Eric Goulden, chairman of the Astor Theatre Society, speaks to theatre supporters on Thursday. Karen Murphy, of the J&W Murphy Foundation, and Lynn Cochrane, vice-chair of the Astor board, look on. (Rick Conrad)

The board of the Astor Theatre on Thursday unveiled some details of a plan they hope will make the theatre the centre of arts and culture on the South Shore.

“We are definitely the envy of a lot of other theatres in Nova Scotia,” Astor Theatre Society chairman Eric Goulden said.

“And it is a very, very valuable treasure.”

The historic Liverpool theatre, which opened in 1902, recently received a $500,000 donation from the J&W Murphy Foundation. The five-year funding commitment will help with the Astor’s operational expenses, and help improve its marketing, promotion and fundraising efforts.

Board members invited the community on Thursday afternoon to learn more about the foundation’s support.

The contribution will help the Astor work on long-term projects to make the theatre sustainable. Three consultants will be hired to come up with fundraising and communications plans and oversee the process.

Heather White Brittain, the director of development with the Imperial Theatre in Saint John, will lead the Astor’s fundraising and sponsorship development efforts. That will include creating a fund development database that will help the Astor secure more sustainable donations from corporations and other foundations.

Cathy Neumiller, a communications and marketing professional based in Halifax, will help create a new marketing and communications plan for the theatre. That will include a newly designed website, a subtle rebranding and more community outreach.

“We don’t have the capacity in house to do this work,” said Lynn Cochrane, vice-chair of the Astor board. 

“(The employees) do miracles every day with what they have to work with. But the fund development and marketing communications side are specialist areas and require specialists to do them.”

Cochrane said a lot of the work for the first year will be behind the scenes. But lovers of the Astor should start seeing some changes by the end of this year.

Neumiller says she hopes to harness the enthusiasm of the Astor’s sizable and dedicated group of volunteers.

“It’s really about relationships,” she said in an interview.

“The ultimate with communications is striking up a relationship with someone and finding out what they’re passionate about. The goal is to find the people that are the most passionate and get them on board to help achieve the things that need to be done because there’s a lot.”

Jean Robinson-Dexter, a former executive director of the Astor and longtime chair of the Liverpool International Theatre Festival, will act as a project manager.

The president of Horizons Community Development Associates also helped Cochrane create the funding proposal to the Murphy foundation.

“I guess I’ll be a bit of a trouble-shooter and a bit of a historian about the organization and the kinds of things that the theatre does,” Robinson-Dexter said in an interview.

“I’ll be doing regular check-ins with the two wonderful consultants and sharing that back to the board, making sure we’re on track in terms of deliverables and timelines. It’s a great opportunity to be back and contributing to the Astor again.”

The Astor announced the “life-changing” contribution from the J&W Murphy Foundation in April. 

The foundation was established in 2008 by the late Janet and Dr. William Murphy, longtime Liverpool residents. Dr. Murphy co-founded the thriving Mersey Seafoods in 1964. 

It contributes to a wide variety of charitable causes, especially in Queens County.

The foundation’s Karen Murphy told QCCR on Thursday that they had many discussions with the Astor board about how to help.

“And our conclusion was that we could assist in some funding to take away some of the operational worries so the focus could be on future-proofing the facility,” she said.

“It’s often capital projects that get a lot of attention. But we found with especially small- and medium-sized organizations, operational funding is often forgotten. And sometimes that’s the key to all the other creativity-building that needs to happen.”

She said that she and her family have been longtime supporters of the Astor and were happy to help “take it to the next level”.

“When people find out I’m from Liverpool, they invariably mention the Astor. That tells you what a legacy is already in place. And it’s on all of us to keep adding to that and to keep building it up. This place has to be here for the next 100 years like it has been already.”

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People participate in a walk audit near the Thomas H. Raddall Library off the White Point Road in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

People took to the streets this week to brave some cool and wet conditions, and traffic, to get an idea of how safe it is for walkers around the new Liverpool library location.

Hike Nova Scotia held a walk audit in the area. Program manager Catherine Droesbeck said the organization has done about 15 walk audits around the province through its NS Walks program. But this was the first one for Liverpool.

The Region of Queens asked the group to hold the event to help get community input on how to encourage people to use active transportation, like walking and cycling, to get to and from the library.

“We’ve been doing walking audits now for the past nine months or so all over the province in communities big and small, who are all interested in improving the experience for pedestrians in getting around their communities,” Droesbeck said in an interview.

“Then we’ve been going in and helping them do the audit, which gives us some good data in terms of people’s experience, but also it’s a great way to engage community with government officials and other organizations to bring people together to say, ‘This is what we love about our community, but this is how we we’d like to make it better.’”

About 15 people participated in the walk audit, which took participants on a two-kilometre route from the library, along Harley Umphrey Drive, up to White Point Road, along Payzant Street, across Parker to Union, over to Waterloo and back to the library.

Morgan MacDonald, the region’s new physical activity co-ordinator, said walking is one of the most popular and accessible forms of physical activity. 

“And one of the barriers to walking for many people is safety,” he said.

“So having a walkability audit allows us to take a certain portion of the region, which is around our new library location in Liverpool, and looking at the accessibility and the barriers to active transportation around this location and tying it into the existing infrastructure of the town of Liverpool. So by trying to address some of the barriers to people walking and rolling, we’re hoping that they’ll feel comfortable and confident to make that part of their everyday life.”

When participatns got back to the library, they were asked to rate the route on various factors, such as traffic, sidewalks, crosswalks and safety, out of an overall score of 120. Most were in the 40 to 50 range, with one as high as 92.

They said that even though there are no sidewalks on roads around the library, the shoulders are wide enough in some areas for walkers. But they added that the unevenness of the unpaved shoulders would make it difficult for people in wheelchairs to navigate.

They also talked about the lack of clearly marked crosswalks on the route, and suggested installing crosswalk flags at certain intersections.

When regional council decided to move the library from downtown to the new location, residents were concerned about safety because the area has no sidewalks and limited lighting.

Sylvia Hurley of Liverpool was one of the walkers. She says she loves to walk, but it can sometimes be hazardous.

“And I have a lot of concerns about areas of walking, crosswalks, how walkers are treated locally, not stopping at crosswalks, not paying attention to us. I wanted to express my concerns big time,” she said on the route.

“I used to walk out on this street (White Point Road), but I haven’t walked here for a very long time. It’s dangerous, very dangerous. It’s narrow. But I’m fortunate because I can come up George Street from my house and be to the library which suits me. I don’t have to come out on to this road, but not everyone’s that fortunate.”

Hurley said she thinks the walking audit is a great idea.

“But if they’re going to do an audit, do the audit but honour what people say. Don’t just, ‘Oh yeah, they complained about this, they complained about that.’ Let’s do something about it.”

Hike Nova Scotia’s Droesbeck said responses from the walk audit will be compiled in a report to the municipality.

“I think we identified some, what we’ll call low-hanging fruit today, that the community can do that will go a long way to make people feel safer when they’re walking this particular route. So whether it’s marking the crosswalks better, looking at speed limit signs, more some benches and things that will make it look more like, OK, people want to walk here and walk safely. So I think there’s some possibilities there.”

The region’s MacDonald said this was only the first of a few community consultations about active transportation, including walking and cycling. More are planned this summer through Cycling Nova Scotia in Caledonia, Greenfield and again in Liverpool.

He said the results of this week’s walk audit are important to highlight for regional staff and council the community’s concerns about walking in the area.

“So it was looking at how all of these different systems interact and how we can make infrastructure and spaces that work for everybody and encourage healthy activity and safe activity in our community.”

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Dan Roscoe is the CEO of Roswall Development, which owns Renewall Energy, the company behind Mersey River Wind. (Renewall Energy)

Work may start soon on the Mersey River Wind project in Milton.

Dan Roscoe is the CEO of Roswall Development, the company that plans to build a 33-wind turbine farm on 80 hectares of Crown land west of the Mersey River, under its Renewall Energy subsidiary.

He told QCCR this week that the company is still on track to erect its first batch of windmills by late 2026.

“We still hope to start in the next few months and take advantage of the summer season,” Roscoe said in an interview.

“Turbines are still scheduled to arrive likely next June, but generally the middle of next year. It’s still our plan to do 20 turbines in ’26 and 13 turbines in ‘27.”

Roscoe said most of the site-clearing work has been done. And he expects crews to begin working on the roads this spring and summer.

“We would’ve all loved to have a shovel in the ground by now, but we’re still on schedule for ’26.”

There’s a lot of excitement locally about the project, which promises to sell electricity directly to consumers, bypassing Nova Scotia Power. And Renewall says their rates will be lower and more stable than the privately owned utility.

When about 24 windmill blades showed up in Port Mersey Commercial Park in Brooklyn recently, people thought they were for the Mersey River project.

Roscoe says that equipment doesn’t belong to them. Those are for a wind farm in Benjamins Mill near Falmouth.

“Those are going to a project in Hants County. But that is the same route that we’re planning to use for all of our components, not just the blades.”

Roswall has about 30 commercial, industrial and institutional customers signed up for Mersey River Wind so far, including the Region of Queens and other municipal governments in Halifax, Shelburne and Bridgewater.

And he said hundreds of individuals have added their names to a list of early residential customers. Those who live near the wind farm, essentially anybody in Queens County, will get priority access.

“With many of our customers, there’s this push for stability, especially in the public sector where you’re trying to operate under a fixed budget. If your electricity cost goes up, your cost of water treatment goes up, but if you can stabilize your cost of energy well that major input into your water treatment cost is now is now stabilized and predictable. I suggest that climate and so forth, bring us together, but it’s really the commercial terms that they could save money and have predictability going forward which really is what gets people the most excited.”

Roscoe says the company’s community liaison committee will keep people updated as construction begins.

Residents can also subscribe to the company’s newsletter on the Mersey River Wind website and sign up to be a customer on the Renewall Energy website.

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The Region of Queens has hired a new human resources manager. (Rick Conrad)

A former human resources director at Global Empire Corporation is now in charge of human resources at the Region of Queens.

Holly McConnell will begin the job of director of people and culture at the municipality on May 26, according to a region news release on Tuesday afternoon.

McConnell was born in Liverpool, and has spent most of her life in Queens County.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she most recently worked for Global Empire at their Liverpool call centre as its HR manager.

“Holly’s experience in leading workplace teams through periods of transition was recognized as a significant asset in the recruitment process, and she is someone with a genuine warmth and caring for the well-being of staff,” interim CAO Dan McDougall said in the release..

“Her background of 16 years in corporate human resources management has given her significant experience and skill in employee relations and workforce engagement.”

The region, which has about 130 full-time and part-time employees, hasn’t had a dedicated human resources manager until the position was created recently.

The municipality has struggled to recruit and retain employees over the past few years.

“The position is called director of people and culture to reflect our administration and council’s commitment to an uplifting work environment that embodies inclusion, safety and mutual respect,” McDougall said.

“Holly is proficient in these areas, and will focus on strengthening employee engagement by way of leadership development, human resource planning, and recruitment and retention plans.”

McConnell has 16 years’ experience in human resources positions. She is a graduate of the Institute of Professional
Management and has a Canadian Management Professional designation.

“My specialty is employee relations,” McConnell said in the release. “I derive great satisfaction helping people successfully grow in their roles and always work towards those ‘win-win-win’ situations to help drive a positive work culture.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com