Residents on Waterloo Street in Liverpool appealed to Region of Queens councillors this week to speed up work on the street. (Rick Conrad)

Residents living on and around Waterloo Street in downtown Liverpool are frustrated with water and sewer upgrades that have been going on for three years.

Christopher Clarke, a former Region of Queens mayor who lives on Bootlegger Road at the end of Waterloo, told councillors this week that the project has disrupted residents’ lives for long enough.

“It’s a disgrace. … For three years, our street has been dug up, and it now, based on a letter that we were sent, looks as though it will go into the fourth year. The construction is being done there with very little consideration to the residents. The place is a mess.”

The work begins at the corner of School and Waterloo streets and extends down the narrow residential street to the water.

Clarke said heavy equipment has been left on the street, signs toppled on people’s lawns, pipes left lying everywhere. Also, a temporary traffic light is set up and the noise from the generator disturbs residents at night.

“Now, I don’t for one minute, criticize the employees who are working there. … This is a very, very badly managed project. And so maybe that’s where the blame should lie.”

And he said he was insulted when the region recently sent residents a letter with an update on the project and told them not to talk about the problems with anybody else but senior staff.

“I didn’t elect the manager. I helped to elect the mayor and the councillor. So if I want to come and talk to anybody, I’m going to come and do it. 
I’m not going to be told by staff that I’m not allowed to come and talk. But you’ve got to do something to help us. It’s a mess, it’s muddy, it’s going into next year. 

“Shut the project down, you know you’re not going to get it done this year. … Fix up the street for us, get at it properly next year, do the job, and plan it. It is an absolute disgrace. I would be ashamed to sit in front of the public and tell them that I am responsible for a job like that.”

Waterloo Street resident Paula Doucet echoed Clarke’s concerns. She told councillors that the work is progressing too slowly and that crews don’t appear to be onsite full time.

She added that elderly residents and those with mobility issues also find it difficult to navigate around the work and the equipment.

“We have two big diggers on our street. 
One appears to be working. One isn’t working,” she said.

“We’re paying a lot of taxes and I’m getting really tired of this project. You know, I know it needs to be done, I know it will be great when it’s finished. 
Get it done! If you’ve got to hire more contractors to come in, get it done.”

Mayor Scott Christian said he understood the residents’ concerns.

“I appreciate your frustrations and thank you for your patience, and, yes, we do need to ensure that you have a better experience with respect to that project, so I apologize on behalf of the organization.”

Christian could not be reached for a followup interview.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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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Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman with Queens MLA and Public Works Minister Kim Masland. Photo courtesy Communications Nova Scotia

The Region of Queens received $2.6 million in joint funding for water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades.

Member of Parliament for Halifax West Lena Metlege Diab, Minister of Public Works Kim Masland, and Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman, were on hand at Queens Place Monday to announce the contributions from all three levels of government.

The federal government is investing $1,046,800, the province is kicking in another $872,333 and the Region of Queens is contributing the remaining $697,867.

The money will be used to upgrade and replace water, sanitary, and storm sewer lines.

Part of the funding will go to decommissioning the existing combined sewer outfall in the Waterloo East sewershed boundary and ending the generational practice of pumping wastewater into the bay.

A new wastewater pumping station, forcemain, and a storm sewer outfall will also be included in the project.

The stormwater system is being designed to withstand 100-year storm water levels.

Minister Masland says improvements in these systems will go a long way to supporting development and bringing new residents to Queens.

While those are important issues, she says her larger concern is for cleaning up the harbour.

“The big thing for me with this project is it’s very important that we have a healthy liveable harbour,” said Masland. “And this funding today will certainly make sure that we can replace and upgrade that inadequate infrastructure, and definitely outdated infrastructure that has been there for way too long.”

Mayor Darlene Norman says the Region of Queens has been steadily working on replacing that outdated infrastructure since amalgamation in 1996.

She says the application for this project was submitted in 2021 and the Region is ready to begin when weather permits.

“We’ve been waiting to do it. It was just a matter of $2.6 million is a lot of money,” said Norman.

The project is shovel-ready and will take place in two phases over this year and next.

Norman says the municipality recognizes residents of Waterloo Street will be inconvenienced over the next two years and the Region will keep them informed every step of the way.

The mayor says there are still many areas of Queens County with issues around water and wastewater that need to be addressed.

“First, we have to correct the outfalls and keep our Liverpool Bay healthy. I mean outfalls and oceans is just, I mean major outfalls are just so wrong,” said Norman. “And then we look forward to parts of our county which are in peril if they have unhealthy drinking water so, this is one part of a very big puzzle that needs to be put together.”

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

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