2007 IN REVIEW: April, May, June

Yarmouth’s Temple Baptist Church had found a new home in the former Notre Dame of Fatima Roman Catholic church on Bond Street. Temple was slated to take possession of the facility in June. The amount of work needed on Temple’s existing site, as well as a lack of parking there, were factors in the decision to relocate.

There was “real serious interest” in the Yarmouth airport, said Yarmouth MLA and cabinet minister Richard Hurlburt, adding that he had a lead on a carrier looking to provide air service between Yarmouth and New England.

With pet owners across the country concerned about problems with contaminated pet food, it appeared that at least one animal in the Yarmouth area had encountered the tainted product.

A tiny eatery with a big reputation had closed its doors. Gwen’s Diner in Middle East Pubnico – known to locals mostly as The Canteen – had operated for 48 years.

The Western Counties Regioinal Library was facing a cash crunch and was hoping library users would support the WCRL in its quest for increased government funding.

It was a milestone year for the Knights of Columbus, the organization marking its 125th anniversary, and various anniversary-related activities were planned for the Yarmouth area.

A group of students and their teacher from Ecole secondaire de Par-en-Bas – who earlier in the year had staged the production Jean and Juan – had been invited to attend a theatre festival in Sudbury on the Laurentian University campus.

MAY

The Yarmouth Food Bank, which normally would close for the summer at the end of May, was planning to continue operating an extra month, but the bank’s food supply was low and the organization was appealing to the public for help in restocking its shelves.

The Municipality of Yarmouth was in the early stages of planning for a new municipal office building to be located at the site of the former Hebron school.

Town council rejected a request by tourism operators to scrap a $2 room levy. The initiative to establish the levy had begun more than a year earlier – the levy viewed as a way to create funding for tourism promotion – but the operators said now was not the time for a room tax, given the downturn in their industry.

The Kaye Nickerson Adult Service Centre would be looking for a new home, thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Nova Scotia government. The centre’s board would have to decide whether to build a new facility or retrofit an existing structure.

New Yarmouth Mariners owner Jack Ross delivered on his promise of big changes for the local junior A hockey team when he held a press conferece that included the introduction of former NHLer Steve Kasper as the club’s new head coach and the unveiling of a new logo for the team.

Major changes proposed for the local highway system – including measures to link the 101 and 103 in Yarmouth – were the subject of a public meeting, where some people expressed concern over the potential impact of the changes.

Fundraising for a Yarmouth YMCA revitalization project – a multimillion-dollar initiative that would include a new aquatic centre – was underway.

JUNE

The commercial lobster fishery off southwestern Nova Scotia was over, but authorities – Department of Fisheries and Oceans personnel and the RCMP – would be maintaining an enforcement presence over the summer months and into the fall, keeping an eye out for illegal fishing activity.

Paramedics responding to a call in Yarmouth’s south end had to make an emergency call themselves when their ambulance was stolen. The theft had no impact on the patient the paramedics were treating, but an EHS official said the potential consequences in such a case are very serious.

While he said he could understand the difficult situation facing Bill Casey, the MP for Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit (who had voted against the Conservative Party’s budget because of changes to the Atlantic Accord), Yarmouth MLA and provincial cabinet minister Richard Hurlburt said he would have picked a different route, citing his own interior struggle a few years earlier with the bill that forced striking Nova Scotia nurses back to work.

Officials with Destination Southwest Nova Scotia went before Yarmouth town council seeking an additional $2,000 for the operation of Yarmouth’s visitor information centre, but they were told the request should have been part of the budget they had previously brought to the town. Some council members also said they felt the organization’s head office should be in Yarmouth.

It had generated much talk since being introduced six months earlier, but the proposed federal Fisheries Act was on hold, awaiting the return to Ottawa of parliamentarians in the fall.

Damaged by flooding in February, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s western branch was getting ready for an early-summer reopening.