Pictou County RCMP have arrested two local people for drunk driving. A 20-year-old man from River John is due in court December 27th on drunk driving charges after being picked up Saturday night in the Welsford area. Then on Sunday night around 9:30, RCMP responded to a single vehicle crash in Pictou Landing. That’s where they arrested a 36-year-old woman from Blue Mountain. She’s also due at the Pictou Courthouse on the morning of December 27th for impaired driving charges.
NS RCMP CHARGE 425 PEOPLE DURING OPERATION IMPACT
During Operation Impact held over the Thanksgiving weekend, Nova Scotia RCMP say they charged 425 people with offences related to impaired driving, distracted driving, aggressive driving and improper seat belt use. Operation Impact is an annual initiative led by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) to increase road safety.
LOCAL COMMUNITY CENTRES RECEIVE FUNDING FOR UPGRADES
Three rural Pictou County community centres are getting upgrades thanks to the province’s Community Facilities Improvement Program. The Churchville Community Club received $30,000 for siding, insulation and roof upgrades and the IOOF Moore Lodge #17 was granted $30,000 for upgrades to its emergency entrance, a new door, and electrical improvements. The Springville Church and Community Hall received $22,000 for kitchen improvements. In addition, the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library received $6,000 for improvements to community space at its Westville library branch.
WESTVILLE APPOINTS NEW POLICE CHIEF
The Town of Westville has appointed a new Police chief. It was announced that week during the regular council meeting that Staff Sergeant Howard Dunbar will become chief of police effective January 1. Dunbar has been part of the Westville Police Force for almost 40 years.
As Breast Cancer Awareness Month winds down, it was just announced this week that Nova Scotia has become the first province to provide breast density results to all women who undergo a mammogram. The standardized changes are effective immediately, with the new breast density assessment software already installed in screening centres across the province. This new technology was developed and produced, in part, by researchers and radiologists at Dalhousie University, and rolled out in Nova Scotia with help from the IWK Health Centre’s Breast Screening Program.
Nova Scotia MLAs passed legislation banning single-use plastic bags yesterday at Province House. The law comes into effect in a year, giving retailers and the public time to prepare. Earlier this year, Sobeys announced it would no longer offer plastic bags at its stores starting in January 2020. The legislation does include some exemptions, such as bags used by dry cleaners, bags used by garages to wrap tires and bags used for items such as fish and bulk foods.
St. Francis Xavier University has launched a new research centre to serve the region with advanced climate models and data. Their aim is to provide information on the physical, social, and economic impacts of climate change for Nova Scotia and the rest of the Atlantic Region. The Climate Services & Research Centre (CSRC) will function as a hub offering services, including the ability to predict regional climate modelling scenarios to a variety of organizations.
Auditor-General Michael Pickup’s latest report says there are significant problems with several provincial departments when it comes financial controls. He points out staff at Service Nova Scotia have been spending taxpayers’ money on goods and services without pre-approval, and that’s a problem. He says the Department of Lands and Forestry needs to do more to adequately size up the risk of contamination from the Province’s abandoned mine sites. Pickup says it’ll put peoples’ health and provincial finances human health concerns if they don’t do a better job. Other government programs under the A-G’s microscope in this report include Housing Nova Scotia and the NS Health Authority for its poor monitoring of employees’ time sheets. Pickup notes that interest on long-term debt per capita is down by $2 per person. The A-G says that’s a good trend, but government needs to do more to improve the province’s longer-term debt situation. The full report is now available online.
Nova Scotians increased their intake of local beverages in a substantial way between July 1st and the end of September. Locally-produced ready-to-drink sales, which are mostly coolers and ciders, saw sales shoot up by more than 120 per cent to $6.2 million. Nova Scotia craft beer sales also rang in at $6.2 million, which is an increase of almost 19 per cent for local beers. Nova Scotia spirit sales grew by 17.4 per cent to $2.5 million while wine that was bottled here in the province saw sales increase by 2.9 per cent t- hitting $3.9 million. There were almost 540-thousand cannabis transactions at NSLC outlets over the 3 summer months, with an average dollar value of $33.76.
SPORTS:
The Wold Series is all tied up! The Washington Nationals pulled off a big 7-2 victory over the Houston Astros last night to even the series up at 3-3. Game 7 and the final baseball game of the year is tonight at 9pm.
Less than a week to go for the start of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling here in Pictou County. The draw schedule for both the Tier I and Tier II teams competing was released just last week. It runs November 5-10 at the Pictou County Wellness Centre.
Some updated results from the Cross Country competition for runners province-wide who competed in Trenton Park earlier this week:
Intermediate girls 5km – Cara Macdonald (NNEC) 3rd
Intermediate boys 5km – Conrad Robertson (NNEC) 3rd
Senior girls 6km – Kristen Ross (NRHS) 3rd
Senior girls NNEC team 2nd
Senior boys 6km – Ethan Macdonald (NNEC) 1st and Luke Macdonald (Pictou Academy) 2nd.
