For about two weeks now the Dorchester village office has been closed, with no indication of when it might reopen. The closure was due to initial lab reports that indicated the presence of mold in the office, says CAO Jennifer Borne.
Borne says staff is working with a consultant to obtain a recommendation regarding remediation efforts on the building.
At Monday’s Tantramar Committee of the Whole meeting, Borne told councillors, “it is looking like the remediation could be a very large project,” and so a temporary location for the Dorchester office is in the works. “There’s information that we learn daily,” said Borne. “It’s really a vulnerability that wasn’t part of amalgamation, but certainly throws a wrench in the plans.”
Borne says a communication will go out in mid-March for Dorchester residents regarding the temporary location and hours. Until then, residents can be served in person at Sackville Town Hall, make a payment online, or schedule an appointment by phoning 506-364-4930.
No plans to remove Dorchester VCC kitchen
Also in Dorchester, changes at the Veterans Community Centre have caused a bit of an uproar in the community. There have been rumours that the kitchen of the centre might be removed to make way for a permanent location of Bob Edgett’s Memorial Boxing Club. After Councillor Bruce Phinney asked for clarification at committee of the whole on Monday night, recreation director Matt Pryde explained, “there has been zero truth to us tearing the kitchen out in there.”
“We had a user group meeting just last Wednesday with all the various user groups for that building,” Pryde told councillors. “And we made it quite clear that there was no intentions of whatsoever of keeping the community out of that space.”
Pryde said that the future location of Bob Edgett’s Memorial Boxing Club was discussed, with various alternatives mentioned. “Nothing is set in stone,” said Pryde. “If we were going to have a group like that, that is going to have a permanent spot in one of our buildings, that would have to be brought to council before there’s any decisions made on it.”
Disappearing tables due to well-intentioned miscommunication, says councillor
In addition to false rumours about the VCC kitchen, Tantramar councillor Allison Butcher also enquired Monday about the curious case of the missing tables at the VCC.
It seems that after the disposal of chairs in a dumpster behind the VCC caused some concern in early February, Tantramar staff decided to take a different tack when replacing the tables in the centre.
Matt Pryde says that at a meeting of the Centre’s user groups on February 22, staff announced that the heavy-but-still-useful tables would be up for grabs to anyone who wanted them, with a time set for the give-away to happen, the next day from 4pm to 6pm. The town also advertised the giveaway on its social media channels.
But when Tantramar staff arrived on February 23 to open up the centre and give away the tables, they were already gone. It turns out that former Dorchester mayor and now Tantramar Ward 1 councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell had coordinated with a local volunteer and recycler, Macx MacNichol, to take care of the tables. According to Facebook posts, MacNichol picked up the tables earlier in the day on the 23rd, and had put them up for sale that day online, with proceeds intended for local food banks. Residents who had been planning to pick up a free table or two were not amused.
Wiggins-Colwell did not respond to a request for comment, but in a message on social media explained that she had taken away something different from the meeting with Matt Pryde and local VCC user groups, and was not aware of the giveaway planned for the following day. So that evening, Wiggins-Colwell shopped the tables around, first checking with the Mount Whatley Community Centre, who didn’t need them, and then calling MacNichol, who agreed to use them as a fundraiser for the food banks.
Wiggins-Colwell is calling the episode a “miscommunication.” She wrote in a Facebook comment: “I believe the decision to have the tables recycled and funds donated to our Sackville/Dorchester Food Banks was made in the best interest of the community and would benefit families in need. Thank you Macx for supporting this endeavour.”
Matt Pryde told council on Monday that the situation would be dealt with internally. As of Thursday afternoon Pryde said there is nothing further to report, and so we can’t say if the tables will be returned to the centre for the planned giveaway, or remain for sale.