{"id":143261,"date":"2023-03-01T13:15:32","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T18:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=143261"},"modified":"2023-03-03T13:23:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T18:23:05","slug":"temporary-office-closure-concerns-over-future-of-community-centre-and-missing-tables-in-dorchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/temporary-office-closure-concerns-over-future-of-community-centre-and-missing-tables-in-dorchester\/","title":{"rendered":"Temporary office closure, concerns over future of community centre, and missing tables in Dorchester"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d6a433b bdt-ss-btns-view-icon bdt-ss-btns-align-left bdt-ss-btns-shape-circle bdt-ss-btns-color-custom bdt-ep-grid-0 bdt-ss-btns-style-flat elementor-widget elementor-widget-bdt-social-share\" data-id=\"d6a433b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"bdt-social-share.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<div class=\"bdt-social-share bdt-ep-grid\">\n<div class=\"bdt-social-share-item bdt-ep-grid-item\">\n<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\">There\u2019s been some upheaval in Dorchester recently, partly due to the awkward process of amalgamation, and partly due to bad luck.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4944765 elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-content\" data-id=\"4944765\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"theme-post-content.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Borne says staff is working with a consultant to obtain a recommendation regarding remediation efforts on the building.<\/p>\n<p>At Monday\u2019s Tantramar Committee of the Whole meeting, Borne told councillors, \u201cit is looking like the remediation could be a very large project,\u201d and so a temporary location for the Dorchester office is in the works. \u201cThere\u2019s information that we learn daily,\u201d said Borne. \u201cIt\u2019s really a vulnerability that wasn\u2019t part of amalgamation, but certainly throws a wrench in the plans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2>No plans to remove Dorchester VCC kitchen<\/h2>\n<p>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\u2019s Memorial Boxing Club. After Councillor Bruce Phinney asked for clarification at committee of the whole on Monday night, recreation director Matt Pryde explained, \u201cthere has been zero truth to us tearing the kitchen out in there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a user group meeting just last Wednesday with all the various user groups for that building,\u201d Pryde told councillors. \u201cAnd we made it quite clear that there was no intentions of whatsoever of keeping the community out of that space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pryde said that the future location of Bob Edgett\u2019s Memorial Boxing Club was discussed, with various alternatives mentioned. \u201cNothing is set in stone,\u201d said Pryde. \u201cIf 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\u2019s any decisions made on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Disappearing tables due to well-intentioned miscommunication, says councillor<\/h2>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/dorchester-chair-dump-prompts-worries-over-continued-use-of-community-centre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the disposal of chairs in a dumpster behind the VCC caused some concern in early February<\/a>, Tantramar staff decided to take a different tack when replacing the tables in the centre.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Pryde says that at a meeting of the Centre\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t need them, and then calling MacNichol, who agreed to use them as a fundraiser for the food banks.<\/p>\n<p>Wiggins-Colwell is calling the episode a \u201cmiscommunication.\u201d She wrote in a Facebook comment: \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t say if the tables will be returned to the centre for the planned giveaway, or remain for sale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s been some upheaval in Dorchester recently, partly due to the awkward process of amalgamation, and partly due to bad luck. 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&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":143263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,225],"tags":[11017,20502,23984,10505,2082,20501],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143270,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143261\/revisions\/143270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143261"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=143261"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=143261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}