ANTIGONISH: Two intersections that have been a cause of concern to both local residents and to the Municipality of the County of Antigonish will be upgraded in the near future, thanks to the provincial government.
During the county’s regular monthly council meeting on Feb. 8, council received correspondence from Public Works Minister Kim Masland regarding the Aulds Cove intersection, along with the intersection where Trunk 16 and Trunk 4 meet in Monastery.
Warden Owen McCarron told reporters following the meeting they were happy to receive the update on the two intersections that raise safety concerns, especially the update for Aulds Cove.
“Residents in the Aulds Cove area, there were lots of challenges with the turning lanes that head in towards Mulgrave,” McCarron said. “So the minister, we have a letter back stating they’re going to start design work on that, hopefully the work will start on making that a better intersection in the summer.”
The warden said council was pleased with the quick turnaround from the minister’s office and from the Department of public Works on the file.
The second intersection that was updated was where Trunk 16 and Trunk 4 intersect in Monastery, which is currently designed in a y-shape.
“That section they’re looking at a roundabout in the Monastery area, where the old Tracadie Fire Hall was, that there has got the green light to go to design, hopefully that’ll get started this summer as well, we’re just waiting on final timelines from public works on that,” stated McCarron.
The warden added they have heard from the public in both areas and it’s nice to see their concerns are being addressed.
“It’s good to the traveling public and for residents in those areas, because they see the impacts of some of those challenging intersections,” McCarron added. “So we’re quite pleased with that.”
To improve safety measures on a couple of local roads, the municipality will be installing two new street lights at the eastern end of the county.
Two streetlight requests were recommended; one for an installation at Havre Boucher Road and Post Road, with the other request coming for Myette Road and Myette Branch Road.
Following the meeting, McCarron told reporters the additional streetlights will brighten up intersections that don’t currently have a nearby streetlight and are too dark.
“Anytime when there is a dark intersection, and a request comes in, council looks at it, and we look at our street light policy,” McCarron said. “And if it falls within the policy, we recommend it.”
Speaking on timelines, the warden suggested the two streetlights would probably be installed within the next few weeks, “whenever Nova Scotia Power gets an opportunity.”
According to CAO Glenn Horne, the installation fee is only $28 and the bill each month is approximately $10 per street light.
McCarron added that requests can sometimes come in from residents in the local area after they identify an area that might be too dark or have a too sharp of a corner.
“We will precipitate discussions around it; intersections are other areas where safety issues are a concern,” he said. “So we look at them and make a decision. Both of those were well within the policy so we recommended that they proceed.”
The warden says while there certainly has been an increase in assessments over the past year, a lot of that is driven by market data.
While the deadline to file an appeal passing on Feb. 10, McCarron encouraged residents to take a close look at their notices.
“I’ve received some calls over the past month from people with concerns over their assessment,” he said. “And I explained to them and always suggest to folks when you get your assessment to flip it over and look at the back page too, to compare the capped assessment from last year to this year.”
By keeping track of assessment notices, not only would people understand their current rate thoroughly, they’ll also get an idea what’s causing potential increases, the warden noted.
“So I had a few different people who called and when I kind of walked through it, the increase in their taxes was a bit, but not as significantly as maybe they thought,” he said. “In one case, a person called and they were seeing a $50 increase to their tax bill.”
According to McCarron, education and policing costs will also rise because they’re tied to assessments, and as far as general operations, fuel prices alone in the year have increased 60 per cent.
“So if you’re tax bill increased $50, you compare that to say a couple fill ups at the gas pump, there’s a good chance, in the last six months your gas bill on a fill up might have increased as much as $20 per fill up,” he said. “So I was just trying to put things into perspective for them.”
The warden added that the municipality looks at every possible way to keep spending in check, and is very mindful of any increases to the residents.
“It’s been a hot real estate market over the past, well really since the beginning of COVID; you know we’re certainly seeing that reflected in the assessments,” McCarron said. “But we’ll see where all that lands when we start to build the budget for the next year.”