ANTIGONISH: Senior staff with the Town of Antigonish want to discuss a number of things with their local RCMP that have been causing problems throughout the town.
During the town’s regular monthly council meeting on Sept. 20, councillors aired complaints they received from residents and also of instances they observed personally of problematic behaviour.
The issues presented at the council table included speeding on residential streets, excessively loud mufflers, along with open alcohol and drinking within the town.
“Over the last few months, we’ve had a number of complaints of loud mufflers and speeding on some of our streets that are wider and longer,” Mayor Laurie Boucher told The Reporter. “We would like to discuss this with the RCMP to see where that is on their priority list and what’s been their action in the past.”
Boucher said the discussions would also allow council to voice some of the concerns of their residents as well.
In attendance at the council meeting were numerous residents from the town, a number of whom reside on Arbour Drive.
“They were there mostly for the loud mufflers and speeding, Arbour Drive is one of those streets that is a straight-away and not a lot of traffic on it,” Boucher said. “It seems to be one of the streets the drivers of these cars like to go down.”
Council voted to send an invitation to local RCMP representatives to attend the next regular council meeting and would also get councillor Willie Cormier, the chair of the police and licensing committee, to raise the concerns at the next meeting, which would occur on Oct. 12.
While there has previously been similar concerns in the past, predominantly surrounding the excessively loud mufflers, Boucher advised things seem to be getting worse.
“The RCMP are very good to enforce some of our by-laws, but our by-law officers don’t have the ability to enforce things like speeding and loud mufflers, that’s a provincial code,” Boucher said. “It’s talking with the RCMP, it’s making sure the concerns of the citizens get through to the RCMP, and to come together for the best of the community.”
Addressing the concerns of the open alcohol, she highlighted a lot of these students haven’t had an option to socialize for the past 20 months and as the restrictions begin to be lifted, they do feel the ability to socialize.
“I think it’s a reminder for them to respect the community they live in,” Boucher said. “I think a little bit of enforcement will go a long way for the students.”
Generally, the students are very good to the Antigonish community, she said, as they volunteer a lot, they work at the hospital, are probably the best foster for animals for the SPCA, and they coach and tutor the community’s children.
“For the most part, students are an asset to our community,” Boucher said. “Once in a while, there are problems and hurdles that we have to face, but talking to the RCMP and doing a little bit of enforcement, I’m hoping that will curtail the behaviour.”