GUYSBOROUGH – At the regular monthly council meeting in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough on May 17, council passed the first reading of an amendment to its sidewalk bylaw.
Under the amendment, the owner, lessee, or occupier of any premises that abuts a street where sidewalks are to be or have been installed within the MODG, are no longer responsible for the clearance of snow and ice from the sidewalk.
The amendment to the bylaw was brought forward due to expansion of the sidewalk system in the community of Guysborough. A second reading of the amendment will take place during the next council meeting, following notification of the public of the proposed changes in the media.
In reports from committees, Councillor Paul Long told council that the Community Health Board had received 22 applications for its annual wellness grants.
“There are some great projects there. There’s $12,000 being awarded and there’s about $40,000 or $50,000 worth of applications. And those applications can’t be partially funded – you either get all or nothing. So, there’ll only be a small number that get money…but, at the same time, it’s nice to see people getting applications in,” said Long.
Long also told council that the upcoming community fair for newcomers, job-seekers, employers and non-profits scheduled for Tuesday, May 30 at the Chedabucto Lifestyle Centre had 40 tables of registered participants.
Under discussion of the Eastern Counties Regional Library board, MODG’s Deputy CAO Shawn Andrews advised council that the municipality had been informed that, “from the beginning of June, the Canso library will be closed for two to three weeks and a similar situation is going to be happening in Guysborough at some point, Laura [Emery, ECRL CEO] didn’t know when, over the next six months but they do have a hired contract position to mitigate those closures as much as possible.”
In an update on the Guysborough Area Stakeholder Working Group from Councillor Long, he told council that, although the group has not had a meeting since last report, a plan “is in the works to have a community meeting on the state of healthcare.”
Long went on to say of the healthcare situation in the municipality, “Nothing is really changing in either [ Eastern Memorial Hospital in Canso or Guysborough Memorial Hospital in Guysborough] of our situations…right now our emergency department is closed as much as it is open it seems.”
The cause of emergency department closures is either physician or nursing shortages. Long said that, although there are four doctors in Guysborough at the moment, “There’s only one in town right now who is able to run the ER.”
