Members of the Fundy Trail Snowmobile Club on a recent trip to Parrsboro. (Lawrence R Nicoll Photo)

By Maurice ReesThe Municipality of

Cumberland is investing$3.21-Million as part of a$60.2-Million initiative to get5-G ready broadband internetservice to Cumberland andColchester Counties.Residents and business own-ers in the Municipality havecomplained for years aboutthe lack of service or areaswhere service was non-exis-tent.

Claiming the lack of ade-quate service was makingbusinesses uncompetitive andpoor internet service wascontributing to “out migra-tion” throughout the munici-

pality. Councillors listenedand in the past had workedwith various ISP providers tosolve the problem in specificareas, but to no avail.

In 2017, Colchester coun-cillor, Tom Taggart, broughtthe matter to Colchestercouncil and insisted some-thing needed to be done. Asthings moved along slowed, in2018, MP Bill Casey andMaurice Rees, publisherorganized a meeting at thePeg in Masstown inviting may-ors, CAO’s and economicdevelopment staff from thetwo municipalities plusDevelopment Nova Scotiarepresentatives to discuss the

matter and listen to a presen-tation by officials fromXplornet Communications,Woodstock, NB. RepresentingXplornet were Corey Hallett,District Sales ManagerXplornet Atlantic Canada andXplornet’s Executive VicePresident of StrategicInitiatives, Jeff Burlock.

Municipal officials wereimpressed with the conceptand before the meetingended, there was definiteinterest and an open willing-ness for the two municipali-ties to work together. Asthings moved along at themunicipal levels, theMunicipalities formed a Joint

Internet Committee com-prised of: Alison Gillis, Warden,Municipality of Cumberland;Tom Taggart, Councilor,Municipality of Colchester;Michael Gregory, Councilor,Municipality of Colchester;Joe van Vulpen, Councilor,Municipality of Cumberland;Rob Simonds, CAO,Municipality of Colchester;Rennie Bugley, CAO,Municipality of Cumberland;Mark Austin, EconomicDevelopment Officer,Municipality of Colchesterand Michelle Byers, Managerof Community EconomicDevelopment, Municipality of

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Fundy Trail Snowmobile Club members are elated the Glooscap Restaurant has been rebuilt and is open for the season. The club isgoing to establish a trail from the restaurant to Wheaton’s Irving, Parrsboro. (Lawrence R Nicoll Photo)

Cumberland Investing $3.21-Million

By Lawrence R NicollMembers of the Fundy Trail Snowmobile

Club have several things to be happy aboutsnow accumulation, cold weather and lots ofclub activities. Recently the club made a trek toParrsboro, and are happy the GlooscapRestaurant has re-opened, as the eatery is afavourite stopping spot for many snowmobil-ers.

The club’s clubhouse is located at Folly Lakejust off Hwy 4 at 84 Lafarge Land, a few minutesbefore the Wentworth Valley Ski Hill. In 2015and 2016 was recognized SnowmobileAssociation of Nova Scotia (SANS) as club of theyear. In 2016 they were also recognized as Clubof the Year by CCSO. The club holds the honourof being only the third club to be inducted intothe International Snowmobile Hall of Fame,Eagle River, Wisconsin.

The club has over 150 Kilometers of

groomed trails available plus the 104 trail runsthrough their area and they have a close associ-ation with Sutherland’s Lake Trail Groomers onthe east.

With excellent snowmobiling conditionsand many trips to the Parrsboro area, the FundyTrail Snowmobile Club is moving ahead with aplanned clubhouse in Parrsboro. The chosensite for the new clubhouse is across the roadfrom the Cross Roads Garage beside the ceme-tery. A photo showing the site is printed here,to the right.

A major contributors to the reason forchoosing the future clubhouse site is the prox-imity to the Glooscap Restaurant and will bebuilding a trail to Wheaton’s Irving in Parrsboroto refuel. Business owners in Parrsboro wel-come the club’s decision to build a clubhousebecause it will help market the area as an excel-lent snowmobiling venue.

Snowmobile Club toBuild New Clubhouse

Don Fletcher Not Reoffering

This photo shows the site of the future Fundy Trail Snowmobile Club’s new clubhouse which will bebuilt across the road from Cross Roads Garage, next to the cemetery. (Lawrence R Nicoll Photo)

By Don Fletcher Let me start this article

with a big thank you to thecitizens of Cumberlandcounty and especially dis-trict 10 for allowing me toserve you the past sevenplus years. I will not be re-offering in the fall electionand it has been my privi-lege to serve as your coun-cilor. I mention this todayas today is the public hear-ing to discuss the newcouncil size for this fall’selection. Our council rec-ommended a council ofeight that I felt was toosmall, but that was coun-cil’s wishes. Today will tell.

We began council at 5pm in camera with 6 itemscovered. Public council fol-lowed with the first itemthe reimbursement policyfor council members andCAO. Motion approved forthe revised policy.

At last council’s meetingwe had a presentation onfree ice time benefits andlast night approved amotion for free ice time forminor hockey and figureskating beginning this fallwith the hopes of gettingyouth more active andhelping the economy at thesame time. Motionapproved.

Discussion followed onprovincial volunteer of theyear and the lucky winner

was Krista Macdonald fromSpringhill and the youthwinner was MackenzieRushton also fromSpringhill. Congratulationsto you both and keep vol-unteering!

Approval for theParrsboro well field tenderwas next and approved bymotion. The Springhill sen-iors roof tender was alsoapproved by motion. TheLED streetlight fixtureinstall tender was approvedwith a completion date ofend May. Unserviceablelights that have beenreported to the municipali-ty should be fixed at thesame time. Diligent River Ihaven’t forgotten you inthis process!

Short discussion fol-lowed on a meeting attend-ed by deputy wardenGilbert and our MP. Heasked about funding for acouple of recent projects, 1denied federal funding andthe other higher cost thanapproved. Staff will forwardboth projects to our MP.Wait and see mode.Funding from communityculture and heritage in sup-port of the CumberlandRegional PhysicianRetention strategy was dis-cussed. Information will becoming soon on progress. Iknow a new doctor will

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