[Smevo]

A couple more small things today.

From Tuesday, May 8, 2007 Cape Breton Post

Glace Bay skateboarders can expect to be using new park next month: official

Section: Glace Bay/New Waterford

By Sharon Montgomery,
If you are anxious to do some fancy skateboarding in this community - dust off your board.

Angus MacDougall, acting chair of the Glace Bay and Area Skateboard Park Society, said the park should open in June.

The blueprints for the skateboard park have been completed and Latimer General Contracting Ltd. of Sydney is the contractor.

"The ground has been tested for the weight of the ramps and everything is a go. Construction will be starting in about two weeks."

The lot, on the corner of Official Row and Union Street, was leased to the Cape Breton Regional Municipality by a local businessman for $1 a year.

"This is a great area, it is open and easy to patrol."

MacDougall, who is also chair of the St. Anne's parish pastoral council, said work on this project has been ongoing for two years.

A recreation development grant of $46,000, announced recently by Health Promotion and Protection Minister Barry Barnet, provided the last bit of money needed to get the shovel in the ground. This was one of 14 grants announced for recreation facilities across Cape Breton.

MacDougall said about $120,000 was needed for the skateboard park project.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality contributed $30,000, St. Anne's parish $25,000 and the East Cape Breton County Health Board donated $1,800.

MacDougall said they now have about $100,000 of the $120,000 needed.

"We shouldn't have much problem raising the rest. This $46,000 really helped, put us over the top."

The park was designed by Spectrum Skate Park Creations in Vancouver and will include two concrete bowls above ground, one three feet deep, the other five feet deep.

District 3 Coun. Lee McNeil has been working on the project since she was elected in 2004. It was a long process of paperwork and finding funding.

"Kids are even stopping me on the streets asking when their park is coming. I am excited for them. It is going to give them something to do."

As well she said it will get the skateborders out of the corridor of the downtown, where they can interfere with shoppers or be in conflict with traffic.

"One young fellow wanted to know if I wanted to learn how to skateboard. I told him I'd need medical insurance first."

McNeil said a meeting will be called to form a committee which will oversee the park.

"We want a lot of youth on it, it is their park, let them have their hands on it, give them responsibility."

Tenders sought for sewer project

Section: Glace Bay/New Waterford

By Sharon Montgomery,
Anyone wondering when work will begin on the community's sewer project should take a close look at today's edition of the Cape Breton Post.

Coun. Jim MacLeod said things are staring to roll.

"They are calling for tenders - it will be in the Post (today). I am very pleased we are this far in the process."

MacLeod has been receiving numerous calls questioning the status of the project.

Tenders will close May 18.

After a successful bidder is chosen, municipal officials will be able to get a handle on when construction will start and when it will be completed, he added.

The project includes construction of a small diameter sewer for about 60 residences on Brown's Road Extension, Burke's Road and New Waterford Highway, as well as Sydney Street in Reserve Mines.

The cost of the project is estimated at $700,000-$900,000 and all three levels of government are contributing one-third.

MacLeod said he and Donna MacRury, chair of the citizens committee, have been working aggressively toward the sewage treatment project.

"Kevin MacDonald, director of engineering (for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality), has also been very involved," said MacLeod.

The small diameter sewer project focuses on an alternative method of collection, but it is not a new technology, said MacLeod.

"It has been tried, tested and proven very successful. Residents will have no problems, no backups, no blockages."