HRM looks into burying foreign trash
Extra 1,000 tonnes from planes, ships would be handled yearly at landfill

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

Halifax is looking at burying up to 1,000 extra tonnes of foreign trash from airplanes and ships at its landfill every year.

Even though it's food waste - organic garbage is usually trucked to the municipality's compost facilities - federal regulations require it to be treated at temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius before being disposed of because it was produced outside Canada or the United States.

The Halifax International Airport Authority and the Halifax Port Authority are interested in hiring a firm to build a preliminary treatment facility for the waste before it's dumped at the Otter Lake landfill.

"I refer to it as a double-walled pressure cooker," Jim Bauld, the municipality's manager of solid waste, said Thursday.

"It has to be sure to kill all the pathogens - and much more than a compost facility can achieve."

Compost facilities only treat the waste in the range of 55 degrees, he said.

The garbage has been hauled to Charlottetown over the past year.

Prior to that, the waste was incinerated at a facility near the airport.

The owners shut down the operation after determining it wasn't worth investing in necessary upgrades, Mr. Bauld said.

The garbage could generate money for the municipality - Otter Lake charges $115 per tonne.

But some members of the municipality's solid-waste resource advisory committee have concerns - especially after hearing at a meeting Thursday that the landfill would need more space within 10 years.

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said she wants to know if the municipality can afford to accept the extra garbage.

"It's going to really start filling up our landfill," she said.

Ms. Sloane said she also wants to know more about what type of waste it will be and what experience other municipalities have had in doing this.

She said she wants to be sure contaminants or germs from cruise ships, which have experienced outbreaks of certain illnesses among passengers, won't be spread in Halifax.

"What happens if there's a Norwalk virus and it gets into our water supply?" she asked.

When advised repeatedly by Coun. Reg Rankin (Hammonds Plains-Timberlea) to check the report circulated at the meeting, she responded by telling him to "just bug off."

"We have to think about all these aspects," she said.

Coun. Russell Walker (Fairview-Clayton Park) also said he has concerns but believes the plan could possibly work.

"As long as it's safe," he said. "That's the main thing."

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has already told the municipality that it has no objection to the proposed process.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Tourist cruiser Harbour Hopper rear-ends car during rush hour

Thursday, September 11, 2003
By Richard Dooley


The occupants of a brown Volvo rear-ended at the corner of Bedford Row and Sackville Street yesterday afternoon said it felt as though an airplane had landed on them.

Right feeling, maybe, but wrong mode of transportation.

Instead of an airplane, Sadie Hardiman’s Volvo was partly crushed in rush-hour traffic by familiar green tourist cruiser the Harbour Hopper.

The Harbour Hopper, which travels on land and water, offers city tours that include a brief cruise on Halifax Harbour.

“He just didn’t see me,” Hardiman said after the crash.

She and passenger Geoffrey Jardine were about to make a left turn onto Bedford Row when they felt the impact.

“It was enormous. Like an earthquake,” said Jardine. “It felt like we were hit by a plane.”

One of the giant wheels of the former Vietnam-era military assault vehicle rode up on the trunk of the Volvo and flattened it.

“It just kept pushing us along,” said Hardiman.

The collision pushed the Volvo past the intersection and left a deep skid mark in the pavement.

Hardiman had only had the 1985 Volvo for about two weeks.

“It was my baby,” she said.

Nobody was injured in the crash, and both Hardiman and Jardine are thanking the Volvo for that.

“If we’d been in a smaller car, it would have been crushed,” Hardiman said.

rdooley@hfxnews.ca

Halifax 2028: A city of towers or a city of fears?

By Marilla Stephenson

A TALL TOWER cast a very long shadow at a Halifax future planning event on Wednesday at a downtown waterfront hotel.

At a panel discussion and luncheon hosted by the Greater Halifax Partnership to discuss a regional plan for the growing municipality, the proposed Halkirk development received just one mention while the microphones were turned on.

When they were turned off, it was another story, or should I say storey, altogether.

The controversial proposed redevelopment of The Brewery property on Lower Water Street, which includes a 21-storey condo tower, came to a screeching halt this summer. The peninsula subcommittee of HRM council, charged with ruling on development agreement proposals, refused to send the proposal to a public hearing, saying the tower was too high for its environs. Discussions with the city on a compromise, plus a Plan-B appeal to the URB are, predictably, all underway.

On Wednesday, there was a couple of hours of interesting but hardly revolutionary views from the five panelists on the need for co-operation when it comes to planning, and a bit too much self-promotional material from a few of them.

There was a call for a gateway council that would consider not only roads but port, railway and airport traffic as well, mirroring a successful initiative in Vancouver.

There was also a stellar discussion on labour shortages and the need to tailor workforce education to growing industries like offshore energy.

A one-stop business park for energy companies, regulators and spinoff businesses was also touted, with surplus lands at Shearwater as the possible location.

Then John Lindsay Jr. of Eastcoast Properties upstaged the whole lot with a stirring dose of reality from the floor, in the guise of a question.

The Lindsays, Jr. and Sr., know a thing or two about towers, having developed Purdys Wharf I & II. John Jr. said "the city has not decided if it wants to be old Halifax or if it wants to be new Halifax, not only the general populace but also in our business community."

He noted that planning, in terms of land development, is in the hands of HRM council. "If (councillors') constituents do not believe in the vision of a new Halifax . . . then there will be no political will for it."

Lindsay said that a new Halifax will include "disconcerting elements" and that people, including those in business, have to get beyond fear of change if HRM is to prosper.

Halifax, he said, has an "interesting urban environment, but if we don't allow density and we don't have a vision of how a quarter of a million can live inside the peninsula successfully," HRM will not grow and prosper to its potential.

"This debate Halkirk just went through is the thin edge of the wedge; are we going to be new Halifax or are we going to be old Halifax?"

The late Richard Matthews, former director of planning in the City of Halifax, used to talk a lot about the need to get folks to live downtown if the city was going to evolve.

That doesn't have to mean 21-storey highrises on every downtown corner. Scale is important and must consider existing surroundings and set appropriate parameters.

But if folks want suburban, let them head for the suburbs! Halifax is a city, dammit!

The low-rise cafe crowd that wants to be able to see the harbour from every block must come to grips with the fact that if their favourite cafe is to stay busy, and therefore open, more than two dozen people must be able to find housing nearby.

HRM CAO George McLellan, in the keynote address, challenged the business community to get involved in upcoming consultations, rather than criticizing from afar after the fact.

"You're out on the deck with a cool one and the Tommy Bahama shirt and you're reading the paper and you say, 'They did what!?!' "

The business community, as well as other interested citizens, must make its views known so the new regional plan will reflect a consensus of all views, he said. "This isn't our plan," he said of city government, "it has to be your plan."

And if it's going to enable Halifax to not only retain its charm, but balance that charm with its potential for growth and evolution, getting to consensus will require imagination and patience.

And at some point, there are going to have to be a few towers in our future.

You want low-rise? Dear, there are lots of nice bungalows for sale out in Sackville.

email: mstephenson@herald.ns.ca

Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Residents of Cunard Street ponder future look

Thursday, September 11, 2003
By Ruth Davenport

Neighbours of the Royal Canadian Legion on Cunard Street got their first taste of things to come at a public-awareness meeting last night.

Amalthea Holdings president Steve Tsimiklis, who purchased the legion property, called the preliminary meeting to identify the prime areas of community concern surrounding the property’s development. Planner Barry Zwicker presented the initial proposal for a 30,000-square-foot, five-storey condominium complex that would occupy both the former legion land and the adjoining Maritime Canvas Converters property on the north side of the Common.

“We felt it was a good idea to get the neighbourhood together so that you’d know what was happening first,” said Zwicker to the crowd of about 40 residents. “We’re hoping to understand how we can massage the proposal to be more acceptable to you than it is today.”

While the proposal itself didn’t immediately draw any ire, the inclusion of underground parking access ramps on June Street and Princess Place prompted an outpouring of disapproval because of the volume of cars already travelling or being parked on the narrow roads.

“The traffic issue is so huge,” said one Princess Place homeowner. “Those streets can’t bear any more traffic. Even if there were no other issues, that one would be enough.”

The other issues arose slowly as the residents contemplated the prospect of a 15.25 metre building in a zone that permits a maximum height of 10.6 metres, the possible consequences of demolition and the building’s effect on the neighbourhood’s evolution.

Tsimiklis pointed out after some barbed comments about profiteering developers that he also has a family home in the neighbourhood and shares the residents’ concerns with preserving the area’s cultural feel and integrity. Though residents remained critical of certain elements of the plan, they were more moderate in their comments.

“Steve is a young developer and I feel this building could be his signature piece,” said former NDP electoral candidate Peter Delefes. “I like the look of the proposal and I get the sense he is prepared to be accommodating to our views. I commend you, Steve, and I hope the project goes forward.”

Tsimiklis said he would bring new architectural renderings for the building based on resident suggestions to a future meeting, as yet unscheduled.

rdavenport@hfxnews.ca

Sub tourism proposal put into drydock
City staff to study feasibility of idea

By Michael Lightstone / Staff Reporter

A regional councillor's push to test the waters for interest in acquiring one of the navy's decommissioned submarines for a tourist attraction got a lukewarm response from his colleagues Tuesday.

Council held off on a proposal by Coun. Brian Warshick (Westphal-Waverley Road) to submit to the federal government an expression of interest in obtaining one of its mothballed Oberon-class subs.

Instead, it decided to first have staff examine whether the municipality could even afford such a display on the waterfront.

"Certainly there's a lot of questions that are going to have to be answered on this type of thing before a councillor is ready to make a decision one way or the other," said Coun. John Cunningham (Dartmouth Centre).

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) questioned if it was an affordable endeavour for the city to embark upon alone.

She said Alderney Landing looked into doing something similar and found it could cost about $2 million to lift the sub out of the water.

"When we're looking at roads that need to be fixed and things of that nature, I think that in the minds of our constituents they would like us to think of other things to do with money like that."

George McLellan, the municipality's chief administrative officer, said it makes no sense to express interest in the subs before studying the matter.

"Not to torpedo this sort of thing," he said, "but the issue, I guess, does bear some further scrutiny."

Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Warshick said he'd like city hall to "examine the feasibility" of making a sub deal with Ottawa.

He said it's too early to say what the cost might be.

"This (idea) is just trying to open some doors to see if there's some interest there," said Mr. Warshick, adding that a municipally owned sub would probably be displayed in a concrete cradle on metro's waterfront and not be available for harbour tours.

He said if Ottawa agrees to sell one of the Oberon-class boats - Okanagan, Onondaga, Ojibwa or the training vessel Olympus - to Halifax Regional Municipality, the city should go after any sub but the trainer.

"It's a chance to look at some military history that's here - there are only a few places in North America where you can go on a submarine."

For example, San Francisco is home to the USS Pampanito, a sub open to the public - for a fee - seven days a week. It hosts more than 250,000 visitors annually, according to a Web site.

Canada bought the aging British-built Oberon subs in the 1960s and replaced them with four slightly used Upholder-class vessels. The new sub program has been controversial because of long delivery delays, refurbishing costs and other matters.

The old subs are tied up on the Dartmouth waterfront.

Mr. Warshick, a military history buff and local tourism booster, said he'd like to hook a potential sub purchase to next year's 50th anniversary of Canada's submariner squad.

He said a submarine could be displayed like HMCS Sackville, a floating museum on Halifax's waterfront that gives visitors a glimpse of life aboard a Second World War-era corvette.

"Every time I cross the bridge, I see the four O-class submarines sitting there and I'm saying: 'Is there a way that we might put one of these to use?' "

Mayor Peter Kelly said before the council session that the municipality's not sure if the old subs are available. He said regional staff are trying to get details from federal officials.

But the mayor did learn that the likely cost of a submarine on display is prohibitive.

"To take one of those out of the water, it's about a $2-million cost. We don't have that kind of money - we have too many other issues that lie before us."


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

CITY BRIEFS

Pricey entrance

The municipality will sign a cost-sharing agreement with the province to upgrade the Lacewood Drive entrance to Bayers Lake Business Park in Halifax, costing the municipality about $1.1 million. That's $380,000 more than planned when the project was approved in August 2002. A staff report blames an overall increase in material, land and construction costs. The municipality will also pay more to add bike lanes.

Paving, etc.

A.C.L. Construction Ltd. will install a storm sewer and catch basins on Milsom Street and Arlington Avenue in Halifax for $107,698.

Dexter Construction Co. Ltd. will pave Bissett Road in Cole Harbour and Dorothea Drive in Dartmouth for $923,676.

Ocean Contractors Ltd. will pave parts of Dublin, Fenwick and Uniacke streets in Halifax for $638,292.

Reports and petitions

Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End) wants a staff report on changing the noise bylaw so that tenants and property owners will be held responsible for any tickets issued.

Coun. Len Goucher (Bedford) presented a petition with 166 signatures of people calling for the reinstatement of busing at Holland Road Elementary School in Wellington.

Coun. Steve Adams (Spryfield-Herring Cove) wants a staff report on Herring Cove residents being charged an area rate on their property taxes for sidewalk snow removal when they don't have sidewalks.

Fire assistance

The municipality is looking at opportunities to come up with alternative accommodations for Riverview Children's Centre, recently damaged by fire.

Real estate deal

The municipality is entering into an agreement with Greenvale Realty Partners to sell 130 Ochterloney St. in Dartmouth.

Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Project backers go to URB
But proponents hope to make a deal with city before hearing

By Steve Proctor / Business Editor

The proponents of the controversial $52-million redevelopment around the Brewery Market in Halifax will go to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board to try to move the project forward.

But Bill Greenwood, a principal in Halkirk Properties, said the move does not rule out further discussion with city staff in an attempt to get a new agreement.

"It's my hope we'll be able to come up with a solution by working with HRM before this actually has to go to a hearing," he said Wednesday.

The mixed residential-commercial project was sidelined late last month when a four-member committee of councillors voted against sending the proposal to a public hearing.

The councillors agreed the development was generally acceptable, except for a 21-storey tower they said was not in keeping with the heritage components of the local municipal planning strategy.

The developers have repeatedly said the point tower is key to the development because it would allow for a high density in one area that would permit open spaces in other parts of the project.

Coun. Sue Uteck, who believes the project should at least have gone to a public hearing, said the company's move is no surprise.

Even if the community council had voted in favour of the project, she said, "there were groups waiting in the wings to launch an appeal."

The Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia is one group that opposes the project. It believes the height of the tower is out of scale with the heritage neighbourhood.

Mr. Greenwood said the approach to the review board is based on the belief that the project complies with the municipal planning strategy and that both the planning department and the community council erred in suggesting it does not.

The developers are especially interested in meeting with city planners to find out in detail why they feel the tower contravenes heritage guidelines, especially when the municipal heritage advisory committee gave the project a thumbs-up.

Mr. Greenwood wouldn't guess how long it might be before the company gets another chance to make a case for the project, but he said the sooner the better.

"Every day is a lost opportunity," he said. "The condominium market is hot, interest rates are at the lowest level in years, and based on the letters to the editors and the feedback we get, people want this project to go forward."


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Ex-hospital up for grabs Thursday, September 4, 2003
By Brian Flinn


Developers have less than two months to suggest what to do with one of Halifax’s most valuable eyesores.

The old Halifax Infirmary on Queen and Morris streets has been vacant for five years as negotiations over its future dragged on between the province and Dalhousie University.

Last week, the Transportation and Public Works Department asked for expressions of interest from developers who are prepared to demolish the hospital and build something new.

Developers will have to be serious; the province estimates demolition alone will top $5 million.

“It’s a very important site for Halifax, and we would like to make sure it’s done right,” property officer Michael Ingram said yesterday.

The site is near commercial Spring Garden Road, the Halifax Regional Library, Dalhousie’s architecture, engineering and computer science campus, and residential areas spreading out from Queen and Morris streets. Dalhousie University planning professor Frank Palermo said a mixed-use development could tie those districts together.

“There’s an opportunity here to do something really of spectacular, wonderful quality,” Palermo said. “It’s a huge scale, it’s a large site, and it really raises a kind of a challenge and an opportunity to do something that would really be quite brilliant in the city.”

The province spent $324,000 maintaining the Infirmary site during the first four years it was negotiating with Dal. Ingram said former premier John Savage promised the Infirmary site to Dal in 1996.

“Negotiations for these things can take a long time,” he said.

The university signed a 100-year lease for one portion of the old Infirmary earlier this year. Gerard Hall will get a $2-million renovation as Dal continues to use it as a residence.

Dal spokesman Charles Crosby said demolition costs “would have meant a huge, huge capital involvement for the university” and convinced it to seek expansion elsewhere.

The province is prepared to sell, lease or become a development partner for the remaining 1.4 hectares of the Infirmary, Ingram said.

Looking out his Dalhousie office window, Palermo said anything is likely to be an improvement.

“Maybe that’s the worst kind of future — very much where it’s at right now, this kind of desolate landscape of abandoned buildings and cars parked all over the place,” he said. “We’re not living very far from what the worst possibility is.”

bflinn@hfxnews.ca

Council holds its nose, OK’s water-rate hike for sewage treatment

Wednesday, September 3, 2003
By Kim Moar



Water bills will go up for the next five years to help make up a $56 million funding shortfall for the city’s sewage treatment project, Halifax regional council decided last night.

For the average family of four with two children, the pollution-control charge rate hike will amount to an extra $12.80 a year, or about $3.20 more on each quarterly statement. The rate hike, effective Oct. 1, will appear on this fall’s water bills.

Mayor Peter Kelly blames the rate hike on the province and Ottawa.

Kelly said while the federal and provincial governments will collectively earn $89 million in tax revenue from the sewage-treatment project, their combined contribution to the $315-million project is only $62 million.

“Both the feds and the province will actually make money from us ... If they had offered at least what they’re taking in ... then our costs would have been reduced,” Kelly said.

If the city is able to get extra money for the project down the road, the rate increase will be adjusted, but for now the city has no other choice, he said.

“It’s a difficult pill to swallow for the taxpayers, and I’m sure it’s one that they prefer not to pay, but at the end of the day, they also want the job done. They made that very clear to us, and they don’t want to wait any longer,” Kelly said.

Downtown Coun. Dawn Sloane said council assured the public last year water bills would be increased only as a last resort.

“We said when every avenue is exhausted, we would start talking about a raise, or a lift, and we haven’t done that yet,” Sloane said. “I cannot, I cannot, support this.”

Chief administrative officer George McLellan said getting more money from Ottawa is unlikely.

“We have no encouragement from the federal government ... relating to additional monies,” he said.

South End Coun. Sue Uteck said the city should now focus its attention on the province.

“We’re in an envious position right now with a minority government. If there’s any time to put the pressure on for more funding than the previous provincial government promised, this would be a good time,” Uteck said.

kmoar@hfxnews.ca

Water bills going up over next five years
Typical family will pay $12.80 more a year to fund sewage plant

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

Metro residents will pay higher water bills now that council has approved five annual rate hikes.

Blaming a lack of funding from other levels of government for Halifax's ever-pending sewage treatment project, council on Tuesday decided to increase pollution control charges on water bills.

Staff expect a typical family's water bill to climb about $12.80 per year.

The rate increase will be on fall water bills, raising the environmental protection levy to 60.04 cents per cubic metre from 55.04.

The measures are aimed at making up what the municipality considers a $54-million shortfall in funding from the federal and provincial governments.

Halifax had asked for about $75 million from Ottawa, which had promised about $73 million in 1988 for a previous sewage treatment plan. But the federal government has pledged only $30 million for the current project, compared to the provincial contribution of $32 million.

Mayor Peter Kelly said after Tuesday's meeting that the other two levels of government will make $89 million from the sewage treatment project through income tax and sales tax.

If more money is scraped together for the sewage treatment project, the municipality could scrap the water rate hikes, he said.

"If there are extra funds, then we may not have to continue to charge the amounts," Mr. Kelly said. "We can always adjust it."

Households hooked up to Halifax Regional Municipality's water supply have endured a doubling of their pollution control charges since 1999 - an extra $100 a year on average.

The charges account for about half of the $387 each household is billed on average per year for using about 256 cubic metres of water.

Residents of Halifax and Dartmouth have paid into the pollution control fund since 1974.

Levies applied throughout Halifax and Dartmouth for almost three decades raised more than $183 million, plus $25 million in interest, according to a staff report released last year.

But $136 million of that $208 million was spent - much of it on things other than a sewage treatment project.

"It makes it a difficult pill to swallow for the taxpayers," Mr. Kelly said.

"It's one that I'm sure they prefer not to pay. But they did say also they want the job done. They made that very clear to us that they don't want to wait any longer."

Council decided last year to resort to the rate hikes only if the municipality was unable to otherwise raise the money.

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) spoke out against the increased charges at Tuesday's meeting.

"I can't support this," she said. "We had promised we would not do anything to our residents until all avenues (for fundraising) were exhausted."

She said she's not convinced that has happened.

Staff advised against using property taxes to fund the sewage treatment project because the city water system does not serve all residents.

The sewage treatment system is expected to cost $330 million.

The first phase of the project, building a system of pipes to collect sewage for the treatment facilities, is to begin this fall.

About 180 million litres of raw sewage is flushed into Halifax Harbour every day.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Old Infirmary site up for grabs

A piece of prime real estate is up for grabs in downtown Halifax.

The province is accepting expressions of interest for developing the Old Halifax Infirmary site on Queen Street.

It's either going to sell the 1.4-hectare site or form a partnership with a private-sector company to build on it.

Ron Russell, the minister of transportation and public works, said he wants to see a creative approach taken to developing the area.

"We expect that we'll receive many responses," Mr. Russell said in a news release Wednesday.

"This is a high profile site in a valuable commercial area of Halifax."

The Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre closed the hospital in 1998.

The building is in such poor condition that it can't be renovated and will have to be razed.

One building on the site, Gerard Hall, is being leased to Dalhousie University and is not being sold.

Any new development will also have to include 111 parking spaces for the university.

The deadline for submissions is Oct. 23.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

CITY COUNCIL

NEW MLAS WISHED WELL

Council said goodbye to three of its own Tuesday.

Coun. Gary Hines (Waverley-Dutch Settlement), Coun. Keith Colwell (Preston-Porters Lake) and Coun. Diana Whalen (Prince's Lodge-Halifax West) attended their last meeting before starting new jobs at the legislature.

All three of them won seats in the provincial election on Aug. 5.

"Our loss is the province's gain," Mayor Peter Kelly said.

"We do want to wish you well and give you thanks."

The outgoing councillors thanked their colleagues.

Mr. Hines and Ms. Whalen said a few words - and Mr. Colwell a few more.

"I could go on and on," he said at one point.

And he did.

The lengthy farewell speech prompted catcalls from some of the other councillors, who accused him of practising for Province House.

"It's not a filibuster," Coun. Brian Warshick (Westphal-Waverley Road) said.

APARTMENT REPAIR

A proposal to rebuild apartments at 5251 South St. has gotten preliminary approval.

The building was severely damaged by fire in June.

DALHOUSIE CONCERT A GO

Dalhousie Student Union will be exempt from the municipality's noise bylaw so that it can hold an outdoor music concert on campus Sept. 3 between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.

SEWER WORK APPROVED

Sewers will be upgraded on Fenwick Street in Halifax and Rose Street in Dartmouth for a total of $389,096.

SCHOOL GETS PLAYGROUND

A new playground at LeMarchant-St. Thomas Elementary School will cost $59,529.34.

REC CENTRE COMING

About $473,500 will be spent to transform the former Sackville Heights School into a recreation centre for community groups.

PAYNTER TRAFFIC GURU

Rick Paynter is the municipality's new traffic authority.

Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Cathedral Church of All Saints gets OK to build apartments on its property

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

A south-end Halifax church has received preliminary approval for a money-making plan to build a four-storey office and apartment building on its property.

Council on Tuesday supported in principle a bid from the Cathedral Church of All Saints to develop a plot of land on the corner of Tower Road and University Avenue to raise the $1.6 million needed for repairs to its church.

The congregation wants to have 12,000 square feet of office space at street level in the proposed building, 42 apartments on the upper three floors and underground parking for 68 vehicles.

This type of building isn't permitted under the municipal planning strategy and land-use bylaws but planning staff recommend changing the rules because they feel the project has merit.

"I think it's going to be very nice and it's in keeping with the heritage of the actual church," Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said after the council meeting.

"So it's not going to be some monstrosity that doesn't fit in."

Staff pointed out in a report for council that there could be problems because the development on the 31,493-square-foot plot requires several mature hardwood trees to be cut down.

"As a minimum, the developer must provide either five per cent of the land area of the new lot or equivalent value as parkland," the report says.

Ms. Sloane said a pleasant courtyard would be part of the project.

The church, consecrated in 1910, needs its original slate roof and leaking stone facade replaced.

All Saints isn't the first religious institution in Halifax to resort to developing its land to raise money.

Pine Hill Divinity Hall, which leases property and helps fund the Atlantic School of Theology, wants to raze four homes it owns on Francklyn Street to make room for a road.

That would lead to another parcel of land it wants to sell as part of a plan to build about 15 single-family homes, raising more money for the school.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Councillor mulls exotic pet ban

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

Boa constrictors, pythons and other exotic animals often kept as pets might be banned from the municipality if some councillors have their way.

Prompted by the recent escape of two pythons in a Halifax neighbourhood, Coun. Sheila Fougere (Connaught-Quinpool) asked Tuesday for a staff report on the possibility of beefing up bylaws to deal with such problems.

"It's not that I expect that any bylaw revisions will prevent snakes from escaping," she said.

But she'd like to know how often things like that happen and what measures might enable council to clamp down on irresponsible owners.

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said she has heard several complaints in recent years about people carrying exotic snakes around downtown on the waterfront.

Several people are even now afraid to stroll in the area, she said.

"They're scared there's going to be reptiles around," she said.

Ms. Sloane said she wants a bylaw to restrict people from taking such pets out in public.

"And if we have to, even ban them," she said.

Two boys with their bikes last Friday saw a 1.5-metre albino Burmese python coiled next to a house on Yukon Street.

Another python was found two weeks ago about four doors away.

But Neil Meister, who heads a group called the Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society, said he's against a bylaw banning exotic pets.

"It's overkill," said Mr. Meister, who keeps gecko lizards. "It'd be about the same idea as if you were to ban gerbils or tropical fish.

"There are hundreds of people who do keep different types of animals - small, harmless reptiles being one large group."

He said his group would like to work with Halifax Regional Municipality to develop a new bylaw that fairly deals with the types of creatures that might pose a threat to the public.

The bylaws about exotic pets vary in different parts of the municipality, dating back to before Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford and Halifax County were amalgamated.

"Right now there are very different laws in different parts fo the city and it's not even clear what is actually on the books," Mr. Meister said.

Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Brewery developers want council to reconsider plan

Tuesday, August 26, 2003
By Stephen Bornais

Halkirk presented this artist’s rendition of its proposed Brewery development. (Submitted photo)
Halifax – The proponents of a major redevelopment of the Brewery Market want to take another crack at the community council that rejected them last week.

Last Tuesday, the four-member Halifax peninsula community council voted not to allow the controversial Keith’s Brewery lands development to proceed to a public hearing, effectively killing the proposal.

Those voting against the development said it did not conform with the municipal planning strategy, and the size of the 27-storey residential tower would be incompatible with surrounding buildings.

City staff had also recommended the project be rejected.

Halkirk Properties Ltd. could appeal the decision to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, but spokesman Ross Cantwell said the proponents would prefer to work through the council itself.

This could be done by having one of the four councillors move a motion of reconsideration on the decision and then voting again.

Cantwell said Halkirk has not yet approached any of the councillors.

Connaught-Quinpool Coun. Sheila Fougere, one of two councillors who voted against sending the development to a public hearing, said the developer has itself blame.

“The main reason the proposed development agreement for a redevelopment of the Brewery Market is not going to a public hearing is that the developer — Halkirk Properties — insisted it come before Peninsula Community Council before it was ready,” Fougere said in a statement issued Friday.

“They were the architects of their own misfortune.”

Fougere said the proposal had four major inconsistencies with the municipal planning strategy, dooming it from the start.

“Plain and simple, the project wasn’t ready to move forward, but the developer, against the advice of staff, insisted that it go to a public hearing and they lost,” she said.

sbornais@hfxnews.ca

Brewery Market plan stopped short

Thursday, August 21, 2003
By Kim Moar

HALIFAX – A multimillion-dollar Brewery Market redevelopment proposal may be dead in the water. Peninsula community councillors have voted not to allow the controversial development agreement to proceed to a public hearing, effectively killing the $52-million proposal.

Those voting against the proposal said the development did not conform with the municipal planning strategy, and the size of the 27-storey residential tower would be incompatible with surrounding buildings.

Ross Cantwell, spokesman for developer Halkirk Properties Ltd. said yesterday the company was “taken aback” by community council’s decision, and is still weighing its options. He said it’s too soon to say whether it will appeal the decision to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

Cantwell said the project was approved by the city’s heritage advisory committee, and he believed council would set a date for a public hearing as a matter of routine.

“We want to follow the process that all development agreements in this process go through, and that’s to let the public hear, and let the public provide input to council before they make a decision,” he said.

Halifax South End Coun. Sue Uteck said she was anxious to hear what the public thought of the development, which, in addition to the 27-storey tower, was to include mixed residential-commercial use comprising 204 residential units, 289 parking spaces and restoration of some historical aspects.

“I have doubts about the tower, but I thought the project had enough merits to let it go through a stage of public opinion,” she said.

Halifax North End Coun. Jerry Blumenthal also voted in favour of holding a public hearing.

“No matter if we like it or don’t like it; it’s our job to let the public talk, on both sides,” he said.

But Connaught-Quinpool Coun. Sheila Fougere said the city has no choice but to follow the guidelines laid out in the planning strategies.

“We’ve got to work with what we’ve got,” she said.

Halifax Downtown Coun. Dawn Sloane, who also voted against the project, said while the developer points to the nearby Maritime Centre tower as an existing precedent, two wrongs don’t make a right.

“That’s a mistake. It doesn’t mean that we should follow suit and keep going with more mistakes. I’m not in favour of making any more mistakes in the downtown,” Sloane said.

kmoar@hfxnews.ca

Council rejects $52m Halifax development

By Steve Proctor / Business Editor

The proponents behind the largest development in downtown Halifax in the last decade were reeling Wednesday after their project was nixed by a municipal community council.

Bill Greenwood, a principal in the $52-million Brewery Market redevelopment, said partners were stunned when they learned a four-member community council voted Tuesday afternoon not to hold a public hearing on the initiative.

"These (community council) meetings are usually non-events. They set a date for the public hearing and it's done within two minutes. It's the public hearing where everyone gets a chance to support it or oppose it."

The Halkirk group has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars working on the commercial-residential development in the block around the Brewery Market and historic Keith Hall.

It was to include 175,000 square feet of office and commercial space and four residential components with a total of 195 condominium units.

The most controversial part of the project was a 21-storey condominium point tower with a copper roof. The developers contend the density of the tower would allow for more open space in the rest of the project, but opponents argued it was out of character with the historic ambience of the area.

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said the project got a thumbs-down because the development violated municipal planning strategy guidelines that apply in and around heritage properties.

"It is not sympathetic to the heritage streetscape," she said. "For the past year, all the faxes and phone calls and e-mails I've received tell me one thing: it's too big."

The project had the blessing of the municipal heritage committee, but Ms. Sloane said the city's planning department, Heritage Canada and the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia are on record as opposing it.

"If these heritage groups are opposed and the planners say it's a violation of the municipal planning strategy, I have to be against it.

"I'm hoping they will go back and revisit their drawings and come back with something that is more heritage-sensitive."

Ms. Sloane was joined in her opposition on the Peninsula community council by Coun. Sheila Fougere (Connaught-Quinpool).

Coun. Jerry Blumenthal (Halifax North End) and Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End) wanted the project to proceed to the public hearing stage, but a tie vote meant the motion died.

"The project had a lot of merit, including improved access to the Brewery Market," Ms. Uteck said. "It complied with 41 out of 44 points in our municipal planning strategy. That should have been enough to earn it its day in the court of public opinion."

In the end, she said, she wouldn't have been able to support the project with the point tower but now the possibility of a compromise is all but gone.

She's worried the developers will simply take their plans to the Utility and Review Board or, worse yet, apply to demolish Keith Hall as part of an altered project for the space.

Roy Willworth, lead architect for the project, said the development conforms with all regional planning rules and view-plane legislation, and tremendous effort was taken to ensure it would enhance the heritage nature of the community.

"There's not a heritage component of the area that's being impacted except to make improvements."

Ross Cantwell, an adviser on the project, said developers are often criticized for failing to let the public know what they are doing.

But he said that after months of meetings between the developers and the community and local businessmen, it is the politicians who are denying the public the opportunity to have a say.

Graeme Duffus, another project architect, said he has never heard of a legitimate project being killed before a public hearing in his 30 years in the business.

A vice-president of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, he said he wasn't aware of any motion by the directors opposing the project.

"I'm in a very uncomfortable position. I support the project and I know there are others on the board who speak highly of it. I'm not sure how meaningful the stated opposition by the trust really is."

Kim West, a communications consultant for the project, said the downtown business commission supports the initiative and Brewery Market patrons who have stopped at a booth explaining the project have been overwhelmingly positive.

"This project is not dead," Mr. Greenwood said. "We are not going to lie down. There is an appeal process involving the Utility and Review Board and we are going to look at all our options."

He said there is something seriously wrong with the system if two councillors from a council of 24 can sideline a major project without a public hearing.

Man’s death in cemetery investigated Monday

 July 28, 2003 By Rachel Boomer

Halifax – Police say the death of a 53-year-old man found lying in a south-end cemetery yesterday morning is “suspicious,” but they’re being tight-lipped on whether or not it looks like murder.

The caretaker at the Fort Massey Cemetery found Neil Patrick Hackett of Gottingen Street lying face down, in the fetal position, near a tree close to the cemetery’s Queen Street fence, at about 7 a.m., as the caretaker was about to unlock the cemetery gate.

“He was just somebody who came right out of the blue,” the caretaker, who didn’t want to give his name, told The Daily News yesterday.

He said it didn’t look like Hackett had been beaten or stabbed.

“I had no idea. I just phoned 911 and said, ‘I don’t know if this guy is breathing.’”

Denise and Doug Jennex saw the man lying on the ground in the cemetery at about 8 p.m. Sunday night from their ninth-floor apartment overlooking the grounds.

“I saw him move. He sat up and sort of reached over, then laid back down,” Doug Jennex said.

When the couple woke up at 6:30 a.m. the next morning, the man was still lying on his side in the cemetery — but this time, he wasn’t moving.

“The first thing I said this morning was, ‘Did that man stay there all night?’” Denise Jennex said.

“At first, I thought he was asleep. I said, ‘He’d better wake up, or the cops will come and get him,’” her husband added.

Hackett was wearing light-coloured pants with a light shirt and a black jacket beside him.

Although homeless men and teenagers often drink in the cemetery, the caretaker said he’d never seen Hackett before.

Paramedics and police arrived on the scene shortly after 7 a.m. and confirmed the man was dead. Before noon, police had strung police tape around a 25-metre-wide area of the cemetery and removed the body.

Officers took away a tree branch that was near the Queen Street gate to the cemetery, and marked several bloodspots with yellow evidence flags.

The Jennexes saw police put a clear liquor bottle and a dark-coloured jacket, along with other pieces of evidence, into clear plastic bags.

An autopsy proved “inconclusive,” said Halifax regional police Staff Sgt. Dave Reynolds, so police will have to wait for lab test results to determine whether the death was a murder.

rboomer@hfxnews.ca

Pretty but dangerous cobblestone sidewalks have to go, city says Tuesday,

July 29, 2003 By Kim Moar

The red brick sidewalks bordering Lower Water and George streets will be the next to go in a continuing effort to make sidewalks more user-friendly for all walks of pedestrians.

Jacqueline Hamilton, an HRM planning project manager, said yesterday the red cobblestone bricks will be replaced by new sidewalks with a five- to seven-foot strip of broom-finished concrete up the middle and a three-foot-wide strip of concrete pavers, starting in September.

Hamilton said while the city had originally hoped to replace the bricks with the same concrete pavers used on Bedford Row and Sackville Street sidewalks, they’ve proven to be a bit hazardous to disabled pedestrians.

Hamilton said pedestrians using wheelchairs, canes or strollers found the bevelled edges of pavers meant roads were hard to travel.

Laughie Rutt of the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Paraplegic Association said yesterday that while cobblestone-type sidewalks look charming, they’re difficult for wheelchair-bound pedestrians to navigate.

Rutt said brick sidewalks make wheelchair travel exhausting and pose a danger to other pedestrians, as the uneven surface can cause chairs to shunt uncontrollably and suddenly to the left or right.

“It’s hard on wheelchairs, it drives you in different directions, it’s hard to push and it saps your energy,” Rutt said.

Patrick Harrington, who is blind, said the cobblestone-style bricks can be treacherous for blind pedestrians, especially those who use a cane.

“They get their canes stuck in the cracks,” he said.

Harrington said a smooth centre will be much better, and the brick border will give blind pedestrians a line of texture to follow with their canes.

Paul MacKinnon, chairman of the Downtown Halifax Business Commisson, said the new design is user-friendly, yet still reflects the historic character of the Halifax waterfront.

“When things are changed, there should be some sensitivities toward people with disabilities and making it as accessible as possible,” he said.

Eventually all the red brick sidewalks, which were installed in the early 1980s, will be replaced. Dartmouth’s Portland Street sidewalks are scheduled to be redone next spring, while the Alderney Ferry Terminal Park brick replacement is a priority capital project this year.

kmoar@hfxnews.ca

Cop who arrested arson accused on hot seat at trial

Wednesday, July 30, 2003 By Andrea MacDonald

Halifax – Carol Elizabeth Jarrett’s lawyer grilled a cop yesterday about the circumstances of his client’s arrest, suggesting she was home in bed when a series of fires was lit around south-end Halifax.

Mark Knox picked apart Halifax Regional Police Const. Sarah Smith’s testimony piece by piece, in a bid to convince the court that police had the wrong woman.

Jarrett is on trial at Halifax provincial court, where she faces eight counts related to the November-December 2001 arsons.

Smith testified yesterday that Jarrett answered her door in her nightclothes in the early-morning hours of Dec. 18. She took a few minutes to get there and seemed a little groggy, added the constable.

The visit to Jarrett’s Church Street apartment came just a few minutes after police on a surveillance mission followed her there.

Jarrett invited the officers in, Smith said, and didn’t seem surprised that they were there. The officer told court she thought it was odd that the bed didn’t appear very rumpled, an opinion echoed by a cop who testified later in the day.

Under cross-examination, Smith admitted she was a little surprised that at least one more fire call came in while Jarrett was in handcuffs.

“I also thought it took her a few minutes to answer the door, which could have given her time to put her pyjamas on,” she said in response to Knox’s questioning.

Smith acknowledged that she didn’t feel Jarrett’s clothes to see if they were cold from outside, nor did she check the closet or Jarrett’s shoes to see if they were wet.

“I asked her what she was doing all night, and she said, ‘Baking cookies,’” Smith testified. She agreed with Knox that Jarrett’s breathing rate was normal and it did not appear she had been running.

She noted that Jarrett had already been in the apartment a short time, however, as she didn’t answer the door right away. Smith said Jarrett’s hair smelled normal.

“It didn’t smell like she had been out at some fire scene?” Knox asked.

“No,” Smith replied.

Smith said the grogginess may have been consistent with Jarrett having been asleep, but added that she became alert quite quickly as well.

Another officer testified yesterday that he stopped Christopher Horst Bamford that same morning, near the scene of a Fenwick Street fire. Bamford has testified against Jarrett in this trial. The officer could not recall seeing a woman with Bamford.

Crown and defence lawyers expect to make their closing arguments today.

amacdonald@hfxnews.ca

Arson-case witness says he lied ‘to protect my friend’

Tuesday, July 29, 2003 By Andrea MacDonald

A friend of accused arsonist Carol Jarrett says he confessed to starting some south-end Halifax fires in 2001 to protect her.

Christopher Bamford was so strung out on drugs, he admitted yesterday, it took him 18 months to be sure she was his accomplice.

Bamford was testifying at Jarrett’s Halifax provincial court trial, in which she faces eight charges related to the November-December 2001 arson spree.

A former addict, Bamford has pleaded guilty to some of the same counts.

The 23-year-old told court yesterday he met Jarrett shortly after he moved to Halifax in July 2001. He admitted to lighting a few of the fires himself, but said Jarrett followed suit.

He recalled hatching a plan with her the night of Dec. 17, 2001, to light some fires around the Spring Garden Road area.

That day, Bamford said, he’d taken 10 to 20 tablets of a relaxant called Xanax, three or four tablets of a similar drug and an unknown quantity of “uppers.” He may have been drinking as well, he said.

Bamford testified that he recalls Jarrett keeping watch while he lit a fire behind a Dresden Row building.

The same night, she said something like, “It’s my turn to light one,” after spotting a green bin behind another building.

Bamford said he watched Jarrett open the lid to the bin and ignite the contents with her lighter.

Bamford described at least one other similar scenario, and said the pair spent the night and early-morning hours looking for other places to light fires.

Police stopped Bamford after he left the last blaze, and arrested him the next day.

He told the court he confessed to the arsons because he knew how important Jarrett’s freedom was to her and her children.

“I wanted to protect my friend. I didn’t want to get anybody else in trouble,” he said.

The witness admitted he wasn’t always sure Jarrett — who told police Bamford had set the fires — was the woman with him at the time.

“You honestly asked yourself if another female may have been with you, instead of Mrs. Jarrett?” defence lawyer Mark Knox asked.

“Yes,” Bamford replied.

The longer he was sober, the more time he had to piece things together, Bamford said. No other females he knows in Halifax hang out on the streets after midnight, he added.

Jarrett’s trial continues today.

amacdonald@hfxnews.ca

Anonymous tips lands suspect in beating

By Davene Jeffrey / Staff Reporter

An anonymous tipster has turned in a Halifax man charged in a serious beating earlier this month in Halifax.

Halifax police arrested Mandell Joseph Wiggins, 21, in a Gottingen Street apartment Monday afternoon.

"He was arrested without incident," police spokeswoman Theresa Rath Brien said.

Mr. Wiggins made a brief appearance in Halifax provincial court Tuesday afternoon.

Defence lawyer John Black told the court he is waiting to receive all of the material from the Crown's case against his client.

Mr. Wiggins will return to court Thursday. At that time, Mr. Black said, he will be better prepared to set a date for bail to be discussed.

The Crown opposes to Mr. Wiggins's release.

Mr. Wiggins is charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon in the brutal beating of Brian Crocker on July 19.

Mr. Crocker was found near death on Uniacke Street just after 2:45 a.m.

He had been hit several times with a baseball bat, which was found nearby.

Officers have not been able to interview Mr. Crocker.

"We've had an indication from him . . . that he wants to speak to us as soon as he is able," Ms. Rath Brien said.

Mr. Crocker is from Ontario and was in Halifax because of his job, Ms. Rath Brien said.

The 33-year-old was listed in fair condition Tuesday at Halifax's Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre.

Following the attack, arrest and parole suspension warrants were issued for Mr. Wiggins.

Mr. Wiggins was on parole after serving a sentence for intentionally ramming a patrol car while involved in a police chase.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Heritage designations shouldn't hamper insurance - municipalities

By John Gillis

Municipal officials say it's a bogus claim that insurers can't underwrite heritage homes because of bylaws demanding that damaged houses be rebuilt using original methods.

Halifax Regional Municipality spokesman John O'Brien sent out a news release Tuesday seeking to clarify "some major misunderstandings by the insurance industry regarding heritage homes."

Reached by phone, Mr. O'Brien said he felt it was unfair of insurers to refuse to cover heritage homes, since many have had renovations putting them in better condition than other homes.

But Kathy Redmond of Wentworth said she had to have the heritage designation removed from her 1861 Cumberland County home before she could find an insurer.

"You could get insurance, but not at replacement value," she said. "I didn't feel that was a wise choice."

Last week, a spokeswoman for her former brokers told this newspaper that Dominion Insurance had cancelled her policy after her house was designated a heritage property this spring because bylaws put the company at too high a risk.

"To replicate everything in a heritage house exactly as it was in the original as demanded by the heritage bylaws would mean the replacement cost would be exceeding expensive," said Carolyn James of K.N. Umlah Insurance.

But the head of the local heritage committee said there has never been such a bylaw.

"There's no provision for that sort of thing," said Cumberland County Coun. Ralph Welton.

"To discriminate on the basis of it having to be replaced as it was originally, that's not something that we're concerned with."

Mr. O'Brien said Halifax doesn't force owners to do repairs with old-fashioned materials.

"There's no stipulation, if it's built with wooden pegs or whatever the case may be, that it has to be replaced that way," he said.

Mr. O'Brien said the people who buy heritage houses often work hard to keep them in top shape, though he fears a perception that the homes are uninsurable could deter potential owners.

"If left unchecked, it could have that effect," he said.

Don Forgeron of the Insurance Bureau of Canada says "the vast majority" of companies will insure heritage homes.

Mr. Forgeron couldn't talk about Ms. Redmond's case specifically but said insurers don't treat houses with heritage designations differently than other older homes.

"Older homes need to be more carefully underwritten, whether they're heritage or not," he said.

"There are local regulations that govern the facade of the property . . . beyond that, I don't believe that there are major differences."

The prohibitive factor is not the heritage designation but the clause governing guaranteed replacement cost, standard in most insurance contracts, he said.

In calculating replacement costs, insurers agree to replace materials with "like kind and quality."

If a home was built with imported crystal fixtures and exotic woods, the company must replace them, however hard it may be, if there's a loss.

That doesn't explain why Ms. Redmond's policy was dropped. She said she sought the heritage designation more for the house's role in the community than its appearance.

"Our home is modern, even on the outside with vinyl siding."

"It wouldn't have been any more expensive for any insurance company if anything, God forbid, ever happened."


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

‘Sharing Africville’ Sunday, July 27, 2003 By Ruth Davenport

Dennis (Buzzy) Brown looked on with what he called a mix of joy and hurt yesterday as his four children romped and giggled in the fields that were once the streets of his birthplace.

Brown was born in the former community of Africville, a mostly black community that was demolished and forcibly relocated by the city of Halifax between 1964 and 1970. He came to what is now Seaview Park yesterday for the annual reunion of Africville residents and descendants as he does every year, always with his children.

“I want them to know that we call this Africville,” said Brown fiercely. “I want them to come down and always respect it. I want them to always fight for their rights and fight to get something back from what has been taken from us.”

T-shirts being sold at the reunion read, You Can Take the People Out of Africville, But You Can’t Take the Africville Out Of The People, a motto that Brown said speaks to the commitment among the black community to remember the place and honour the spirit of Africville.

“They tore our home from us, but they didn’t take our soul,” said Brown. “They damaged our soul but they didn’t break us.”

Members of the Africville Genealogy society are pushing for a settlement from the Halifax Regional Municipality to compensate the families that were uprooted when Africville was razed. The park was declared a national historic site last year, but the Genealogy Society is also seeking an official apology, an education fund, a land settlement and the reconstruction of the Seaview United Baptist Church.

The replica of the church would also include a heritage information centre. Negotiations between HRM and the genealogy society are progressing, albeit slowly, but Brown pointed out that if Rome wasn’t built in a day, Africville certainly won’t be.

“Something was ripped away from us,” he said. “It’s like a bottle that you kick over and smash, you know how long it’ll take to put back together? You can’t have it done in a day, but it can be done. And once it’s back together, then you can hopefully look at that bottle and not knock it over again.”

AFRICVILLE TIMELINE

1840 — Africville officially founded. Most Africville residents can trace their roots in the area as far back as the 1700s.

1849 — Seaview United Baptist Church, the heart of Africville, is established.

1850s — Some Africville residents relocated due to railway construction. City of Halifax begins building industrial sites around Africville.

1853-1950 — Africville becomes home to Rockhead Prison (1853), night soil disposal pits (1858), an infectious disease hospital (during the 1870s), a trachoma hospital (1905), an open city dump and incinerator and a slaughterhouse (early 1950s.)

1947 — Halifax city council designates Africville as industrial land.

1954 — City manager recommends moving Africville residents to city-owned property southwest of the existing community.

1968 — City of Halifax calls relocation a “success.” Most Africville residents are living in city slum housing or on the streets.

1970 — Last building in Africville is bulldozed.

1992 — Martin Luther King III presides over groundbreaking ceremony where replica of Seaview United Baptist Church is supposed to be built. Funds promised for the construction by John Buchanan’s government never materialize.

1994 — Halifax city council approves five-point plan to compensate former residents of Africville.

2002 — Seaview Park is designated a national historic site.

rdavenport@hfxnews.ca

Man beaten in Uniacke Square; cops can’t ID him

Sunday, July 20, 2003 By Keith Bonnell & Ruth Davenport

A man was in critical condition in Halifax hospital last night after unknown assailants beat him with a baseball bat in the city’s north end early yesterday.

Police are looking for help from the public, because they hadn’t yet been able to identify the victim.

Police received a 911 call about an assault on Uniacke Street around 2:45 a.m. When officers arrived, they found a young man lying on the sidewalk with serious head injuries.

“He was not conscious upon our arrival,” said Sgt. Scott Burbridge.

Burbridge said the male, believed to be in his early 20s, had no identification when he was found by police.

He was rushed to the QEII Health Sciences Centre.

Eyewitness accounts and the nature of the injuries indicate the attackers used a baseball bat, though no weapon had been found. Police don’t believe it was a robbery.

“We have some information that leaves us to believe this was not a random act,” Burbridge said. “The victim may have had some association with the person or persons who committed the assault.”

Police believe there was another man with the victim just before the attack; however, they do not believe he is the assailant.

One resident of the street, who was woken up by the commotion of police cars early yesterday, wasn’t surprised by the latest incident.

“Welcome to Uniacke,” he said, adding that the street has been busy with late-night drug activity.

“The real problem is what’s being done?” he said. “What’s going to happen tonight?”

Walking in HRM can be risky business

By Rebecca O'Brien

TRANSPORTATION, like health care, never ceases to invite grumbling and frustration. Although car drivers and cyclists complain of inadequate infrastructure, many people comment that despite a variety of transportation woes, Halifax is still a pleasant city for pedestrians. Drivers, compared to those in many other cities, are courteous. There appear to be ample crosswalks and, at this time of year, the tree-lined streets provide shade and an appealing environment for the walker.

Still, most Haligonians have noticed that as the city swells in size and acquires that more cosmopolitan edge, so too do driving behaviours. This is fairly predictable. Additionally, the increasing development outside the peninsula, and the stress this puts on traffic trying to enter the peninsula in the morning and exit in the evening, results in strained driver patience with pedestrians. This is most obvious at intersections, where the likelihood of accidents increases exponentially. These incidents are frequently mentioned in The Herald, so commonplace that they are barely noticed (that is, until the "incident" is fatal). Look no further than the June 21 Herald, which reports on two separate accidents in which drivers failed to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, and both times the pedestrians were struck.

To increase the fluidity of traffic through intersections, HRM Traffic and Transportation has been putting in place an increasing number of leading flashing-green, left-turn priority lights - the flashing green light that makes it possible for cars to turn left without having to worry about oncoming vehicles. These signal systems appear to improve the flow of traffic. Unfortunately, the same advantages are not experienced by the pedestrian, who is considerably more vulnerable with these types of intersection signal systems.

Danielle, a day-care teacher at the YMCA in Halifax, describes frequent experiences crossing Sackville and South Park streets with her day-care charges. This is an intersection that uses the leading flashing-green, left-turn priority lights and also has high pedestrian use, including large groups of three-years-olds. "There was a day where we nearly got hit three times on our way to the playground. That flashing light means that people are flying through in their cars even when it stops flashing. (The intersection) is really dangerous," says Danielle.

Puzzled as to why this type of signalization creates such a danger, I went to the intersection armed with a digital camera. Over the course of an hour, the evidence I gathered was revealing: Vehicles, enticed by the flashing green light to get through the intersection, tended to continue to drive through even after the priority light had stopped flashing (just as vehicles often try to get through an intersection as the green light changes to amber). The problem in the case of the flashing green left-turn lights is that as the priority lights change, the pedestrian green light comes on, indicating crossing is safe. The result is that as pedestrians start to cross the intersection, vehicles continue at a consistent speed to flow through the intersection (illegally), on a collision course that leaves the pedestrian (crossing legally) at great disadvantage. In the photographs that I took, actual collisions appeared to be avoided in two ways: The pedestrian(s) either gave way to the oncoming vehicle, or the vehicle stopped just before crossing through the pedestrian's path. A dangerous game of roulette, certainly not one I would recommend for pedestrians.

Half a year ago, I noticed this same type of signalization being "tested" at the Bell Road, Summer Street and Trollope intersection; since then, the testing sign has been removed and the new system remains. This same intersection feeds directly onto one of the highest volume pedestrian routes on the peninsula. It links the Commons playground, skateboard pit and tennis courts to Summer Street and Bell Road; it connects Queen Elizabeth and St Patrick's high schools to the Commons and downtown, the Commons pedestrian route to the Camp Hill Hospital, the Community College and the Museum of Natural History, and the north and west ends to downtown. In the warmer seasons, there is often a high volume of pedestrian traffic crossing this intersection throughout the day, many of them commuters who choose to walk and not contribute to congestion and smog by driving.

I am scrutinizing these intersections because I believe they are symbolic of a gradual and insidious trend that prioritizes vehicle movement over the safety of other significant forms of transportation. Those most at risk are the slow moving, the groups of children, seniors, the physically handicapped, the distracted.

Not everyone uses a bicycle, skateboard, scooter, a stroller or wheelchair; but generally, all people are pedestrians at some point or another. The pedestrian deserves encouragement, not only because walking is an excellent form of exercise (important in our overweight, passive Maritime lifestyles), but also because it involves no pollution and reduces the actual source of driver impatience and aggression - traffic congestion.

Perhaps it is time to recognize that as Halifax grows, pedestrian and vehicle movements need to be given equal value, and that includes intersection design, policies to ensure that new subdivisions are designed with sidewalks and safe crossing areas, adequate police monitoring of driver infractions, and heightened driver awareness.

Rebecca O'Brien is a co-ordinator for TRAX (www.trax.ns.ca), an Ecology Action Centre sustainable transportation program.

Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Swans latest gardens addition Metro hotel donates pair

By Davene Jeffrey / Staff Reporter

There are a couple of fine-feathered Ontario fellas hanging out across the street from the Lord Nelson Hotel these days.

Horatio and Nelson, both mute swans, moved into the Halifax Public Gardens a week ago.

The pair were purchased from a waterfowl park in Guelph, Ont., and donated to the Public Gardens by the hotel, which overlooks the gardens.

"The Lord Nelson has been around for 75 years, and for 75 years our guests have been able to enjoy the park," said hotel general manager Richard O'Beirne, explaining that purchasing the birds is a way for the business to give something back to the gardens.

Swans have been part of the Public Gardens since 1836. Shortly after the last park swan died of a heart attack over a year ago, the hotel began working on bringing in a new pair.

As their boyish names suggest, this pair of swans won't likely be booking into the honeymoon suite across the street.

The hotel decided to buy two males instead of a breeding pair after doing some research.

"Swans are quite territorial," Mr. O'Beirne said.

And if a pair were to produce more male swans, the father would likely drive the younger males out of the park, he said.

The gardens are also populated by a large number of ducks, which have free rein of the park.

Many of the friendly fowl frequently waddle outside the wrought iron fence that surrounds the gardens and can be found sleeping in the grass alongside the sidewalks in the evening.

Because swans can be aggressive, Horatio and Nelson will be kept in a penned area.

"If they did come over, we'd be happy to let them in and they would get very special rates," Mr. O'Beirne said.

The swans will be officially welcomed into the gardens at a ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the park bandstand.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Crooked cabbies taking tourists for ride
Council considers fixed rate of $9 to get from port to downtown

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

Council needs to protect tourists from crooked cabbies who might take them for extended rides to jack up the fare, the chairman of the taxi committee says.

Coun. Steve Adams (Spryfield-Herring Cove) urged his colleagues during Tuesday's council meeting to support a fixed rate for some taxi rides instead of relying on the meter.

Council didn't mind predetermined fares between downtown and Halifax International Airport or Peggys Cove.

But the suggested rate of $9 from the port where passengers disembark from cruise ships to other parts of downtown was contentious - although council passed it and sent it to a public hearing for final approval.

"To protect the people that are coming off that boat, for heaven's sakes, it makes sense to make it a fixed rate of $9," Mr. Adams said.

He said his comments weren't intended to mean "that our drivers are ripping off and gouging tourists."

But it happens, he said.

In one case, a cabbie picked up unsuspecting visitors going the short distance down the street from the port to the casino - but first drove them across the city to the Northwest Arm, he said.

"They had no idea where they were going," Mr. Adams said of the passengers.

"The driver took them for a ride - literally."

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said $9 is too much for a ride that could take a passenger just down the street. She said it's not fair to charge cruise ship passengers a set rate when local residents pay according to the amount shown on the meter.

"I take great offence to the fact that we are trying to dig into the pockets of tourists," she said.

Coun. John Cunningham (Dartmouth Centre) voiced concerns about the state of the taxi industry if it's necessary for council to protect passengers from the drivers.

"I was extremely upset to hear the chairman of our taxi committee telling us the reason why we've got a flat rate from the port is to protect the tourists from being gouged extensively by our taxi drivers," he said. "If that's the reason, I'll tell you that we have a very serious problem.

"Our taxi committee has a lot of work to do to clean up a business that's apparently out of control."

Bob Richards, a local cabbie who's on the taxi committee, said drivers aren't usually out to rip off their customers.

He said $9 is a fair price but he wouldn't mind if council told drivers to use their meters to determine fares within the downtown area.

"We should just change it in the inner core to make everybody happy," he said.

"We're not out to gouge nobody."

Under the municipality's bylaw, cabbies are supposed to charge a minimum "drop rate" when a passenger first sits in the vehicle and let the meter tally the rest of the fare by distance travelled. There are extra charges to cover other expenses such as bridge tolls.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Project surrounds Brewery Market
$52m development will help revitalize downtown -- firm

By Stephen Bornais
The Daily News

A multimillion redevelopment of the Brewery Market site will help revitalize downtown Halifax by creating a true residential neighbourhood, the project proponents said yesterday.

Halkirk Properties Ltd. has proposed spending $52 million to build the Alexander Keith’s Brewery Market District, a development that would incorporate new construction, along with preservation of some of the city’s most historic buildings.

While the development will contain significant office and retail space — more than 175,000 square feet — its heart is 195 residential units, including apartments, condos and townhouses.

Property consultant Ross Cantwell said downtown needs more residents if it is to become more than business park that people flee at 5 p.m.

Expects 400 to live there

The new development is expected at add another 400 to 500 permanent residents to the area, which has seen something of a population boom thanks to several recent condo developments.

“This is the next logical piece of the development of a downtown neighbourhood,” Cantwell said during a presentation at the Lower Water Street brewery.

Architect Roy Willworth from the firm Duffus Romans said the development is actually four separate pieces that will be integrated in a single project that will enhance existing heritage properties.

The first property set for redevelopment is historic Keith’s Hall, the former home of Alexander Keith that is but a “fragile” shell of its former self, requiring bracing inside and out just to remain standing.

The building will be converted into condos, Willworth said.

If built as envisioned, the site will be dominated by a 21-storey residential tower located at its southeast corner.

The tower has commercial space on the first four floors and be topped by penthouse condos, some of which could be as large as 4,000 square feet.

Willworth said the tower, which meets the height restrictions set by the city’s view plane bylaws, is vital for the project’s success.

“(It’s) the economic engine that drives the development of the rest of the site,” he said.

One of the innovative aspects of the development is the plan to use weekday indoor parking as the weekend home of an expanded Farmer’s Market.

The market will also gain a seven-days-a-week presence through street-level retail space that will be available for rent at the tower.

Cantwell said the development plan is now in the hands of city staff. Proponents hope to make a presentation to Halifax council in September.

18 months to build

If approvals are forthcoming, Cantwell said the entire development could be built in 18 months.

Construction would not begin until at least half of the development’s commercial and residential space sold, a Halkirk official said.

That process is expected to take eight months.

sbornais@hfxnews.ca
© Copyright 2003 The Daily News

Parking lot to spawn apartments
Building permit issued for land adjacent to Lord Nelson Hotel

By Clare Mellor / Business Reporter

The Lord Nelson Hotel parking lot will soon be home to a new high-rise apartment building.

Halifax Regional Municipality issued a building permit last Friday to Nelson Investments Ltd., which plans to put up a 169-unit building on the lot.

The proposed building is "not unlike" Summer Gardens, a high-rise condominium complex at the other end of the Halifax Public Gardens, says Gerard Donahoe, a building official with Halifax Regional Municipality.

"To a lay person, it would look like two buildings but it's all one building. There is a low tower on the front and a high-rise tower on the back," he said.

Ralph Medjuck, president of Nelson Investments, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The proposed building is an as-of-right development, which means it meets zoning requirements for the area, and no public hearing will be held, Mr. Donahoe said.

"When there is an as-of right development, we just review it internally and if it meets all the requirements of all the different bylaws, then we issue the permit," he said.

The building will include multi-level parking and a small commercial area on the main floor, Mr. Donahoe said.

It will not be set back very far from South Park Street.

"It is pretty much on the street," he said.

Another company has plans for a luxury condominium development behind the Lord Nelson parking lot.

The Martello on Dresden Row, to be developed by ASC Residential Properties Ltd., will include a 10-storey elliptical tower above the Park Lane shopping complex. That project is expected to be completed within two to three years.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Theodore closer to Big Harbour home

By Chris Lambie
The Daily News

Theodore Too has cleared another hurdle to make sure Halifax remains his permanent home.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Heather Robertson approved the sale Thursday of the replica TV tugboat to Halifax businessman Peter Murphy for $350,000.

“Now it has to go to federal court and that will be next week,” Murphy said yesterday.

“It’s more of a formality than the Nova Scotia Supreme Court portion was, as far as I understand.”

While it’s not a done deal, Murphy is going ahead with improvements to turn Theodore Too into a tour boat. He hopes to start carrying passengers by July 7.

“We certainly don’t anticipate any hiccups,” Murphy said of his family business that already operates several other Halifax tour boats.

“We’re certainly proceeding at full steam with our plans.”

Transport Canada regulations for carrying passengers are “quite onerous,” Murphy said.

“There’s an incredible amount of plans that need to be submitted,” he said.

Theodore is getting watertight bulkheads, more lifesaving equipment, higher guardrails and a carbon dioxide smothering system to handle any onboard fires.

All the assets of Theodore Tugboat creator Cochran Communications Inc. and its subsidiaries went up for sale after the companies went into receivership last April, owing more than $10 million.

The Royal Bank of Canada holds the first mortgage on the 22-metre tugboat. Cochran owes the bank’s various subsidiaries $2.82 million.

Theodore Too cost about $1 million to build.

Senholt Environment Services of Saint John, N.B., originally made the highest bid of $800,000 to buy the tug last fall. But after a full marine survey, Senholt decided it would cost too much to refit the tug to carry passengers.

A company set up by Halifax Regional Municipality had offered $400,000 to keep Theodore Too here, but it was several hundred thousand dollars short of Senholt’s bid.

Bedford Coun. Len Goucher, a director of the Halifax Tugboat Society, was buoyant about Murphy’s deal to take over the boat, even though he’s getting it for a lower price.

“I’m very, very glad that the private sector has got it,” Goucher said. “It’s probably where it should be. Our main aim all the way along has been nothing more than to make sure that Theodore is here in the harbour.”

clambie@hfxnews.ca
© Copyright 2003 The Daily News

Bid for tugboat almost complete
Halifax businessman expects to take ownership next week

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

A Halifax businessman bidding for Theodore Tugboat has one more hurdle to clear before he owns the vessel.

Nova Scotia Supreme Court approved a deal on Thursday for Peter Murphy of Murphy's on the Water to pay $350,000 plus HST for Theodore Too, the life-size replica of the character from the popular children's television show.

The replica was built for about $1 million.

Mr. Murphy said Friday he only has to wait for the Federal Court of Canada to sign off on the transaction next week before he assumes full ownership of the vessel.

Mr. Murphy said he expects no problems - receiver Goodman Rosen Inc. has already agreed to the deal.

"Our plans are going ahead," Mr. Murphy said.

He said he's spending $200,000 to upgrade the boat to Transport Canada specifications so he can turn it into a passenger vessel for tours of Halifax Harbour. "So we're going to spend a significant chunk of change here getting this up and going," he said.

Mr. Murphy expects the public to be able to take a trip on Theodore Too by July 7.

He said he's developing a tour of the harbour with the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and gaining some corporate support.

Theodore Too was recalled to Halifax in April 2002 and placed under arrest after its owner, Cochran Communications Inc., went broke.

Prospective buyers from several countries sniffed around before a winning bid was accepted from a business in Saint John, N.B.

But that fell through this winter, allowing Mr. Murphy to step in.

His family business operates a waterfront restaurant and a fleet of tour vessels in Halifax Harbour.

Begging for a living
With hat, bucket or cup in hand, some of metro's poorest residents ask others to spare some change so they can pay bills, eat or buy cigarettes.

By Lois Legge / Features Writer

He sits in his wheelchair on the fog-shrouded waterfront.

There's a red plastic bucket to his left, a Canadian flag to his right. Sunday Bloody Sunday plays on the radio: "bodies strewn across a dead-end street."

Coins jingle as they drop.

Wayne thanks the strangers the best he can and wishes them a good day.

But his voice is strangled, choked off by the cerebral palsy that immobilizes his legs and twists his hands into permanent fists.

He can't work. The $900 a month he gets in social assistance won't pay the bills.

So most days, for the past five years, Wayne's driven his wheelchair from his Quinpool Road apartment to the waterfront boardwalk of high-end shops, fancy restaurants and tourists.

People are good to him here. Sometimes bills join the change in what's usually used for sand - a child's plaything on a summer day.

A good day for Wayne, which is a sunny, summer day, can bring in up to $80. But like other Halifax men and women who ask strangers to spare some change, he'd rather be spending his time somewhere else.

For now they stay on sidewalks, street benches or near storefronts, eking out a living on the spare change of nameless patrons.

There's Michael, 40 and panhandling for a decade, who dreams of getting a job he can handle or travelling to faraway places.

And Billy, who says he prays every Sunday for enough money to buy food.

And the heavy woman with the big smile, who "had a nervous breakdown a long time ago."

Some have broken bodies, others shattered minds, or just addictions that need to be fed.

"These are people's kids," says Michael Burke, director of Hope Cottage, the local soup kitchen, and co-managing director of Street Feat, a monthly newspaper written and distributed mostly by poor people.

"For whatever reason they end up where they are. We get hardened to it and . . . we tend to look down or move away or walk on the other side of the street because it's easier; we don't have to deal with the issue."

But these men and women are perhaps the most visible example of the poverty and personal problems people like Burke see every day.

He isn't surprised, for instance, that mental illness leads people to stand on the street and ask for money.

Even though panhandlers aren't a big part of Hope Cottage's clientele, a survey by the soup kitchen a decade ago found that more than half of its then-100 regulars had mental health problems.

Some of them were battling drug and alcohol addictions, too.

"I certainly would say that the cross-section of people that we see in Hope Cottage probably reflects the panhandlers as well, that a lot of them would have mental, addiction-type (problems)," Burke says.

"There's usually a pretty good reason as to why people are out there. You know, you don't choose this lifestyle."

"I have a lot of bills," says Wayne, his mind intact but body unable to do what he wants.

"I had to do it."

He struggles to hold a pen, so he can put the comment on paper and be understood.

Aside from his rent, light, phone, and food bills, Wayne owes thousands on charge cards for things like his wheelchair and clothes.

"If I didn't have to be here, I wouldn't be here, believe you me," says the 57-year-old, dressed mostly in black, his dark leather cap fastened over a flowing white beard.

Canadian, American, Acadian and Nova Scotia flags wave from a pole on the back of his chair, which also sports a radio and rearview mirror for driving.

A nurse comes to Wayne's apartment three times a week to help him bath.

His health is pretty good, he says, and he isn't in any pain.

But he wishes he could afford to stop the destitute lot that is a street beggar's life.

Right now, there's no exit.

If he tried getting money through additional community or government sources, says Wayne, his monthly welfare cheque could be cut back.

His family can't lend a hand; he doesn't even know where his stepbrothers and sisters live anymore. And his friends are in no position to help.

"My friends are poor like me," he struggles to say. "I wouldn't ask them to help me out."

"It would be nice if (the government) could give more money to people who really need it."

Michael feels the same way, even if his mind is sometimes confused.

He's sitting on the steps of St. Mary's Basilica in Halifax, a cup of coffee in his hand, telling passersby he needs money so he can eat.

"What I want to do (is) like work - try and get a job and everything else," he says, staring straight ahead.

"I'm unable to do anything. I'd like to even get enough money to even go some places where I'd like to go - here and there and everywhere.

"It's not fair . . . I don't think the government's giving enough money for anybody."

Michael does get money from welfare and he won't say exactly what he needs the panhandling funds for - sometimes $30-$40 a day.

But he hates where he lives - a Halifax rooming house where he says he's often threatened. "Things go on in there . . .," he says. "It's not fair; it is not fair."

And he tires of what he describes as the regular confrontations on the street.

He talks at length about enemies, real or imagined, people who've told him he should be in a graveyard.

Sometimes, he says, he's the aggressor. When people won't give him money on the street, he gets mad.

"Sometimes it p's me off . . . and sometimes I get all confused and sometimes I don't even know what I'm talking about," he says.

"I don't know what I'm saying to people. I swear and curse and everything else, it comes right out of my mind. I can't stop."

These days, he says, he's on medication for "mood swings."

"I get out of hand sometimes, I do. . . . I see things moving, slow, like I'm slowed down sometimes. Sometimes I get hyperactive. . . . I'm trying to calm down because it's like, what's the point, you know?"

Michael says he's been in and out of mental hospitals over the years, although why isn't clear.

He's also lived in group homes and men's shelters, but mostly he describes a feeling of being lost and alone.

"I want my life to go better," he says. "When I think back on things . . . I'm a prisoner in the room. I'm on the dark side because I'm left alone. Like no one wants to be bothered with me or anything, hardly anything."

Like Michael, who has siblings he sometimes sees, Billy also has some family in the area.

But he doesn't see them much. His face is probably more familiar these days to the regular pedestrians on a busy downtown thoroughfare.

"Hi, I love you, I love you," Billy calls out from his usual bench on Barrington Street, giving himself an embrace to punctuate the point.

Then off comes his ball cap - stretched out with nicotine-stained fingers as a sort of cup for the quarters, loonies or toonies he hopes will come his way.

Some passersby drop him a coin or bill.

Others just smile back at his toothless grin or exchange friendly hellos with the man who has become a fixture here.

Billy can't hear what any of them say, anymore than the hissing of passing buses or constant rumble of noon hour cars.

He's been deaf since he was a little boy, injured in a car accident. He makes a cutting motion across his belly to indicate the point of impact.

But he knows the jean-clad students or well-dressed business people bustling along the busy street aren't always nice.

Some don't give him any money and he can tell they'd rather not give him the time of day.

"People give me a hard time," he says in slurred, slightly guttural tone.

But the 43-year-old - balding, with a rusty-coloured moustache and baby-blue eyes - seems to take a measure of pride in his panhandling.

"I live myself at Mulgrave Park," he writes in a reporter's notepad, his speech sometimes difficult to discern. "I feed myself."

Billy is on welfare. But he says he panhandles to get extra money for food and clothes. He also has a cigarette habit and drinks, he says, a little.

But no drugs, he says. He feigns being handcuffed to show he's afraid of being arrested.

Billy brings in about $25 a day and is on the street asking for money from Monday to Friday.

"I go to church every Sunday," he writes. "I pray for get food and money to buy food."

He and Michael also sometimes use the services of Brunswick Street United Church, which runs free breakfast, clothing and food programs, or Hope Cottage. People there don't question why the panhandlers need to beg for money since they're wearing nice clothes - something some pedestrians like to ask.

"I say, Listen . . . there's a place called a thrift store," Michael explains.

And they probably won't tell the panhandlers to just get a job.

"Some people will (act) rude on the street. . . . They really say that," says the 47-year-old woman who had the breakdown.

She doesn't want to give her name.

"I tell them if they can find me a job, I'll go to work."

But jobs can be hard to find.

Hope Cottage's survey found 75 per cent of Halifax's regular street people had less than a Grade 12 education, some far less.

"If you have a Grade 12 education now, you'd have a hard time to get a job at McDonald's, so you have that stacked against you," says Street Feat's Burke.

He believes lack of affordable housing for the poor is a core cause of panhandling and homelessness.

"You may have mental health problems, you may have physical problems, you may have addiction problems and now you throw in the fact that you don't have an education. . . . They just don't have the capability and the wherewithall to get a job."

But the Halifax woman, who says she gets "a small cheque every month from Social Services," can make about $50 from the streets if the weather is fine.

She's also finished the day with as little as $12.

No matter, she comes out in the rain and snow, even during the coldest of days this past winter. "That was awful," she says, sitting on a Spring Garden Road bench. "I bought myself a winter jacket."

After 19 years panhandling, she's gotten used to such highs and lows.

"That's a long time, isn't it?," she says with a smile. "I met a lot of people in 19 years.

Parking problems
Broken meters make downtown spaces hard to find

By Beverley Ware

Finding a parking spot in downtown Halifax is tough enough at the best of times. Finding one where the meter works is even tougher.

Halifax Regional Municipality looks after meters, and spokesman John O'Brien said there hasn't been a jump in the number of broken ones of late.

"It's a very, very low percentage," he said. "Maybe 10 or less a day are handed in to be serviced overnight.

"We keep the statistics and there's been no spike."

But one parking meter attendant told this newspaper that he and his co-workers were instructed Wednesday to stop ticketing cars at broken meters.

Mr. O'Brien said that policy has always been around. Wednesday's directive "might have been a clarification."

Mr. O'Brien insisted the number of broken meters is minuscule, given there are 2,000 around metro. We took to the streets Friday afternoon to do our own investigation.

A reporter checked 101 meters over nine blocks, three blocks each on Argyle, Granville and Hollis streets in the busiest business and bar areas of downtown. Up to 65 were working - 36 were definitely not.

Twenty-two of the meters were flashing, which means they're broken; 13 had money jammed in them and just one flashed a light that said it wasn't working.

Nearly two dozen displayed nothing, which could mean the battery is dead - and so is the meter.

All the broken meters had cars parked in front of them. One driver had taped a note to the meter explaining he had put money in but no time registered.

Many people don't report broken meters, hoping they'll get a regular free parking space. But Mr. O'Brien said it's likely only a matter of time before that catches up to them and they're slapped with a ticket.

He conceded meters in the downtown business area take a lot more abuse, so the number of broken meters is likely higher.

"Obviously there is vandalism," he said. "Parking meters are not held in high esteem."

Mr. O'Brien said in an interview before the survey that if the parking meter says it is broken or is already jammed with money, the driver is supposed to find another space.

"If the meter is not working, it's flashing and you're not supposed to park at it," Mr. O'Brien said.

But it's not always obvious the meter does not work. Mr. O'Brien said attendants either don't ticket or the driver's money is refunded if an investigation finds the meter was broken.

Airport, port taxi rates questioned
Councillors consider changing bylaw so cabbies can obey other authorities

By Jeff Simpson / City Hall Reporter

Some councillors are worried the travelling public is being ripped off because the municipality is allowing other groups to override its authority by setting their own - and in some cases higher - taxi rates.

The Halifax International Airport Authority and the Halifax Port Authority force cabbies to charge customers flat fees for a ride to specific destinations from the airport and downtown cruise ship terminals, municipal solicitor Wayne Anstey told council at its meeting Tuesday.

"It's been in effect, I think, for two years," Mr. Anstey said.

But the municipality's bylaw only allows cabbies to charge a minimum "drop rate" when a customer first sits in the taxi and then a certain amount per mile travelled that's tallied on the meter, he said.

If cabbies don't comply with the rates the airport and port authorities dictate, they wouldn't be allowed to pick up passengers at the sites, Mr. Anstey said.

The airport now charges cabbies a fee for this privilege, he said.

"Blackmail is what it sounds like to me," said Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown).

Most councillors agreed in principle to change the bylaw to allow the airport and port to continue setting their rates.

But several of them said the predetermined fares were too high - such as charging cruise ship passengers $9 to travel from the Halifax waterfront to somewhere else downtown.

"I don't agree with it," Ms. Sloane said. "I don't think it's fair."

Coun. John Cunningham (Dartmouth Centre) said the move will leave tourists with a bad taste in their mouths about Halifax after finding out they've been overcharged.

"We don't want our tourists coming into the city feeling as if they're being ripped off," he said.

If tourists heading to the casino, for example, knew their destination was within walking distance, they probably wouldn't take a cab in the first place, he said.

"They end up paying a rate of $9 for what ostensibly is a $4 taxi ride."

Other set rates include charging $41 for a ride between downtown Halifax and the airport and $42 to the airport from the downtown cruise ship terminals.

Coun. Steve Streatch (Eastern Shore-Musquodoboit Valley) urged his colleagues to examine the optics.

"I'm not interested for one minute . . . in picking the pockets of the tourists," he said.

The chairman of the taxi and limousine committee, Coun. Steve Adams, said he doesn't necessarily agree with the fees.

But he wants to change the bylaw so cabbies won't have to violate it.

"All we're doing is making our bylaw consistent with what's happening at these two points of entry," said Mr. Adams, who's also the councillor for Spryfield-Herring Cove.

Council asked staff to find out if these groups can legally ignore municipal bylaws.

The port authority is a federal agency and the airport is on federal land leased to the authority to administer.

The issue now goes to a public hearing before the changes come into effect.

Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Lightning likely cause of South Street fire
Last week's apartment building blaze left about 35 people homeless

By Randy Jones / Staff Reporter

Officially, it's not known what started a fire that destroyed the top floor of a downtown Halifax apartment building last Friday.

But fire inspectors say a lightning strike high on the southern tip of the 23-unit building at 5251 South St. is the most likely cause.

"The building was so badly damaged that it was too dangerous to get into the area where the most fire was," said John Blandin, spokesman for the Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service. "There was nothing to lead us to believe that it was suspicious at all.

"The fact that there was a (severe) thunder and lightning storm at the same time and the building seemed to be burning at the south tip . . . that could have been lightning but we're not saying it was. It's a possibility."

Firefighters had to rescue five people from windows. At least three people were injured jumping from the burning building. All have been released from hospital.

Two firefighters suffered heat exhaustion and two paramedics and a paramedic student were treated for smoke inhalation.

The blaze left about 35 people homeless, many of whom didn't have tenant insurance.

"If you are renting, it's important to make sure that you look after your belongings and make sure they are insured," Mr. Blandin said.

The building has been turned over to the owner, Rockstone Investments Ltd., and its insurance company.

Some tenants were allowed back into the building Tuesday afternoon to search for salvageable belongings.

Will Murphy, the building's residential manager, said Tuesday no decision has been made on what will happen to the building.

Everyone who lived there has found alternative accommodations, Mr. Murphy said.

"We're presently working with Fenwick Towers to provide accommodations for the near term," he said. "We don't know at this point how many people will want to take us up on that.

"That's something we'll be discussing with them . . . over the next day or so."

One former tenant is working with Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) to organize a benefit performance in aid of those who were burned out. They're aiming to have an event sometime next month.

Earlier this year, Ms. Sloane was involved in organizing a benefit for victims of a Gottingen Street fire.

Cash donations to help the South Street tenants can be made to the Canadian Red Cross at 1-800-418-1111.


Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

Community pitches in to help victims of South Street fire

By Andrea MacDonald
The Daily News

The 33 people left homeless after last week’s fire in south-end Halifax are being well cared for.

Workers at the Parker Street Furniture Bank say donations have been flooding in since Friday’s blaze at 5251 South St.

Five people were injured after the fire ripped through the 23-unit, three-storey apartment building.

A handful of volunteers turned out yesterday to help sort the donations, which included everything from dishes and bedding to appliances.

“It’s wonderful how the public responds when they feel that there’s an emergency,” said furniture-bank owner Mel Boutilier.

Boutilier said a few tenants had already stopped by to pick up some much-needed supplies. Most of the displaced people lost everything, he said, noting that many barely escaped with their lives.

The fire broke out about 4:30 Friday morning, and a Salvation Army employee said she’d heard that all tenants had found accommodations by that night.

At suppertime yesterday, Melanie MacInnis was taking stock of what was left of her belongings.

On the ground in front of her were five cardboard boxes, a couple of garbage bags and a birdhouse made of twigs.

MacInnis lost all of her pictures and memorabilia, such as her first teddy bear, her dolls, and letters from her father, who is now dead.

But she said she was thankful no one was seriously hurt, and that her roommate’s 15-year-old cat Pandora got out alive.

MacInnis is staying with a friend, but isn’t so sure her fellow residents were as lucky.

“I’m completely taken care of; it’s the other people I’m worried about. That’s why I’m here. Some people have nowhere to go, and some people just don’t have wicked friends, like I do,” she said.

MacInnis is now helping Coun. Dawn Sloane organize a benefit to raise funds for the people left homeless.

Lightning that hit high on the south side of the building probably caused the blaze, says Halifax regional fire department, which is closing the books on it. The cause is officially undetermined, but there’s nothing to suggest the fire was suspicious, spokesman John Blandin said.

Blandin urged apartment dwellers to get home insurance, saying many of these tenants had none.

amacdonald@hfxnews.ca
© Copyright 2003 The Daily News

Investigation into Halifax apartments fire on hold

By Michael Lightstone / Staff Reporter

The probe into Friday's fire at a south-end Halifax apartment building has been suspended until Monday.

John Blandin of Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Services said Saturday that the 23-unit wooden structure at 5251 South St. is too wet to deal with.

"The investigators finished off (Friday) night for the weekend," he said.

"They're going to let the building dry out a bit."

The cause of the early-morning blaze, which began during a lightning storm, isn't known.

"That's what we're going to try to determine on Monday," said Mr. Blandin, adding, there's nothing to suggest it was deliberately set.

He couldn't provide a damage estimate, but the roof has collapsed. Mr. Blandin said the building is at least 50 years old.

Five people were hurt in the scramble to flee the flames and during the rescue effort. About 35 tenants were left homeless.

A building alarm alerted tenants after the fire began at about 4:30 a.m.

When firefighters arrived, some occupants were trapped, desperate to be rescued.

Mr. Blandin said the blaze took its toll on firefighters, too.

"When we arrived there were people hanging from the windows and things to be rescued, and the firefighters' exertion level is extreme at that point," he said.

"We did have a couple of firefighters . . . suffer from heat exhaustion because of that, but they quickly recovered after resting and having some fluids."

Of the people temporarily displaced by the fire, only two stayed at the Halifax YMCA Friday night, said Canadian Red Cross spokeswoman Joanne Lawlor.

She said all the others found shelter with relatives or friends.

"A lot of these people are students and they have family in the area," Ms. Lawlor said.

She said evacuees must register with the Red Cross to be eligible for donations provided by the Parker Street Furniture Bank at 2415 Maynard St.

"People who may want to donate things can take them there, and that way people who are the victims can go there and get some help."

Copyright © 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited

'Small price' for a clean harbour
City staff recommends $64 hike in water bills over 5-year period 

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

A disappointing federal financial contribution for cleaning up Halifax Harbour
could cost each homeowner on the city's water system an extra $64 a year. 

City staff is recommending council approve five annual increases of about $12.80
in pollution control charges levied on residents' water bills to fund the shortfall. 

Mike Labrecque, director of the Harbour Solutions project, said Monday the
proposal would enable the city to build all three of the planned sewage treatment
facilities and the necessary collection system. 

"The full meal deal and biggie fries," Mr. Labrecque said. 

"We're looking for council to support that. It's a small price to pay to have a clean
harbour." 

Households hooked up to Halifax Regional Municipality's water supply have seen
the pollution control charges double since 1999 - paying an extra $100 on
average, he said. 

The charges account for about half of the $387 each household is billed on
average per year for using about 256 cubic metres of water, Mr. Labrecque said.
"That's very much in keeping with the rest of the nation," he said of the water
rates. "Better than most." 

The money raised through increased pollution control charges - added to existing
funds - would allow the city to borrow the remainder needed for the project, he
said. 

That would provide enough cash to service the debt and operate the treatment
facilities, he said. 

The city had been expecting about $75 million from Ottawa. 

But the federal government announced in September that it would only match the
province's contribution of $30 million. 

"What changes the water on the beans is that our funding level is short so
council's in the precarious position of trying to decide how it wants to proceed,"
Mr. Labrecque said. 

Staff is advising against using property taxes to fund the sewage treatment project
because not all residents are serviced by the city's system. 

But it wants council to continue pushing the federal government for another $56
million in infrastructure funds. 

Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault, Nova Scotia's voice in the federal cabinet,
said Monday another infrastructure program mentioned in the recent throne
speech could be a source of funding. 

Mr. Thibault didn't want to respond to suggestions that Ottawa would have
contributed more if the province had. 

"We can discuss this until we're blue in the face, but I would prefer that we look
forward to where we can co-operate," he said. 

Both he and Premier John Hamm said they were happy with the amounts their
governments have pledged to the project. 

With no increase to residents' water bills, the city would only be able to build the
Halifax sewage treatment plant and the collection systems for Halifax and
Dartmouth, Mr. Labrecque said. That would cost about $213 million. 

Council will today discuss the different financing options for the city's sewage
treatment project that staff has outlined in a report. 

Coun. Bruce Hetherington (Woodside) said he might hold his nose and vote for
hiking water bills. 

"When you have to tax for something, it's not a pleasant scenario," Mr.
Hetherington said. "But there's nothing we can do." 

He said the federal and provincial governments have put the city in this
predicament, but he's hoping they'll come through with more money. 

"The citizens of HRM have certainly anted up on this," he said. 

"They have literally drained their pocketbooks to try to pay for it. They've done
their fair share." 

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said she'll vote against the proposal. 

"I don't want to raise any taxes," she said. "The residents have paid enough." 

Residents of Halifax and Dartmouth have paid into the pollution control fund since
1974. About $71 million accumulated over two decades but successive city
councils spent much of it on various other capital projects. 

Council approved hiking pollution control charges by 40 cents per cubic metre in
1999. The charge on water at the time was 38 cents per cubic metre - slightly
less than half the current rate. 

The most recent proposed rate hike equals about 25 cents per cubic metre over
five years. 

Council will also have to scrap a clause that made its contract with the Halifax
Regional Environmental Partnership, the consortium of private-sector groups
designing and building the system, contingent on funding from other levels of
government. 

The sewage treatment plants will cost about $314.6 million to build. 

Winter parking ban's back 
Modified restrictions 'necessary' to keep streets safe, McCusker says 

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

The controversial winter parking ban is returning to Halifax Regional Municipality.

David McCusker, the traffic authority, said in a report to councillors released
Tuesday that they have failed to dissuade him from restricting people from
parking curbside overnight. 

"An overnight winter parking ban is necessary to maintain an adequate level of safety on municipal streets," Mr. McCusker said in the report. 

But he intends to modify the ban so it coincides with the snowy conditions that  make it necessary, he said. 

Under provincial legislation, Mr. McCusker's decision on the matter can override that of the councillors. 

He said consistent regulations will make it clear to residents that they can't park on city streets between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. or when it's snowing. 

After extensive debate, council voted in 1999 to scrap the ban and rely on
provincial legislation that forbids parking on the street during and immediately after a snowfall, instead of every night regardless of the weather. Mr. McCusker decided at the time to give it a try. 

But without the parking ban in place, drivers had difficulty determining when they were able to park on the street and snow-clearing crews had trouble doing their work because cars were in the way, he said. 

The lack of a winter parking ban has also caused the city to run about $2.4
million over its budget for snow-clearing operations the last two years, he said. 

And the city doesn't have enough tow trucks to get rid of cars parked in the way of snowplows or emergency vehicles, he said. 

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) called Mr. McCusker's decision an
injustice.  Houses in her district are built close together and many are without driveways. When the parking ban was scrapped three years ago, people living there bought cars because they believed they'd have a place to park them, she said. 

"Good luck finding a place where you can park next to your home," she said. 

"As we know, parking is at a premium downtown." 

She said Mr. McCusker should alter the restrictions to suit each district. 
"I find mine to be unique," she said. 

"We should have sat down and tried to work it out." 

Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End) said she doesn't believe the lack of winter parking restrictions last year is to blame for blowing the snow-clearing budget. 

The city also spent more than it planned on plowing snow and salting streets
during years when the parking ban was in place, she said. 

"It's unfortunate that we spent hundreds of hours here on the winter parking
debate when it's solely in the hands of one individual," she said. 

"My district is not overwhelmingly in favour of returning to the ban." 

She said it would be better to have the ban apply only to specific streets that have been identified as problem areas, where parked cars block snowplows and emergency vehicles from doing their jobs. 

Cars on "those streets that had the highest priority weren't being ticketed and towed first," Ms. Uteck said. 

But Coun. Linda Mosher (Purcells Cove-Armdale) said she's satisfied with Mr. McCusker's report. 

"This is the only option now that we have, based on the resources," she said. 

"I had numerous calls from residents last year as well as this year when it came up - people concerned about safety. They're concerned about it and they support bringing the ban back." 

Snow ban back
Traffic authority to reintroduce the old overnight, full-winter parking ban

By KIM MOAR
The Daily News

Like it or not, the overnight winter-parking ban is back.

Yesterday, traffic authority boss David McCusker overruled council’s objections to reinstating the unpopular overnight ban, and will implement a modified version this winter. 

Two years ago, the city lifted the ban on a trial basis, prohibiting street parking only during snow and ice conditions. But many residents failed to move their vehicles, and snow clearing was often hampered.

In a report to council yesterday, McCusker said he hopes to shorten the duration of this year’s ban by bringing it into effect only when winter conditions hit and lifting it sooner, if possible.  

In the past, the city enforced the overnight winter-parking ban from mid-December through the end of March, whether it was needed or not. This year, weather will determine when the ban starts and ends.

As before, though, once the ban is in effect, it will be illegal to park on city streets between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. every night, regardless of weather, and at all times during snow or ice conditions. 

McCusker said the absence of a ban led to a lot of confusion about when people could or could not park on the street, and that cost the city money.

Staff estimate at least 30 per cent of the $8 million plowing over-expenditure in the past two years is attributed to the lack of an overnight winter-parking ban. 

Parked vehicles added hours to snow clearing, because plow drivers often had to return to the same street several times to properly clear it.

Halifax Downtown Coun. Dawn Sloane complained she and thousands of others without driveways will have to find off-street parking this winter, and said the city will have to find a way to help those residents.

But other councillors said it’s not HRM’s responsibility to find alternative parking for people. 
“That’s the price you pay. If you buy a car, you get a parking spot. Let’s just stop whining about it,” said Armdale Coun. Linda Mosher.

Woodside Coun. Bruce Hetherington said the council should listen to the experts it employs to decide what’s best for public safety.

“All of a sudden, because we’ve been a councillor for a little bit of time, all of a sudden we’re experts on plowing snow. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way,” Hetherington said.

In the end, the decision was not council’s to make, anyway.

The provincial Motor Vehicle Act gives municipal traffic authorities the final say regarding such things as parking restrictions to ensure the decision is made for safety reasons, rather than political ones.

Staff did agree, however, to look into problems hospital workers who rely on street parking may face, and consider allowing parking on alternate sides of some streets.

kmoar@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Condo developer raises the roof
Six-storey plan challenged by neighbours scrapped; now it’s a tower

By KEITH BONNELL - The Daily News 

Monday, October 14, 2002

Some Halifax residents who were afraid a new six-storey apartment building would block their sunshine don’t have to worry about that anymore. The building won’t be six storeys after all — it may be 17.

Developer Solomon Ghosn has started clean-up work at the corner of Robie and Cunard streets, a long-empty lot across from the Halifax Common. It also borders West Street.

Ghosn hasn’t received a building permit yet, but tentative plans have been sent to an HRM development officer for approval.

The plans feature a 71-unit condominium complex that soars to 17 storeys but drops to seven storeys along West Street.

Ghosn said it’s just one design that’s being considered for what he says will be a “very upscale” building. 

News of the tower has upset some local residents, who thought they had an agreement for a much smaller building.

Bob O’Neill, president of the Commons North Neighbourhood Association, said that during public consultations, Ghosn agreed to a six-storey structure.

“I don’t like the idea of such a big building being there,” O’Neill said. 

He said residents did want a residential building, but weren’t prepared for one of this magnitude.

The plan for a six-storey structure fell apart after a few West Street residents appealed the plan that had been approved by HRM council.

One of those residents, Jim Bigney, said they were worried about traffic and shade. 

Faced with a delay to his project, Ghosn scrapped previous plan and literally raised the roof. 

Ghosn already had the lot rezoned, to make room for his initial six-storey structure. 

That move also changed the property into a so-called as-of-right lot. Developing as-of-right lots doesn’t require public consultation. 

“The land has been tied up now for three or four years,” he said. 

“This will blend in very nicely with what’s there. It will look as high as the MacDonald Apartments” nearby on Cunard Street. That building is 14 storeys.

Bigney said he’d like to see an automatic community impact statement done when buildings of this size are proposed. He said the development will only worsen the area’s existing traffic congestion.

“I’d love to know how how that developer went from four to five to 17 storeys,” he said. 

kbonnell@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News 

Man questioned in two-year-old Halifax murder 

By BETH JOHNSTON - The Daily News 


Wednesday, October 09, 2002

The investigation into the murder of a Halifax man continues after police released a man brought in for questioning Tuesday in the first solid development in the two-year-old case.

Halifax Regional Police brought a man in for questioning late Tuesday night in the 2000 murder of 60-year-old Joseph Murphy. The man was released around 9:30 p.m. yesterday, after nearly 20 hours of questioning.

Police have 24 hours to release a suspect or lay charges.

Halifax Regional Police spokesman Sgt. Don Spicer said yesterday investigators continue to probe the murder. 

“All we can say right now is that the investigation continues,” Spicer said, adding he doesn’t know if there are other suspects in the case.

A CN worker found the Murphy’s body in bushes, covered with blankets and garbage bags, beside train tracks at the end of Barrington Street on Nov. 23, 2000. Police found what they believed to be the murder weapon at the scene.

Shortly after Murphy’s body was discovered, police investigators found an old lottery ticket and other items in one of the garbage bags used to conceal it. They believe he was killed somewhere else two
days before his body was found at the most southern part of the street.

They searched Murphy’s ground-floor room at a nearby rooming house at the back of 1056 Barrington St. shortly after finding his body. Another tenant of the rooming house was questioned that year and released. Police said they don’t consider that man a suspect.

He was not the same man being interviewed yesterday.

The 10-room rooming house, located just two blocks from where Murphy’s body was dumped, was key to the investigation because police believe a garbage bag used to conceal the body came from there.

A work order with building owner Louis Carette’s name on it was also discovered in one of the bags.
One of Murphy’s last known addresses was a building Carette owns on Waverly Terrace.

Waverly Terrace is located halfway between the Barrington Street rooming house and the spot where Murphy’s body was dumped.

bjohnston@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News 

TV tug firm leaves province in lurch for $5.4m in loans  Toot, toot, bye bye loot

By CHRIS LAMBIE - The Daily News 

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

When Theodore Too steams out of Halifax Harbour, a replica of a TV tug won’t be all Nova Scotia is losing.

Sheriffs seized the vessel after Cochran Communications Inc. — the creator of the popular children’s television show Theodore Tugboat — sank in April under more than $10 million in debt. Now, the province will be lucky to recoup any of the $5.42 million it claims it loaned Cochran to make television shows.

“They may see some money on Pit Pony,” said receiver Paul Goodman, adding the odds of that happening are “50-50.”

“I don’t see them getting anything on Theodore.”

When Cochran went under, Goodman said it owed the province $2.31 million. 

But in May, the province doubled that figure, claiming the defunct Halifax production company actually owes it $5.42 million. That includes $822,000 from Nova Scotia Business Inc. to make Theodore Tugboat and $4.6 million from the Economic Development Department to make Pit Pony.

Goodman is negotiating to sell the rights to 44 episodes of Pit Pony and 130 episodes of Theodore Tugboat.

Metro’s offer of $400,000 to keep the full-sized replica of Theodore was several hundred thousand dollars short of the winning bid, which came from a company in Saint John, N.B.

Goodman confirmed yesterday that Senholt Environmental Services of Saint John has purchased the 22-metre boat, with its trademark red cap and smiling face.

“It’s a relatively easy decision,” Goodman said about taking the better offer from New Brunswick.

“It would be pretty stupid standing up in court trying to convince a judge why I should accept $400,000 over some higher offer.”

This summer, Halifax turned down an offer from Saint John to make a joint bid on Theodore Too.

But Halifax might be able to make a deal to borrow the tugboat occasionally, Goodman said. 
“I’m sure that those people would entertain some discussion to allow Theodore to come into Big Harbour from time to time,” he said.

The Royal Bank of Canada holds the first mortgage on the tugboat. Cochran owes the bank’s various subsidiaries $2.82 million.

Representatives of the Halifax Tugboat Society — a company set up by the city to work with local businesses and the province to keep Theodore Too in Halifax — met with the bank several times in an unsuccessful effort to buy out the mortgage. 

Bedford Coun. Len Goucher, a director of the Halifax Tugboat Society, has complained the bank was “trying to bleed us dry” by asking $3.1 million — about three times what the tug cost to build in the first place.

“That’s hogwash,” Goodman said, adding it only makes sense that the bank try to recoup its losses.

clambie@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News 

City will sell to daycare
Children’s centre gets north-end building 

By RICHARD DOOLEY - The Daily News 

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

A north-end Halifax subsidized day care is breathing a little easier now that council’s decided to sell it the city-owned building it has called home for 30 years.

“But I can’t get too optimistic until it goes to council for the last time,” said Cunard Street Children’s Centre director Gail Peterson.

Although Halifax Regional Council decided Tuesday night to sell 5557 Cunard St. to the day care for $150,000, plus selling expenses — a sum below the asking price — the sale still has to go through a
public hearing, and be returned to council before it’s finalized.

“So, the chances are pretty good, but until I get the call, I’m just sitting back,” said Peterson. In April, the city decided to sell the building for $200,000, and intended to offer the building to the day care first. But the day care didn’t find out about the sale until June, with one week to put a bid in on the building before the sale-closing date of July 2.

One of the bidders on the building, the Halifax Independent Elementary School, offered to withdraw from the sale to allow the non-profit day care with 45 subsidized spaces a better chance to buy the building.

Peterson said in June that if the day care couldn’t find a way of buying the building, it would have to close. The municipality and the day care eventually came to an agreement over the sale of the building, and the children’s centre was given priority over five other bidders.

Downtown Halifax Coun. Dawn Sloane said the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. 

“It was a failure of communication between HRM and the actual day care that resulted in all this confusion,” she said.

Sloane said HRM intended for the day care to buy the building all along.

rdooley@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News 

Weekend Funkraiser will help send kids to Camp Brunswick 

By Stephen Cooke 

NIGHTCLUB NOTEBOOK

SUMMER WAS A bummer for inner city kids hoping to spend an idyllic week or two at rustic Camp Brunswick, near East Chezzetcook. 

Run by the Brunswick Street United Church, the rural retreat was closed for repairs a year-and-a-half ago when Reverend Gus Pendleton fell through the rotted floor of one of the cabins. 

Built in the '40s, with the help of parents who saved pennies and sent them to the church, Camp Brunswick was showing its age. 

Thanks to donations, fundraising and the efforts of volunteers, Camp Brunswick is almost ready to re-open, but professional plumbing and electrical work is still required. I can sense homeowners out there cringing at the very thought of it. 

This weekend, Halifax's Wanderers Grounds will be the site of the first annual Camp Brunswick Funkraiser, with all-day family events followed by a 19-and-over '70s soul picnic in the evening. 

"Get all funked up and wear your polyester," says Downtown Halifax counsellor Dawn Sloane, who's helping to co-ordinate the event. "There'll be a contest for all the polyester dudes and the most '70s-type wins." 

Helping Sloane, whose own '70s memories include a fondness for The Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman and familiar fashion statements like super wide-leg jeans and Cougar boots, is Metro boogie man Mike Cowie. Cowie has rounded up top local talent for the family events as well as the evening shindig. 

The event starts at noon, with music by Ken and Alex and Those Swell Guys (For Kids), Mike Cowie's Cool Sounds, Razzmatazz for Kids and Samba Nova, plus a Kids' Zone with fun and activities. A "best wings cook-off" will also be tempting tastebuds from noon to 4 p.m. Then at 4 p.m. it's a talent show, complete with prizes for all the budding Donnies and Maries out there.  

At 7:30 p.m. the action switches to blues and R&B with Cowie and Funky People, guitarist Dee Dee Sly, Joe Murphy and the Water Street Blues Band and local soul hero Jamie Sparks. 

Daytime tickets are $5 for adults and $1 for kids under 16. The evening funk party costs $10. For more info or advance tickets, call 423-4605. 



Copyright © 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited

Streets closed after briefcase wrongly thought to be bomb

By The Daily News staff
The Daily News


Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Police closed off streets around the Halifax Armouries Monday morning for two hours after workers noticed a suspicious package in a Dumpster on Armoury Place.

Military explosives experts used a remote-controlled robot to deliver two
blasts of water to the package before determining it was not a bomb. It
turned out to be an empty briefcase.

“If you’re in my shoes, is it real or not when you don’t know what it is?” said
Lieut. Phil Rouin, a U.S. military bomb-disposal expert working with the
fleet-diving unit at Shearwater, who was called in to deal with the briefcase.

Parts of Cunard, North Park and Maynard streets and Armoury Place were
closed from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.

Army spokesman Lieut. David Deveney said he wasn’t aware of any
threatening phone calls made in relation to the briefcase. 

Military police are now investigating the package, he said.

This is the second military bomb scare in Halifax in as many months.

On Aug. 29, a female sailor walked into Stadacona on Gottingen Street with a suspicious package military police believed to be a bomb.

They evacuated the military property’s hospital and headquarters buildings as a precaution, then took the woman in for questioning.

That scare turned out to be a hoax.

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Winter parking ban may return
Too many problems have arisen without it, traffic authority says 

By Jeffrey Simpson / City Hall Reporter

The traffic authority for Halifax Regional Municipality wants to bring back the
controversial winter parking ban.  

Scrapping the restrictions for curbside parking from December to late March
between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. simply has not worked, David McCusker said in a report that will come before city council today. 

"During the years that the overnight parking ban has not been in place, there have been numerous problems," he said. 

Drivers have had difficulty determining when they're able to park on the street, and snow-clearing crews have had trouble doing their work because cars are in the way, he said. 

After extensive debate, council decided in 2000 to scrap the winter parking ban and rely on provincial legislation that prohibits parking on the street during and immediately after a snowfall, instead of every night regardless of the weather. 

The safety of residents has been jeopardized because parked vehicles have prevented proper snow and ice clearing, hampering the ability of emergency vehicles to get to some streets, Mr. McCusker said. 

The public has also complained that enforcement of the provincial regulations is inconsistent, he said. 

Mr. McCusker said he favours having flexible dates to start and end the ban
based on weather conditions at the time, which could reduce its duration. 

He also wants to better inform people about the rules. 

Under provincial legislation, Mr. McCusker's decision on the matter can override that of the councillors. 

"Maintaining adequate public safety must be the primary consideration," Mr.
McCusker said. 

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) said she doesn't support bringing back the old ban. 

"I'm not going there," she said. 

"There's too many people in the downtown who don't have a place to park." 

She said she wants staff to come up with better parking enforcement in the city so that residents, especially those without driveways, won't be left without a place to put their cars. 

She suggested staff look into what cities such as Montreal and Toronto do in the winter. This could include alternating sides of the street for overnight parking. 

Coun. Jerry Blumenthal (Halifax North End) said he wants to hear what the
public thinks of reinstating the winter parking ban before he makes up his mind. 

"The public should have a say," he said. 

"It's a hard thing to vote on."

Taxi puke penalty unconstitutional, council told

By KIM MOAR
The Daily News


Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Making passengers pay a fine for vomiting in the back of a taxi is unconstitutional, says the city’s solicitor.

The city’s taxi committee wanted Halifax regional council to support a change to cab bylaws that would enable drivers to collect a $50 cleaning penalty, and another $50 for time lost during the cleaning.

The matter was deferred last week to get a legal opinion on whether the city has the power to impose such a fine.

Anstey said such a provision would violate the Charter of Rights of Freedoms, because it would prevent the individual from putting forward a defence in a legal forum.

“The provision would be an improper delegation of authority by council in that it would make the taxi driver, as opposed to the courts, the determiner as to whether the penalty was payable,” he said in a report to council tonight.

He said it would also be difficult to ascertain exactly who was responsible for vomiting if more than one person was in the taxi at the time.

The penalty could also been seen as a form of “double-dipping,” Anstey said, since fares now are supposed to take into account the costs of operating a taxi. 

Taxi driver Bob Richards said last week cabbies have enough trouble collecting the fare, let alone a fine, as well. 

Anstey agreed collecting the fine could be problematic.

“I’m not sure how many of those people have a hundred bucks left on them at the end of the night. If they had it, they’d probably still be at the bar,” he said.

Council is expected to debate tonight another request from the taxi committee to raise cab rates by $1. If approved, the meter will start running at $3.50, rather than $2.50, as it does now.

kmoar@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Councillors pan the ban

By KIM MOAR
The Daily News


Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Reinstating the winter parking ban is not a good idea, say Halifax regional councillors contacted Monday.

“I don’t like it,” said Fairview-Clayton Park Coun. Russell Walker. “I’m not going to be a happy camper, let’s put it that way.”

Walker, who fought hard to have the ban lifted, said he doesn’t believe staff have tried hard enough to make it work.

While most concede lifting the ban has created some problems, many say there are alternatives the city can look at before enacting it again.

Halifax Downtown Coun. Dawn Sloane said she was disappointed metro traffic boss David McCusker’s report did not look at what other cities are doing, such as Montreal and Toronto.

Those cities alternate parking restrictions from one side of the street to the other to ensure the entire road is properly cleared of snow and ice.

“If we can get the residents to work with us, we’ve got it made,” said Sloane.

Westphal Coun. Brian Warshick said while he doesn’t support a total ban, people have to be willing to follow the rules.

“If it’s going to snow tonight, move your damn car, and don’t give me an excuse,” Warshick said. 

kmoar@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Group dresses No. 100

The Daily News

Monday, September 02, 2002

Dress for Success Halifax celebrated the suiting of its 100th client last week. 

Launched in December 2001, Dress for Success Halifax is a not-for-profit organization that helps low-income women make the tailored transition into the workplace by providing them free-of-charge with interview-style
clothing and career confidence boosts.

For further information, call Tanis Crosby at (902) 429-7025

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Two dreamers, cop and kid, connect

By Richard Dooley
The Daily News


Monday, September 02, 2002

Tyler is going into Grade 7 with hoop dreams, and possibly a
different view of the police.

“He’s exactly the type of kid we’re trying to reach,” Const. Greg Beach says after talking to the friendly youngster with the colourful shirt.

Beach and Const. Paul Cameron have stopped to talk to Tyler, who is helping his sister move into an apartment on Creighton Street.

They spotted Tyler, his sister and a little girl earlier in the night, pushing a washing machine up Charles Street on a cart.

It’s now about 11 p.m., and the washing machine is outside the sister’s new apartment.  Beach and Cameron stop to say hello, and Tyler leaves the
washing machine he’s guarding to walk over to talk to the cops.

He’s just come back from a Tim Hortons camp in Ontario, he says. He’s not looking forward to school starting, but he is anxious to check out his new school on Oxford Street.

He tells Beach he wants to play pro basketball someday. “Work hard, practise, and you can do it, man,” Beach tells him.

As a kid, Beach’s dream was to be a rock ’n’ roll drummer, he tells Tyler.

“I practised, worked hard and studied and I got to live my dream,” he says. Before becoming a police officer, Beach drummed with a band called Foundation in his home town of Moncton.

Cameron and Beach give Tyler and his sister a hand moving the washing machine into the apartment before moving on. Both officers say goodbye to Tyler.

When we’ve walked down the street a bit, Beach smiles a little.

He says the conversation with Tyler is a small victory in the fight to change the way people see the police. While some people in the neighbourhood may talk about police beatings or mistreatment, Beach says its important to change that image by making people feel cops are part of their community.

“That kid now has a different memory of the police, and he’ll tell people about that,” Beach says. “What happened there was worth its weight in gold.”

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

On the beat with Uniacke Five-0
Foot patrols aim to give streets back to the people

By RICHARD DOOLEY
The Daily News


Monday, September 02, 2002

When Paul Cameron and Greg Beach walk the beat in the downtown Halifax neighbourhood they volunteer to patrol, word gets around quickly.

“Five-O’s on Middle Lane,” someone shouts out, using the slang expression to warn others in the neighbourhood the police are nearby.

Beach smiles wryly as we cross Uniacke Street into Middle Lane.

“They shout out a warning to their buddies, because we are the ‘po-po,’” he said, using another street-slang term.

It’s a late summer night and constables Cameron and Beach have agreed to let me walk their Uniacke Square 7 p.m.-to-7 a.m. beat with them.

The pair are a part of the “uptown detail” of eight cops assigned to walk the Uniacke Square beat north of Cornwallis Street to North Street after Const. Susan Foster was shot in the leg through her patrol car door in June.

Foot patrols of the Gottingen Street area to deal with street-level drug trafficking and other crimes, which some felt held the law-abiding citizens of the neighbourhood hostage, were discussed long before the shooting. 

Community leaders had asked for them.

“Before we started walking up here, it was like people were under house arrest,” Cameron said. 

“People were trapped in their homes.”

Gunshots were a common occurrence, and gangs reigned in the laneways and alleys that crisscross the neighbourhood. Drug pushers ruled the street corners, and dangerous dogs roamed freely.

“Even the people who lived here wouldn’t go out after dark, because if they weren’t in that group, they were in danger,” said Cameron.

Operation Mid-Way, a massive under-cover operation, resulted in dozens of street level drug arrests, and that took some of the drugs and dealers off the streets. Now the beat cops are helping give the street corners back to the people.

“We’re building a relationship with the people who live here,” Beach said as we cross another street behind a graffiti-covered brick wall.

But some people see the foot patrols in the predominantly black neighbourhood as unnecessary.

“You all think this is New York or Harlem or something,” shouts out one woman as the patrol passes.

When Beach and Cameron first started walking the beat, it wasn’t uncommon for people to throw more than insults at them.

One of a group of four people hanging out on a step near the public library on Gottingen Street bends quickly and appears to scoop stones out of the dirt, but leaves the rocks on the concrete step as we pass.

“We’re not up here to make enemies,” Beach said. 

“We’re learning about them, and they’re learning about us.”

The welcome for the beat cops is not all hostile. Many people sitting out enjoying the warm night smile as the two officers say hello; others engage them in conversation.

Beach and Cameron try to greet and make eye contact with every person they pass on the street,especially the children and teenagers.

“In the beginning, even the people who wanted us here wouldn’t talk to us,” Cameron said.

“Now, they’ll come out of their houses to say hello.”

rdooley@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Released rapist at 'moderate' risk to reoffend

By RACHEL BOOMER
The Daily News


A social worker who was repeatedly raped and beaten by a client more than four years ago is furious her attacker is being released to a Halifax halfway house today.

The woman, whose name is banned from publication, says Darrell Wade may still be a risk to women if he’s not taking his medication regularly — and the National Parole Board says he isn’t.

The board says Wade is at “moderate” risk to commit another sex crime.

“I remember the look in his eyes when he did what he did to me,” the woman said in an interview yesterday.

“I have no doubt (he’s a risk.)”

Wade was sentenced to seven years in prison for aggravated sexual assault in December 1997. 

He overpowered the woman during a home visit in November of that year, dragging her to the floor and ripping off her clothes. He stuffed socks in her mouth to quiet her screams and raped her twice, before she eventually convinced him to let her go.

Today, Wade will be released from Dorchester Penitentiary and sent by bus to Carlton Centre, a federally supervised halfway house on College Street, where he’s been ordered to live out the remaining third of his sentence. 

The board’s June 5 decision requires him to go through psychiatric counselling and to live at the halfway house.

“At times, you tend to self-regulate your medication and consequently experience psychotic episodes, causing overall deterioration in emotional stability,” the decision says.

Federal inmates must be released once they’ve served two-thirds of their sentence, so the parole board had no choice but to release him.

While at the halfway house, Wade will be allowed to leave for three hours at a time, if he tells staff where he’s going and signs in and out. 

Correctional Service of Canada spokesman Denis D’Amour said staff will ensure Wade takes his medication.

Still, the woman he raped said Wade should be in a forensic hospital.

“If they can’t even regulate his medication in jail, how are they going to do it in the community?”

At his sentencing, Wade apologized for attacking the woman, saying it must have been caused by his “mental state at the time.”

The court heard Wade was severely neglected and abused as a child. He told a psychiatrist at the time that he’d been hearing voices telling him to commit crimes.

rboomer@hfxnews.southam.ca
© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

New garage will ease QEII parking woes, eventually 

By Barry Dorey / Staff Reporter

The struggle to find parking spots at the Halifax Infirmary site of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre will be a frustration of the past when a 652-space garage is completed. 

But before things get better, they'll get much worse. 

Construction is to start next month and end next summer. 

The 250 existing spaces will be unavailable during the $11-million project, so the Capital district health board is borrowing from staff's underground spots to accommodate some patients. 

"There will be some confusion in the short term, but it will improve once the
garage is there," said Calvin Crocker, vice-president of finance for the board. He said the lack of parking "is a constant complaint." 

"Patients are late for appointments or missing appointments or, in some cases, not coming in because they can't get parking." 

The province is providing a loan to get the project started. It will be repaid over the next 20 years through parking revenue and added retail space in the Robie Street complex. 

The project will see 400 new spaces created in the four-storey parking garage. Mr. Crocker said that's enough for the future needs of patients, but there is still no solution in sight for staff. 

"We are still looking at options, but right now we don't have a plan, and it keeps coming up as an issue with our staff," he said. 

Staffers will be asked to park on a temporary lot that will be set up near the
Nova Scotia Community College campus on Bell Road. 

"They've got some space there that we will extend . . . with gravel and restore it to grass once the new parking garage is done," Mr. Crocker said. 

"There is some staff parking underground at the Abbie Lane (site). We're going to be turning that into patient parking during the construction, and what we'll do is move our staff parking down to the community college." 

He said the problem was evident back in 1997, and "we finally got around to a point to make the economics work." 

The new garage will be "self-financing from the increased parking revenue." 

Maura Davies, interim president of the board, said no funds earmarked for direct patient care will be used. 

"Parking has been one of the biggest challenges facing the Halifax Infirmary since the day it opened," she said in a release. 

"I am very pleased that we are able to proceed with this project," she said in a release. 

East Port Construction will build the structure, which Mr. Crocker said will
"blend in" with the community. 
Copyright © 2002 

The Halifax Herald Limited

Try to get a cab in this town
Atlantic Canadian cities have used a variety of approaches to the taxi industry

By RACHEL BOOMER
The Daily News


While Haligonians cross their fingers in the hopes of shorter taxi waits in the next few months, another port city is taking a different tack.

Saint John, N.B., Mayor Shirley McAlary is pushing to get her city out of the cab-regulation business entirely. If Saint John council votes for the move, residents could see fierce competition among cab companies as soon as January.

“We don’t tell Sobeys how much to charge for bananas. So why are we in the taxi business?” McAlary said in an interview.

“I don’t know why it wouldn’t work in Halifax.”

Saint John’s problem is the opposite of Halifax’s. They’ve got too many cabs on the road, while Haligonians have long complained it’s impossible to get a taxi at the busiest times on weekends.

Eastern Shore Coun. Steve Streatch believes the same solution could work for both cities, with open competition among cab companies ensuring the right number of drivers are available at the busiest times.

Moncton and Fredericton have deregulated service. Moncton’s cab companies have set a common rate, but Fredericton’s eight cab companies have competed vigorously for the last decade.

“I don’t think customers complain … They get the service,” Fredericton’s Loyal Taxi dispatcher and accountant Susan Munn said. “It is hard to make a living. There’s too much undercutting.” 

‘Not fair’

In Halifax, city hall dictates cab prices and limits the number of cab licences in each area of the municipality: 610 in the plum Halifax zone, where bar-goers and tourists keep cabbies hopping. 

“It’s not fair,” said Streatch, who pushed for deregulation the last time council debated the issue in March.

He’d like to see “hungry” cabbies from the county and Dartmouth come to downtown Halifax and keep people moving during peak times. 

The taxi companies’ move to upgrade their dispatch systems earlier this year has lessened the long wait times somewhat, said Danny Hewitt of the Nova Scotia Restaurant and Foodservices Association. 

Hewitt, who has argued for deregulation, says he’s still not convinced that will hold once the snow flies. 

“I’m hedging my bets until I see what it’s like over a longer period of time,” Hewitt said. Deregulation isn’t a magic solution. In Fredericton, you can’t always be certain that the same cab ride will cost the same amount, and taxi drivers often pick up two riders during the same trip, city bylaw
manager Doug Overbo said.

And it can’t guarantee cabbies will work the busiest areas at the busiest — and least convenient — times for drivers, points out taxi commission chairman Coun. Steve Adams.

“You can let the market decide all you want, but that will not get you a cab any quicker at 2:30 in the morning,” Adams said.

rboomer@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Monday, August 26, 2002
The Halifax Herald Limited

Old hospital suffering from neglect 

By John Gillis

Neighbours of the old Halifax Infirmary are upset that the landmark building has been allowed to deteriorate into an eyesore and a fire hazard. 

After six years of negotiations, Dalhousie University looks close to a deal with the province to lease the old hospital. 

Area residents hope nothing happens to the old Queen Street building in the interim. 

"Every time you go by, there's more broken windows and more graffiti," said
Beverly Miller, chairwomen of the Peninsula South Community Association's
problem property committee. 

"At some point, (street) people will move in there." 

She's afraid the building will suffer the same fate as an earlier Infirmary, on the corner of Barrington and Blowers streets. That building - the so-called Hell's Hotel - sat empty for several years until it burned in a fire started by squatters in December 1993. 

Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) has had calls from concerned residents of several streets surrounding the former hospital. 

The Queen Street Infirmary was closed in 1997 when a new facility opened on Summer Street. 

The property is owned by the province, though it's been in negotiations with
Dalhousie since July 1996. 

Ms. Sloane said Friday someone needs to take responsibility for the building. 

"Accountability comes from the citizens and the citizens are telling me it's a mess," she said. "To see it in such disrepair is disheartening for the middle of the city." 

It's not only the graffiti and broken glass that concern Ms. Sloane. Locals have told her they've seen rats in the area where the kitchen once was and in nearby trash containers. 

She said she's also had to call in city bylaw enforcement officers when snow isn't cleared from around the building in the winter. 

"If you own something, you should take responsibility for it," she said. 

Both Ms. Sloane and Ms. Miller have contacted the Public Works Department about the problem. Both were told a plan would be in place by early fall. 

On Thursday, department spokesman Richard Perry said: "We're still finalizing that process of July 1996 to lease the property to Dalhousie. We're pretty close but some matters still need to be resolved." 

Asked what the province was doing about the graffiti and broken windows, he said: "It's like any other building in downtown Halifax. If a vandal wants to spray paint it, there's not much you can do." 

He wouldn't reveal any terms of the deal with Dalhousie or say what's yet to be resolved. 

Dalhousie spokeswoman Stacey Lewis wouldn't get into the specifics of the
negotiations either. 

"They're very complex and they've taken some time," she said. 

She did say the university has reached an "agreement in principle" with the
province and expects it to be finalized by late summer or early fall. 

The university plans to use the space for teaching and research facilities, she said.
The adjacent Gerard Hall, which has housed Dalhousie students for a year, will continue to be used as a residence. 

The plans mean parts of the Infirmary building may come down. 

"Sections of the building that are worth saving will be saved," Ms. Lewis said. "Others will be demolished." 

The university isn't taking any steps to protect the building while the agreement is being hashed out. 

"We do have a program in place to manage graffiti on any of our properties," Ms. Lewis said. "We would undertake appropriate security measures once it came under our jurisdiction." 

Copyright © 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited

Lights, camera, action on Gottingen 
Movie shoot, new businesses bringing area back to life 

By Stephanie Roberts

RESIDENTS AND SHOP owners in a north-end Halifax neighbourhood say
opening their doors to film crews is just what the community needs to make sure it's not forgotten by the rest of the city. 

Gottingen Street, transformed into a colourful Italian-American shopping district in New Jersey, wrapped up a second day of shooting for a CBS television movie, Family Doctor, starring Paul Sorvino of Goodfellas fame. 

Const. Lawrence Tench, a Halifax Regional Police officer with 13 years' experience, continued to patrol his beat while cameras whirred and extras were herded into position. He said he was pleased to see the increase in community involvement. 

"Gottingen Street kind of has its different personalities," he said. "The residents, you see them out more often walking around. They're getting involved. It's good for the kids, just to see actual movies being produced in their neighbourhood. I guess it makes me feel, and it probably makes them feel, that it's not a forgotten neighbourhood." 

Encouraging people to use the street - to shop, play or watch actors perform - is key to revitalizing the area permanently, Const. Tench said. 

"I think the moviemaking up here is great. It brings a lot of activity to this street, it brings people down to this street." 

Marcus Williams hopped off his bicycle to watch the bustle. He's lived in the area for 15 years. While volunteering that legitimate problems do plague the
neighbourhood, he said the landscape of the street is changing. 

"There's new merchants trying to move in and establish themselves and now they have the flea market on Sunday," he said. 

"I'm sure some of those merchants are sort of questioning if Gottingen Street was the right place, but it seems to be coming back to life and hopefully it will be a good thing for them." 

Shahin Sayadi opened Persian Bazaar, a grocery shop, 10 months ago. Sales have steadily increased since then, he said, as people, especially young families, have become more comfortable walking in the district. He said the activity of the past two days goes beyond being good for business. 

"We get some customers from it, but the bigger picture is that it's bringing people to the area and people are realizing it's safe." 

Dawn Sloane, the councillor for Halifax Downtown, said the burst of filming,
slated to finish today before it moves on to other areas of the city, serves a
valuable function. 

"It's showing the public that it's a good area, (that) you shouldn't be afraid of it (because) a movie production system is willing to move into an area like this, spend a lot of money and hang out with the locals and use them as extras." 

Sadie Thompson, a 93-year-old area resident known for her accordion-playing talent, nabbed a background role, as did Mr. Williams later this week. 

Based on a true story, the film is a morality tale of a man (Danny Nucci) indebted to a Mafia boss (Mr. Sorvino) for his success as a doctor, who struggles to repay the favour while maintaining his integrity. 

Copyright © 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited

Sorvino enjoys Halifax

By MARLA CRANSTON
The Daily News


Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Gottingen Street was decked out in the festive red-and-green of an authentic
Italian neighbourhood Tuesday, as CBS movie-of-the-week Family Doctor
continued shooting in Halifax.

Overnight, the local medical clinic miraculously transformed into the Naccuglia Funeral Home, Bob & Lori’s Food Emporium became grubby Carmine’s Bar and Grill, and a warehouse of recyclables was Dominic’s fruit and vegetable market, with hot dog carts out front and a pizzeria next door. And there was no mistaking the cigar-chomping mobsters, decked out in their suit jackets despite Halifax’s heat wave.

Famous character actor Paul Sorvino isn’t concerned about getting typecast,
though he plays the movie’s mob boss, with his Goodfellas castmate Beau
Starr as one of his close associates. 

“I’ve done over a hundred movies, and only about five or six have been about the mafia,” he says. True enough, Sorvino has played priests, cops — including Sgt. Phil Cerreta on Law & Order a decade ago — the Capulet patriarch in Romeo + Juliet, Henry Kissinger in Nixon, and even the personification of a vasectomy. 

But he agrees it’s a strange coincidence his Oscar-winning daughter Mira Sorvino was in Halifax a year ago, shooting the mob flick Wise Girls with Mariah Carey, just a block away on Cornwallis Street.

“Yeah, she paved the way for me. I’m following in my daughter’s footsteps!” Sorvino says with his unmistakable chuckle during a quick break, as the film crew readied the next scene.

He says Halifax is doing a great job filling in for New Jersey again this summer. And he’s really enjoying his off-time here, playing tennis and sampling the local watering holes. 

“I like Halifax,” he says. “It’s an arty kind of a town. I sat getting smashed with a bunch of other arty types at the Shoe store there, the Shoe Shop. For about five or six hours we were all making drawings. I’m an artist and sculptor and painter. We were having so much fun, and then we went to
the Press Gang and had dinner. It was really great. 

“There’s a relaxation, but a life here, if you know what I mean. It’s not just relaxed people, there’s a certain life to the town, it seems to me, and a prettiness in the surroundings. A niceness to it.”

There was also a sociable niceness to his gaggle of smiling mobsters Tuesday. Familiar actor Tony Rosato (Saturday Night Live, SCTV, Night Heat) came along playing an outrageous detective, taunting them after flipping the bird to a driver who had to screech to a halt to avoid hitting him in the scene.
Sorvino, Starr and Lou DiBianco had emerged from a sleek black Lincoln Town Car, in front of the neighbourhood social club.

Local city councillor Dawn Sloane hovered nearby, snapping pictures with Mayor Peter Kelly’s digital camera, and former Better Business Bureau director Lou Gannon remarked on how much Gottingen resembled its glory days, when it was a busy shopping district. Local accordion-playing legend Sadie Sampson nabbed herself a spot as an extra, all gussied up on a bench outside the funeral home.  
Inspired by a true story, the movie has an October airdate on CBS. In the story, Sorvino takes a young medical student (Danny Nucci of Titanic and Crimson Tide) under his wing, sending him to school in Naples. When the young man becomes a successful doctor, he struggles with his mob debt. “His struggle is how much is he beholden, how much can he take, and how are his morals going to be compromised. It’s a good story, and there are really good actors here,” Sorvino says.

Also starring are Olympia Dukakis, who also appears in Halifax director Thom Fitzgerald’s upcoming feature The Event, plus Joanne Kelly and Jonathan Scarfe. Directing it is Alex Chapple (Queer As Folk), and the producers include Michele and Arnold Brustin, writer John Leekley, and Richard Brams, who brought Wise Girls here.

mcranston@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Halifax residents give regional council thumbs-up in poll 

Halifax regional council continues to get high marks for its job in running the
province's biggest municipality, according to a recent poll. 

Two of every three residents (66 per cent) are mostly satisfied with the job being done by Mayor Peter Kelly and council. 

It's the same approval rating that Corporate Research Associates gleaned from residents in May, and comparable to ratings in February (64 per cent) and November (72 per cent). 

Conversely, 14 per cent were mostly dissatisfied in the survey of 400 residents that was conducted July 29 to Aug. 2. 

Five per cent are completely satisfied and two per cent are completely
dissatisfied. Twelve per cent had no response to the question. 

The poll is considered accurate within 4.9 percentage points 95 times out of 100. 

Compost considerations 

Councillors asked for a report on moving compost pickup on long weekends to the Saturday before a holiday Monday, instead of the weekend after. 

Turf battle 

Three companies are competing for the right to build two turf fields in the
municipality.  Ocean Contractors Ltd., Dexter Construction Co. Ltd. and Turf Masters Landscaping Ltd. submitted bids on the project, which is expected to cost $2.2 million to $3 million, a staff report said. 

City staff hope to have the surface installed on one field on the Mainland North Common in Clayton Park by next April. 

A second field will be built in Dartmouth on an unknown site. The municipality is interested in a Shannon Park site and is also negotiating with the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children over a Main Street property. 

What day was that again? 

In their first council session after a month-long summer break, councillors and staff couldn't get their dates straight. 

As they tried to sort out a scheduling conflict next month over meetings on
construction debris and tax structuring, neither councillors, clerks nor staff could remember which meetings were slated for which day. 

"Point of confusion, Your Worship, we don't know what the hell we're doing," Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) grumbled to Mayor Peter Kelly. 

Copyright © 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited

Police rescue woman from smoke-filled home 

By Barry Dorey / Staff Reporter

A pair of quick-thinking Halifax beat cops are being credited with rescuing a
woman from a smoke-filled townhouse Thursday afternoon. 

Constables Stephanie Veinot and Ben Kirton were on patrol in Uniacke Square when a construction worker yelled that he saw smoke. 

"We knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. There was no answer, and then, we could see smoke in the windows," Const. Kirton said. 

The officers ran to the back of the home, at 5470 Uniacke St., to check for other entrances. Finding none, they quickly returned and tried to force the door open. 

"I kicked it once and I thought to myself, 'We're going to be here for a while,' " Const. Kirton recalled, as the impact failed to budge the sturdy door. 

"I ended up getting a sledgehammer from another worker, and we went in
through the door." 

The officers raced through the smoky apartment and found Paulette Leblanc
asleep in an upstairs bedroom. 

"We woke her up and did a check to make sure there was nobody else in the house," Const. Veinot said. 

Ms. Leblanc, whose children were at her mother's home at the time, credited the officers with saving her life. 

"They had to shake me and they shined the flashlight in my face," Ms. Leblanc said. 

"They got me up and took me down the stairs. You couldn't see a foot in front of you." 

She did not require medical treatment, but "another minute, and I could have been dead." 

Const. Kirton turned off the stove, where a roast was smouldering in a pot. 

Firefighters arrived moments later and vented the smoke from the home. 

Burns statue moved - just two metres

By The Daily News Staff
The Daily News

Friday, August 09, 2002

Robbie Burns moved for the first time in 83 years Thursday.

The statue of the famous Scottish poet, located in Victoria Park at the corners of Spring Garden Road, Tower Road and South Park Street, was carefully moved two metres to make way for a rejuvenation of the park.

The work is being undertaken by the Victoria Park Legacy Project, a
partnership between the Metro Food Bank Society, the Spring Garden Area
Business Association and Halifax Regional Municipality. 

New shrubs, flowers, benches, and an entertainment venue that can hold up
to 200 people will freshen up the park.

Also, an asphalt pathway will be replaced with bricks. For $50, people can buy bricks inscribed with the name of a loved one.

The North British Society donated the statue to the city around 1919, and it’s
been in Victoria Park ever since.

Construction is expected to be finished by Labour Day.

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News

Soggy south end mops up 
Homeowners confront flood damage the day after broken water-main gushes

By DAVID REDWOOD - The Daily News 

Sunday, August 04, 2002

Residents cannot understand why it took eight hours to turn off the tap to Friday night’s massive accidental geyser.

The water-main break swamped some south-end Halifax basements so badly that cleaners dug personal computers from knee-deep mud. 

“I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t turn it off sooner,” said Anne Connelly, walking through the basement apartment of a house she bought six weeks ago.

A neat mud line on the wall at chest level demonstrated how high water reached — and stayed — overnight. 

“It was like this at 11 p.m., and it was still like this at 4 a.m.,” said Connolly, who spent a sleepless night in her car outside her Tobin Street home.

Bob White, an official with the Halifax Regional Water Commission, said the pipe that broke passed inspection just three weeks ago. 

It’s not known what caused the break, although the 1963-vintage section will undergo forensic investigation.  He confirmed that it took six hours to stop most of the flow, and another two hours to stop it completely at 6:30
a.m.  

But White doubted it could have been stopped quicker.

“You have to be concerned about causing a pressure bump in the system,” White said.

He said commission workers had to shut seven valves feeding the 61-centimetre distribution pipe. 

Utility repair crews needed to wait a period of time after shutting the first few valves to avoid a “water hammer.” 

The phenomenon occurs when too much pressure builds up somewhere else in the city water system.

“If you stop it quick, everything backs up,” said White.

“It’s a bang in the pipe.”

He likened it to stopping a freight train slowly, so that cars don’t pile up on each other.

The full force of Friday night’s geyser didn’t become apparent until yesterday.

At Connolly’s house, a steel door locked with a deadbolt was ripped from the door frame. Two sofas in her tenant’s apartment had been pushed across the room. 

“Everything was upside-down. When we came in, we couldn’t understand what happened,” she said.

John Stair, 36, a South Street resident, witnessed the geyser just minutes after it broke through the pavement. He watched it grow from about a metre high to more than five storeys in about 15 minutes.

“The asphalt came flying out ... it just flew up like a volcano.”

Water commission officials said residents need to look at their own insurance policies to cover damages. 

The utility is generally responsible only if a leak happens during their maintenance work.

The Red Cross put up 12 residents left temporarily homeless by the break Friday night. 

Some homes smell of oil that mixed with water when furnaces flooded, and will need days of airing out.

dredwood@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News 

Broken water-main causes downtown deluge,evacuation

By DAVID REDWOOD - The Daily News                       Saturday, August 03, 2002

Edgar Cormier was sleeping when a huge water-main break began filling up the south-end house he’s lived in for 35 years.

Cormier’s wife woke him as the couple’s basement was flooded a metre deep.

“I thought it was raining,” said the 76-year-old Tobin Street
resident.

It was. A five-storey-high geyser on nearby South Street roared over a half-dozen buildings for more than an hour last night. 

The water was so intense firefighters ordered four parked vehicles towed
because they were afraid the asphalt would collapse.

“Obviously, the street is suspect,” said acting district Chief Brian Gray of the Halifax regional fire service.

Hundreds of residents and downtown partiers gathered around the geyser. 
“Old Faithful! It’s a geyser, buddy — except it’s not going off every hour, it’s
been going off continuously,” said Brian Dimmer, who lives nearby.

Firefighters moved 15 residents out of their homes, including the Cormiers,
their son and a boarder who lives with them. 

The Red Cross was helping the evacuees last night.  Cormier’s 70-year-old wife Hermance said that when she first looked out the window, it didn’t look like a street. “It was just like a river,” she said.

The break happened around 11 p.m., and appeared to be centred on South
Street, near Barrington. Gray said the pipe that broke was 61 centimetres in
diameter.

In basements, firefighters battled water levels that were sometimes so high
they flooded electric panels. 

At press time last night, city, power and water commission workers were
scrambling to control the problem. 

Water workers were focusing their efforts on shutting off a main valve to that
section of the city, at the corner of Inglis and South Park streets.

At least one apartment building with some open windows was getting soaked by the soaring geyser. 

Firefighters entered the building to put tarpulins on the furniture.  The cause of the water main break is unknown.

dredwood@hfxnews.southam.ca

© Copyright 2002 The Daily News 

After 80 years, Sadie still loves a parade  Metro senior has strutted her stuff on Natal Day floats since a teen 

By Sherri Borden / Staff Reporter

When Sadie Sampson first graced Halifax's Natal Day parade eight decades ago, she sat atop a decorated horse and carriage. 

These days, the 92-year-old is chauffeured in a fancy convertible as she greets the crowd with a royal wave. 

"I used to cry when I used to hear about the parade - you couldn't watch it on TV then; it was a long time ago," Sadie recalled in an interview as she prepared for Sunday's annual parade. 

"My mother said, 'I'll get you up (to the parade) and I'll see if I can get you on (a float),' so she did and I've been on ever since." 

Sadie, who turns 93 next month, has been part of the event for about 80 years. 

"I'd sit down and they'd play the music and I would wave to the people," she said Friday. "I would show off. . . . It's a big thing to get up in a float. Oh, it's a big feeling." 

Natal Day events

For this year's parade, the Halifax senior - whom everybody calls Sadie - will don a blue shimmering dress, accessorized with a wide-brimmed white hat that she meticulously decorated with an assortment of pink and baby-blue flowers. 

Also for the occasion, Sadie used small silver beads to adorn a black pair of high-heeled pumps that she's proud to say she can still wear. 

Sadie said it will take her four hours to get ready for the parade so she can say: "I'm perfect." 

"One time I was going out to the parade and I must have went underneath the clothesline and the face cloth came off the clothesline onto my hat - a beautiful hat - and I was going on the Commons and a woman said, 'You've got something hanging on your hat.' 

"Geez, I looked and it was the face cloth, and it wasn't a nice white one, either. 

"Now that would have been sweet, wouldn't it?" 

Sadie was a dressmaker for years and her eye for detail shows in costumes she's designed for the parade. She's appeared as Cleopatra, Queen Victoria and other notables. 

And there's never been a year that Sadie hasn't wanted to be part of this annual event. 

"I had the flu one year and I went in, but they didn't know it," she said. "If I had to crawl, I would go. It's something that I promised God that I would do - as long as (organizers) want me." 

Sadie gives a simple reason for coming back again and again. "I just love the parade." 

It's heartwarming, she said, to hear young and old alike calling her name along the parade route. 

"I'm a celebrity in Halifax," Sadie said matter-of-factly. "It makes me feel great knowing that somebody likes me." 

Sadie has served as honorary parade marshal on two occasions and has appeared in Dartmouth's Natal Day parade 15 times. 

During Friday's interview, Sadie wore a pink dress with matching blush on her cheeks, red lipstick, nail polish, black eyeliner and jewelry. "I always wore makeup since I was 12." 

Sadie's talents are abundant. At 12 she learned to do the Charleston, and she has travelled the Maritimes and won many dance competitions. 

Another of her talents, she added with a chuckle, is to "stay away from the men." 

Sadie's passion and dedication have not gone unnoticed. 

"She adds a lot of life and vibrancy to the parade," Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly said. 

"All that I can hope for is that I have that much enthusiasm when I'm her age. She adds to the quality of life here . . . and we're proud to have her as a resident." 

A legend in her own right for her generous contributions to her community, Sadie is also known as a celebrity for her appearances on the annual Christmas Daddies telethon over its 38-year history. 

Born in Halifax in 1909, she has lived in the city most of her life. 

Her life hasn't always been easy. She left school at 10 to help her family out and began working at the Moir's factory at age 12. 

She has held a variety of jobs - one of which involved scrubbing floors with her bare hands. 

Her mother died at age 40. And just nine months ago, her daughter died of complications from diabetes. 

Despite suffering six mini-strokes nine years ago, Sadie said she is in good health today. At age 85, she was struck by a car and hospitalized for four months. But Sadie said her faith in God enabled her to recover, despite a grim prognosis from
doctors. 

While she was in hospital, she received 200 get-well cards - evidence of how widely her generosity is appreciated. 

"I'm kind to everybody and everybody knows it," Sadie said. "I'd give my last cent out to a person that's hungry.