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Friday, January 4, 2013

'Like' And Donate $25 To The Hospital At No Cost To You

Your 'like' on Facebook means a $25 donation to the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation.

The John T. McMillan Jr. Memorial Foundation will donate the cash for every 'like' on their Facebook page from now until January 26th.

Chair of the board Jack Skerry tells CHSJ they'll donate up to $25,000. He says they decided to start this campaign not only to raise money but to share the stories the non-profit group has. The campaign ends on the night of their 7th annual Casino and Dance for the Families Helping Families fund.

The McMillan Foundation is an non-profit organization that focuses on helping families or individuals affected by leukemia and other blood related cancers.

To find the link to their Facebook page, click here.

Gondola Point Ferry Back On January 14th

As long as the weather cooperates, the William Pitt II ferry is set to return to Gondola Point on January 14th.

That's according to Hampton-Kings MLA Bev Harrison, who tells CHSJ news the ferry will have to be towed upriver, and they've hired an ice cutter to help bring it up through the icy water.

The ferry has been undergoing repairs in Nova Scotia since November, and was originally set to be finished back in December. Harrison says they intended to keep the seasonal Peninsula Princess ferry running until the Pitt II got back, but had to stop it's service yesterday
because the ice would've damaged it's propellers.

Since the William Pitt II has been in dry dock, the Department of Transportation has had problems with it's smaller, temporary ferry breaking down.

NBCC Saint John Working Closely With UNB Saint John


The New Brunswick Community College has embarked on a five year strategic plan and more of the pieces of that will be put into place in 2013. This is the first operational plan the community college has ever had. 

Community College President Marilyn Luscombe tells CHSJ News there will be more collaboration with the university.

Luscombe says along with being co-located they have started to talk very intentionally and made progress on articulation and transfer of our one and two year programs into degree programs at UNB.

Luscombe also says the college will be moving forward with E-Learning so those students who have other responsibilities can take programming online, essentially anywhere, anyplace.

      

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Admires SJ From Space

Although we see the snow as more of an inconvenience than as a pretty picture, Saint John is looking pretty good from space.

That view coming from Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield, who took this picture of Port City and tweeted it from the International Space Station on Wednesday.

In the tweet, 53-year-old Hadfield describes our city as "beautiful in the sunlit snow." Hadfield launched into space in December and is scheduled to stay until May.

His twitter handle is @Cmdr_Hadfield.

Overnight Parking Ban On For Uptown Tonight

5 days after the storm,  The City is putting on an overnight parking snow ban in effect tonight.

That means no on street parking in the South Central Peninsula between 11 tonight and 7pm tomorrow morning.

Vehicles left on the street will be towed.    During the last snow ban, 48 vehicles were towed.

There are 6 lots available for use by on-street parkers.   To see the list, click  here


For a couple of toonies, you can park at Market Square or Brunswick Square between 8pm the night of a ban and 8am the morning after.

In a release, the City tells CHSJ News the purpose of a snow ban is to push back snow from all streets in the South Central Peninsula especially the narrow ones so emergency vehicles and private vehicles have access in the winter.

Unemployment Rate Rises In Saint John

The unemployment rate in the province has gone down from 11.2% in November to 10.8% in December.

Here in Saint John, unemployment has gone up from 9.3 to 9.9%.

Canada's national unemployment rate was 7.1 per cent last month -- its lowest level in four years. Statistics Canada says 40-thousand full-time jobs were added in December.

Drop Off Your Tree Until January 12th

If you still need to drop your Christmas tree, the City is providing several locations to do that until January 12th.

The sites are listed on the City's website.  




To see the complete list of drop off locations click here

Garage Lost In Renforth Fire

A detached garage is a loss after a blaze in Rothesay last night.

KV fire crews responding to the call at 65 Riverview Crescent in the old Renforth area just after 9 last night.

City fire crews did provide some help at the scene.    After the walls of the structure fell in, a backhoe was needed to lift up the peices and get to any hot spots. 


No one was hurt and no word yet on a cause.       Firefighters remained on the scene for more than two hours.

The Face of Saint John Is Changing

The face of Saint John is changing and the transformation over the the next ten years will be faster than even what it has been during the last decade.

That prediction from the General Manager of Enterprise Saint John, Steve Carson who tells CHSJ News just because we're not a large city, doesn't place us at a disadvantage.

He says you don't have to be a big city, small cities are going to be very important going forward adding innovative people will want to live here and share our values.

Carson believes education will be the cornerstone which is why what happens at U-N-B Saint John is so important.