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Monday, March 29, 2010

City also prepares for heavy rain tonight

Get ready for rain, the city of Saint John is expected to get up to 70 Millimetres of rain tonight. Residents living in areas that are flood-prone should prepare for possible flooding.

Municipal Operations will be monitoring weather conditions and advise residents to check catchbasins or ditches near their property for debris.


Police will be monitoring flooded roads and advise residents to use caution when driving and to observe barricades and road closures.

Search Continues for Oil and Gas

Provincial coffers are reaping the benefits of the search for oil and natural gas.

$2.3 million in new revenue is now on the books along with a commitment by an American energy company to spend almost $47 million on exploration.

Southwestern Energy Company of Houston has been granted a three-year licence to search on an area covering more than 934,000 hectares.

It stretches from the Richibucto-Buctouche region across the province to Charlotte County.


There is also an area of 84,000 hectares located in the southeastern half of the province.

Corridor Resources Inc. and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc are now producing natural gas from the McCully Field in the Sussex area.

There is also a small amount of oil being produced in the Stoney Creek Field near Moncton.

NB Power Earth Hour Numbers are In

Not as many people around the Province participated in Earth Hour this year.


18 mega-watts or the equivalent of 360,000 light bulbs were turned off Saturday night, that compared to 20 mega-watts last year.


NB Power spokes-person Marianne Limpert tells CHSJ News, you don't need to wait for Earth Hour every year to cut down on your power consumption.


Limpert adds she can only guess that it might have been the cold temperatures which cut back on this years participation.


We still haven't heard back from Saint John Energy on it's Earth Hour numbers.

Seadogs Still Waiting for Round Two Opponents

The Moncton Wildcats are not coming to Harbour Station on Friday.



Many people are under the impression that Moncton will take on Saint John in round two which gets started Friday night.


Saint John's next opponent how-ever will be either Montreal, Gatineau or Chicoutimi.


Dogs President Wayne Long tells CHSJ News, for most fans, the dream match-up is Saint John taking on the Wildcats.


Long adds the team isn't looking any further ahead than each series it is playing.


Tickets for Game Ones and two, Friday and Saturday night at the station are on sale at the box office.

Community Centers Get Provincial Funding

A pair of community centers in Greater Saint John are getting a new look thanks to Provincial funding.


$110,000 dollars is going into work at the Milford Center which includes replacing siding, windows and making repairs to walls.


$80,000 dollars is being spent on work at the at the Denis Morris Center which includes repairs to the floor, electrical and other projects.



City Police Officer Looking For Nomination

Dean Secord, a city police officer and president of the provincial police association is going after a career change.

His name is on the ballot to be the Conservative candidate in the riding of Saint John Lancaster. Secord tells CHSJ News, he likes his chances.
Secord says he was approached by the party twice and gave it plenty of consideration before making up his mind with the nomination party scheduled for the 28th of next month.

Business owners Dorothy Shepard and city councilor Chris Titus' names are still being thrown around as possible Conservative nominee's for the riding as well.



Time is quickly running out to get funding for bridge repairs

With no solution on funding, the Harbour Bridge Authority says it has between seven and ten days to get funding in place for repairs to the structure.
If not, a two-year project could stretch into three and bring with it traffic tie-ups. General Manager Ken Anthony tells CHSJ News, the west coast pension fund willing to loan the Authority the $35 million dollars is wondering what is going on.

Anthony calls it kind of ridiculous saying who would ever have thought it would come this but, as far as he knows they are still willing to deal with them.
Anthony adds discussions have been going on for months and why it has to come down to this....he isn't sure.

Rain and Plenty of It on the Way

It looks like we are going to make up for a 30% rain-fall shortage this month over the next few days.


A heavy rainfall warning has been issued for Greater Saint John and Environment Canada meteorologist Claude Cote tells CHSJ News, the majority of the water will fall tonight and tomorrow.


Cote says bite your lip when it comes to the rain this week because a beautiful long weekend with sunshine and above seasonal temperatures is on the way.

Emergency Measures on Flooding

The Provincial Emergency Measures Organization will keep close tabs on the rain-fall over the next few days.
The good news is, river levels are average or slowly below for this time of the year.


Spokes-person Carl Wilmot tells CHSJ News, if your home has been hit by flooding before, it's important to be prepared and make sure culverts and catch basins around your home are clear.


Wilmot adds EMO's major concern at this point is what is left to melt further north and what that could bring down stream.

M-P Rodney Weston Defended On Harbour Bridge Repairs










(Saint John Portland M-L-A Trevor Holder)
             (Photo by Brian McLain)

Saint John Portland M-L-A Trevor Holder is coming to the defense of M-P Rodney Weston on the controversial issue of funding 35 million dollars in repairs to the Harbour Bridge. Weston is withholding his support for the Harbour Bridge Authority to borrow the money until he finds out what it will eventually wind up costing Saint Johnners. Holder tells CHSJ News the provincial Liberals are only interested in scoring political points. He calls it the pettiest political manoevering he has witnessed in his 11 and a half years as an M-L-A. Holder says his party would like to see a joint funding agreement to pay for the repairs between the provincial and federal governments since the debt on the bridge has now risen to 22 and a half million dollars. Opposition Leader David Alward is also calling for the bridge to become part of Highway One with the debt being written off by Ottawa and the tolls removed. The debt is now larger than what it cost to build the bridge back in the late sixties.

Grocery Store For People In South-Central Peninsula Moves Ahead

The idea of setting up a grocery store to serve people who live in the uptown and south end has been given a boost with completion of the feasibility study. Mark Leger of the steering committee tells CHSJ News Co-Op Atlantic is still very much interested in making it something more than just a place to buy food. Ideas such as a wellness clinic being attached as well, a drug store and even a community kitchen where people could go to learn about how to cook nutritious meals have been tossed about.
Leger warns it sometimes will take as long as 3 years to get a store operating. The effort has been going on now for a year. There has not been a supermarket in the south-central peninsula ever since the I-G-A shut down and was replaced in Prince Edward Square Mall with Giant Tiger.