Just a sprinkling from today’s local news.

Councillor: Ditch work on Chebucto
Uprooting residents, spending $1.5m not worth saving drivers
By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter

Spending $1.5 million to help Armdale Rotary commuters shave a few minutes off their morning drive up Chebucto Road is not worth it, says a regional councillor.

Neither is uprooting families or expropriating front lawns — all in the name of facilitating car traffic, says Coun. Sheila Fougere (Connaught-Quinpool).

At a recent public meeting, city traffic manager Dave McCusker said widening Chebucto Road to add a reversing lane would enable the nearby rotary to handle more traffic at faster speeds.

If the changes aren’t made, then volume would exceed capacity and drivers would be left waiting in stalled traffic.

(full story)

Excessive speed blamed as cars slip, slide on snowy city streets

A late-season snowfall had many vehicles slipping and sliding during Tuesday’s early-morning traffic.

“There were numerous accidents all over the place,” said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin.

“The majority of drivers did slow down to match the (road) conditions.”

But the evidence that not all drivers were so careful was caught on camera by a co-owner of a Halifax auto body shop.

(full story)

Bedford’s Chickenburger flips owners

The Chickenburger, an institution for seven decades in Bedford, N.S., has been sold — but the new owner plans to keep the restaurant just as it is.

“It’s sort of bittersweet,” said Tom Innes, whose father, Jack, opened the popular drive-in on the Bedford Highway in March 1940.

I’m not happy about selling a business that’s been in the family for 67 years certainly, but happy to get released from perhaps the responsibilities and the day-to-day hassles that go with it.”

Mickey MacDonald, the former owner of DownEast Communications, bought the Chickenburger on Monday.

He said he doesn’t plan to change the restaurant, which he calls one of his favourite places to eat.

Innes said negotiations with MacDonald began in September, and now that the deal is complete, he and wife Paulette plan to enjoy their retirement.

Michigan high-altitude balloon lost in the Maritimes

CBC News

New Brunswick amateur radio operators are on the lookout for a high-altitude balloon believed to have come down somewhere in the Maritimes, after being launched as an experiment by a Michigan Grade 5 class.

Even though his balloon has disappeared, Michigan teacher Robert Rochte says its mission has been a success.

“This would actually be our farthest flight so far,” he said.

The balloon, carrying a small Styrofoam cooler containing a circuit board, ham radio transmitter and a Global Positioning System, was launched Thursday.

It was designed to travel at 10,000 metres on the jet stream signalling its exact position every two minutes along the way. But the GPS failed, and the last reported signals were in Morse code, picked up by ham radio towers in the Maritimes, one in Scotch Mountain, near Sussex, N.B., and one in Truro, N.S.

Greg Dentremont with the Loyalist City Radio Club in Saint John, which owns the Scotch Mountain tower, says the balloon could be in the Alma-Fundy Park area, if not lost in the Bay of Fundy or somewhere in Nova Scotia.

(full story)

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!