Town of Berwick, Nova Scotia

The Town of Berwick's Echo Friends and the After School Program have teamed up for a demonstration on how to worm compost. Anyone interested in recycling kitchen food waste, saving energy or starting their own worm composting system at home is welcome to join us. We purchased 1/2 pound of Red Wiggler Worms in March of 2007 and our worm family has grow to the point that we would like to help others try this form of composting. Vermicomposting!

Just meet us in the Multi purpose room and help us sort.  If we have enough people (who can pick up worms) to help process our two bins it wonÂ’t take long and then we can then start new ones.  Depending on how many pounds of worms we have, we should be able to start at least 2 new bins.   We will have everything you need, just bring a strong stomach.

Wed. Feb. 18th, 3pm

The 12th Annual Berwick Sports Hall of Fame Induction and Recognition Ceremony is set to take place at the Jack Spindler Memorial Gymnasium at The Berwick School on Saturday, June 5th at 7 pm.  This year's inductees include:  Art Newton, Builder, Stuart Johnstone, Builder, Laurie Ward, Athlete, Bruce Beattie, Athlete, 1984 Pee Wee "C" Hockey Team and the Dr. Thorpe Curling Team.  Local athletes will also be recognized and a special recognition of the Berwick Arena will be made.  This is a great opportunity to celebrate Berwick's rich sport heritage.  Everyone is welcome and there will be a free will offering taken at the door.  For more information, call The Berwick Recreation Department at 538-8616/4016.

EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2009

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has approved increases in the rates Nova Scotia Power charges its customers effective January 1, 2009.  The increase is approved chiefly to cover higher costs for coal and petroleum coke, which make up the bulk of NSPI's fuel mix.  Increases of 9.4% are ordered for almost all rate classes, including the Municipal rate that your Utility buys under.  Berwick Electric purchases about 93% of the energy we provide to our customers from NSPI and purchased energy is about  72% of the operating budget.

To recover the increased cost of purchased electricity, the Berwick Electric Commission has applied for and been granted an across the board increase of 6.758%, also effective January1, 2009.  This solely offsets the increased cost.

Domestic billings on January 16 and February 16 will incorporate a prorated increase, since some of the energy billed on those dates will have been used prior to the rate increase.  Commercial and Industrial bills of January 31, 2009 will reflect the 6.758%. 

Download the Utility and Review Board document (42 kB) for more details. 

Congratulations to the winners of this year's Best Decorated Home Contest:  1st Place:  Garnet & Vi Francis, 24 Daniel Drive, 2nd Place:  Elsie and Jim Sherrard, 100 Commercial Street and 3rd Place:  Wayne and Gail Murray, 285 Main Street.  Thanks to the many residents of Berwick who decorated their homes and showed their holiday spirit!  

Thanks also to the many Berwick Businesses who decorated for the holidays.  Winner of this year's Best Decorated Business was the Apple Capital Museum located on Commercial Street. 

The Council of the Town of Berwick is made up of a Mayor and 6 Councillors all elected at large. "At large" means "general area", that is, Berwick is not divided up into various geographic "wards" or "ridings". Each councilor has a duty to represent and work for all residents and businesses in the town in a nonpartisan way. Beginning with the latest Municipal Election in October 2008, Council's term will run for four years. The next election will be held, October, 2012. 

(Back row, left to right: Gary Whittier, Don Clarke, Anthony Morse, Mike Trinacty). Front row, left to right: Anna Ashford-Morton, John Prall, Marianne Woodworth)

The Berwick Council is responsible for setting public policy, approving the Town's annual budget, entering agreements, providing executive leadership, making planning and development decisions, and adopting new codes and bylaws. 

Official Flag of the Town of Berwick

A new energy monitoring initiative will give customers of the Berwick Electric Commission a better idea of how much power they are using and is expected to reduce energy consumption. Read the Chronicle Herald article.

Monitoring systems are available to citizens and can easily be installed by homeowners. Information is available on the Acadia Management Group website at www.amginc.ca or at www.bluelineinnovations.com. 

Here are the results of the Town of Berwick's municipal election. Our ballots took somewhat longer to tally for having to run both a manual and electronic system simultaneously. (Note these are unofficial results. The Official Addition occurs Tuesday October 21, 2008) The councilor race was for 6 seats.

Mayor

John Prall, Declared by acclamation

Councilors

Anna Ashford-Morton: 553 votes (6th) (re-elected)

Don Clarke: 687 votes (2nd) (re-elected)

Danny Lecky: 210 votes

Anthony L. Morse: 722 votes (1st) (elected)

Michael J. Munday: 527 votes

Mike Trinacty: 662 votes (3rd) (re-elected)

Gary Whittier: 655 votes (4th) (re-elected)

Marianne Woodworth: 565 votes (5th) (elected)

Voting Stats

Total number of eligible voters: 1675

Total number of ballots cast:  891 (electronic and paper)

Voter turnout percentage: 53.2%

Ratio of Electronic to Manual ballots: 44% Electronic and 56% Manual (paper)

Voter response to e-voting

Election officials and candidates alike heard many positive comments on the evoting system. Variously, voters described it as slick, easy, fast, a snap, very convenient. We heard stories of disabled people who had not voted in the last election or the last two elections, but did e-vote in this election. We had some votes come in from Berwick residents presently visiting in the United States, Bermuda, Saskatoon and Truro. More e-vote stories in the coming days.

Certainly we had hoped for a higher turnout and this result motivates us to continue to seek new and better ways to stimulate meaningful citizen engagement. 

Congratulations to all new councilor-elects! 

What's the difference between a vote and a ballot?

A ballot is a summary document or device (including electronic) which the voter submits to list all of his/her vote(s). For the councilor race, each eligible person voter gets one and only one ballot. The one ballot in Berwick's case, listed 8 choices. A vote is one or several choices among the various alternatives. In the case of the councilor race, each voter's single ballot may contain 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 choices depending on the voter's preferences. Thus, 600 voters would submit a maximum of 600 ballots but the number of actual votes cast in a race with 6 possible choices could range from 600 votes upward to 3,600 votes and/or anything in between. 

The final complete copy of this year's Town of Berwick Budget is now available online and at the Town offices. Save paper, download the budget (1.66 MB). This year's version includes added schedules and charts to help you understand how your tax dollars are spent.

The following message, along with the pic, was sent to a Town staff, from one of Berwick's armed forces persons, way up in Alert, NWT.

I was posted to CFS Alert for 6 months in 2006 and made this sing which will stay there Forever.. Thought you guys would like to have a copy of it for the town.  As you know my family lives in berwick and we all call it ower home even when we are up here at CFB Petawawa.    I Getting ready to go back overseas to Afganstan and getting all the little things done before going.  Wish all the best during Gala Days wishing we were all there.   If you require more info on this contact me at my email address above and will be happy to give you what I can.

Kings Transit informs us that July was record-breaking month for bus ticket sales in Berwick, more than $4,000! Previous averages have been $2500-$3,000.  

Repairs to the bridge, north end of Town, are more extensive than first estimated. Work will take longer, probably closer to the end of August.

You can help your local Berwick and District Volunteer Fire Department raise money for new firefighting equipment. For a $100 donation we will have your name etched in a glass brick to be displayed permanently at the new fire hall station.

To order your personalized glass brick, please call Shannon Parker at 538-1583 or email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Tax receipts will be available.