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BECOME A SUPPORTER TODAY!

WE NEED YOU! Here’s a special invitation…to support your community newspaper, the Eastern Shore Cooperator. We’re looking to you, our readers, to insure that you keep getting the stories you want about life on the shore. Our advertisers are the mainstay of our business. But let’s be clear: keeping newspapers vibrant and relevant takes more than just advertising these days. Too many Canadian newspapers have passed away in recent years, leaving their communities without a voice. So we’re asking you to sign up as a monthly supporter. Your contribution will ensure that you keep getting the newspaper you enjoy delivered to your post box every month…. that you can stay current with breaking events on our Facebook page and our website….that you can find out what’s happening on our Events calendar. Become a Supporter Today and sign up today!

May 31, 2018

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Minister Will Not Tolerate School Site Selection Delays

By Richard Bell In his first public appearance in a community getting a new school (Eastern Shore District High), Education Minister Zack Churchill made it clear that he was considering radically diminishing public input to the school site selection process in order to get new schools built as fast as the government would like. And to further muddy the waters, Churchill said that his department was also considering changing the very boundaries of the catchment area for the new high school.

May 30, 2018

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Local Baker Wins National Community Service Award

By Richard Bell Paul Nicholl, the owner of Dobbit Bakehouse in Musquodoboit Harbour, has won this year’s “Jake the Baker” competition, a national contest sponsored by Bakers Journal, the country’s leading industry trade magazine. The journal cited Nicholl’s “community involvement in a wide range of mentorship programs,” and his participation in raising funds “for various local fundraising campaigns.”

May 30, 2018

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Fighting for Better Health Care In Sheet Harbour

NEWS FLASH: EMERGENCY ROOMS CLOSED IN SHEET HARBOUR AND MUSQUODOBOIT HARBOUR! (MAY 24)Once again, emergency rooms are closed in Sheet Harbour and Musquodoboit Harbour. The emergency room at Eastern Shore Memorial Hospital closed at 8am this morning, Thursday May 24, and will not reopen until 8am on Tuesday, May 29. The emergency room at Twin Oaks Memorial Hospital closed at 8am on Thursday May 24, and will reopen at 8pm, May 24. In Sheet Harbour, more than 260 people turned out for an emergency meeting in May called by Senator Tom McInnis. In an interview below from the June printed version of the Cooperator, Senator McInnis explains why “Health care is the number one problem in the country,” and what he hopes a new community-based health care group can do to start fixing things from the bottom up. For a sneak preview of this interview, click here. Emergency room closures are in part due to the scandalous failure by governments headed by all three parties to do what needed to be done to recruit enough doctors to keep these facilities staffed and open. A quick look at the “News” section on the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s website on Thursday morning shows emergency room closures within the last week at Northside General Hospital, Glace Bay Hospital, Twin Oaks Memorial Hospital, All Saints Springhill Hospital, Strait Richmond Hospital, Fisherman’s Memorial Hospital, Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital, and Eastern Shore Memorial Hospita Fighting for Better Health Care in Sheet Harbour By Richard Bell When he sees a problem, Senator Tom McInnis is not one for sitting around complaining. And he has no doubt that right now, “Health care is the number one problem in the country.”

May 30, 2018

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Struggle Over Access to Conrad’s Beach

By Richard Bell There is little more precious in Nova Scotia than access to the coast. Estimates of Nova Scotia’s coastline range from 7,500 km up to 13,000 km. And estimates of the amount of that coastline in private hands range from 87% up to 95%. Even worse, there is little legal provision for protecting public access to the coast.

May 04, 2018

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No Take Zones Threaten Shore Fisheries

By Richard Bell Local fishermen and provincial officials are growing increasingly concerned about the potential negative effects of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans identification of a 2,000 square km area off the Eastern Shore as a new “Area of Interest” (AOI) under the provisions of the Oceans Act Marine Protected Area (MPA) program. The proposal encompasses the waters around the 30km of islands between Clam Harbour and Mushaboom.

May 04, 2018

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Lifelong learning: a new economic model for the Shore and Valley?

By Karen Bradley On Friday March 23, people got together at the Old School in Musquodoboit Harbour to tackle two of the most challenging issues on the Eastern Shore and Musquodoboit Valley: our aging population, on the one hand, and the lack of educational options for youth leading to employment in this region, on the other.

April 10, 2018

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Welcome Sandra Beazley!

Advertising sales are the lifeblood of the Cooperator. So we could not be more pleased to announce that one of the Shore’s most experienced ad salespeople has joined our sales staff. Beginning with this issue of the Cooperator, Sandra Beazley will be putting her experience and contacts to work to strengthen the Eastern Shore’s only community newspaper. As she explains in the accompanying note, she is closing her most recent publication, It’s Shore Business/Shore Business Advertiser, where she demonstrated her single-handed mastery of the entire publishing process. With Sandra on board, we look forward to making the Cooperator bigger and better in the years to come. --Karen Bradley, publisher

April 06, 2018

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DNR Endorses Non-Motorized Trail

By Richard Bell [This story has been updated since it was published in the print edition. See the update at the bottom of the story.] The Department of Natural Resources has ended one of the Eastern Shore’s longer-running land-use disputes. In a press release on March 20, 2018, the Shore Active Transportation Association (SATA) announced that the Department of Natural Resources has granted a Letter of Authority (LOA) to SATA to develop the Gaetz Brook Connector trail as a non-motorized, active transportation greenway. The trail runs along the abandoned CN rail corridor from East Chezzetcook to the junction of Highways 7 and 107

March 26, 2018

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Parents Furious About Stock Buses

By Richard Bell Heather White is an unlikely leader for a full-scale rebellion against the Stock Transportation Company’s school buses operating on behalf of the Halifax Regional School board. Yet since she first posted her complaints about the company on a dedicated Facebook page on January 22 (Parents For Safe & Reliable Stock Buses), almost 1000 people have signed on, pouring out their rage and frustration at the company.

February 27, 2018

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