That crosswalk accident the other night at Pleasant and Carleton Streets in Dartmouth was the second mishap at that location this month. 19 year old Peter Archibald is in critical condition at the QE2 Hospital after he was hit by a truck Monday night. Earlier this month, the day kids returned to school, a young girl was hit there as well and suffered injuries to her shoulder and back. The driver was ticketed for failing to yield to a pedestrian and was fined $687.41, the same fine given the man behind the wheel of this week's mishap. Overhead lights will be installed at the crossing, but more needs to be done to improve safety at this and other dangerous crosswalks in the city, starting with replacing the flashing yellow lights with red.
The gloves were back on during last evening's mayoral debate at the Alderney Theatre in Dartmouth. Mike Savage and Tom Martin sat side by side during the discussion but neither made any reference to Monday's exchange, described by Savage as a personal attack on his good self. Martin denied it was personal on my News 95.7 radio show yesterday, but he didn't back away from his comments Monday, accusing Savage's $200,000 campaign of being an effort to buy his way to the mayoralty. Martin couldn't be specific about his own campaign costs, but suggested it was in the $50,000 to $60,000 range.
Some call her a wingnut, but give Francesca Rogier a little credit for her determination. Rogier, of Brindi the dog fame, was back in court yesterday asking a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge to send Brindi to foster care and out of the kennel where she's being held by the city while Rogier's legal fight to get Brindi back winds its way through the system. The judge said no, it wasn't in her poewr. Rogier, who has spent a small fortune in this fight, is back in court in November appealing her convictions under the city's dog by-law and her fight to reclaim Brindi.
A quick aside on the Brindi saga, everytime a court date nears, I am flooded with e-mails from people around the world in support of Rogier's efforts, mostly standard form responses with someone's named tagged on the bottom. At first it was interesting, now it's just tiresome.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada's looking for a little financial help. It's $30,000 short of the $600,000 it needs to buy some 150 hectares of land in Port Joli on the province's south shore. The Conservancy has stepped up and protected over 10,000 hectares in the province so far. This stretch of beach is their latest effort.
Community groups in the St Margaret's Bay area are also raising money in an effort to save Troop Island, an 11 acre wilderness area, from development. The owner has agreed to sell and the community groups need about $190,000 more to make the buy. They're under the gun on this effort, closing is October 5th. The St Margaret's Bay Stewardship Association has launched a fund-raising campaign. Help if you can.
Have a great day. Get involved. And if you're not outraged you're not paying attention.
Rick Howe
