Volunteers needed for Special Olympics games
More than 400 coaches and athletes from Cape Breton to Yarmouth will be coming to Kings County Feb. 20-22 for the provincial winter games.
Anne Marie Shannon, director of events for SONS, expects the three-day event will be filled with fun and plenty of competition.
“It’s a qualifying year, so the winners will get to go to the national winter games in Corner Brook, Newfoundland next year,” Shannon said.
“That means a lot to our athletes. Many of them have been to national competition before and they want to be there again.” Area residents, she added, are welcome to come out and cheer on the athletes.
“People are certainly welcome to come, the athletes love seeing an audience. It’s a great sport to bring your family to and see a different level of sport and friendliness.”
The home base of the games will be Camp Aldershot. Floor hockey will be played in the drill hall, while snowshoe competitions will be held on the Aldershot sports field. Curling will be held in the Glooscap Curling Club in Kentvill, while figure skating will be held at the Berwick Apple Dome and skiing competitions will be held at Martock.
Opening ceremonies will be held Feb. 20 when the games torch arrives at 7 p.m., and then competition will get underway for curling and floor hockey. All sports will compete on Feb. 21.
Now the time has come to pay the piper, but rates won’t climb du e to th e UARB’s decision to wai ve the half a cent char ge customers pay to Efficiency Nova Scotia.
“It’s a shell game,” said Regan. “The Liberal governm ent desperately, desperately wanted a y ear w ith no p ower r ate increase.”
In total, about $100 million is now owed to N SP to cover the fuel costs. “We need to start paying it down now, because we’re paying interest on that, ” he said. “Because th e Efficiency Nova Scotia fee i sn’t b eing levied in 2015, that half c ent w ill go towards pa ying it down. Th e act ual purchase price hasn’t changed – we’re just piling up an other debt.”
Berwick hopes its dependence on Nova Scotia Power will be reduced with a new wind energy project that’s in the works. Together with Mahone Bay and Antigonish, Berwick Electric formed the Alternative Resource Energy Authority in 2013 to build a wind field on 300 hectares of land east of Panuke Lake, near Ellershouse, West Hants.
The project received environmental approval last February. The land has since been cleared completely and tenders are currently out to construct roads to the site, Regan said.
“We signed a contract with a turbine manufacturer in Germany, they make the best ones,” he said.
“They’ll start manufacturing the machines in Germany this month and they’ll be shipped into Shelburne and trucked up here.”
It’s hoped, he said, that the wind field will be functioning by the third quarter of the year.