Looking back at Yarmouth County history
FROM 1970:
The launch of a new ferry service between Nova Scotia and Maine was still several months away, but local officials wanted to get moving on plans for the big day. A four-person committee representing the Town of Yarmouth was slated to meet with the Yarmouth County Tourist Association at the YCTA’s annual meeting to discuss how the local area would celebrate and welcome the new vessel, Prince of Fundy. The town’s committee consisted of Mayor Fred Emin, Deputy Mayor Jack Trask and councillors Vic Eldridge and Bucky MacConnell.
A grass fire in Hebron that threatened a few houses contributed to what was described in the Vanguard as an “extremely busy day” for Yarmouth firefighters. The Hebron fire was said to have started around 7:45 a.m. After an initial response to the blaze, firefighters had to return to the scene as the fire flared up again, this time threatening a number of homes. “The blaze was finally subdued by 10 p.m., “the paper said. Meanwhile, that same day, the fire department responded to a couple of grass fires in town and a bad chimney fire on McCormack Road, among other calls.
People in the news in early 1970 included:
• James Reardon, a local lawyer who was appointed Queen’s Counsel. The investiture was scheduled for later in January in Halifax. A Yarmouth native, Reardon had been practising law since 1951.
• Martin LeBlanc, whom the Wedgeport Columbus Club had chosen as its “man of the year.” Desiré Boudreau, president of the Columbus Club at the time, had presented LeBlanc with his award during the club’s annual dinner.
• Gary Lum, a 23-year-old native of Sudbury, who had been hired by the province to spend a few months in the Yarmouth area as a recreation consultant. The pilot project reportedly would help determine if the local area needed a full-time recreation director.
FROM 1980:
In political news, Fraser Mooney, one of the Yarmouth area’s two MLAs at the time and a former provincial cabinet minister, said he had yet to decide if he would run for the leadership of Nova Scotia’s Liberal party. Gerald Regan, who had led the party since 1965, had announced he was resigning as leader in order to run federally in Halifax in the upcoming 1980 federal election. Hugh Tinkham, Yarmouth’s other MLA, had said he would not seek the provincial Liberal leadership. Yarmouth had a dual riding at the time, with two MLAs: Mooney and Tinkham. (NOTE: Mooney eventually would run for the N.S. Liberal leadership but would be unsuccessful in his bid. Sandy Cameron would win the leadership at a convention in June 1980.)
Drill core samples from East Kemptville reportedly had been found to contain “less than one per cent tin by weight,” but a spokesman for the research facility in Halifax where the samples were analyzed said this was not a discouraging result, saying the finding was consistent with that of other places where commercial tin mines had been developed. Whether a tin mine would be developed in Yarmouth County remained to be seen.
Also in the news in early 1980, the town and municipality of Yarmouth were scheduled to meet in mid-January to discuss amalgamating four local school boards.
FROM 1990:
It was the end of an era. Via Rail terminated its Yarmouth-Halifax passenger service, the final train leaving Yarmouth at 2:04 a.m. Monday, Jan. 16, 1990. The late Fred A. Hatfield, the Vanguard’s editor at the time, was on hand for the occasion and wrote about it for the paper. The following is how he ended his story: “The train returned to its familiar spot in front of the station for a few moments, the crew said goodbye, and, with the sounding of its whistle, Via’s last train to Yarmouth slowly pulled out. With its departure, train travel from Yarmouth came to an end.”
The Town of Yarmouth’s commercial tax base had risen 34 per cent in the past three years, making the town one of Nova Scotia’s hottest growth areas, according to the regional assessment office.