Deputy Mayor Matt Estabrooks
At its meeting next Tuesday, Tantramar Town Council is expected to approve spending about $11,225 this year and $10,850 every year after for streetlights at 27 intersections in the former local service districts (LSDs) that were amalgamated with Sackville and Dorchester in 2023.
The mayor and several councillors spoke in favour of having the streetlights installed during their Committee of the Whole meeting last week even though no money has been set aside in this year’s budget.
“I do realize it’s unbudgeted,” said Deputy Mayor Matt Estabrooks who represents Ward 4 encompassing rural areas north of Sackville.
“But you know, representing the people from the former LSDs, this is an important one, so my hat and my interest is in having it happen as quickly as possible.”
Streetlights would be installed at several intersections in Estabrooks’s ward including at Pond Shore and Upper Aboujagane Roads as well as several on Rte. 940 at White Birch, Cookville, Midgic Station and Goose Lake Roads.
Estabrooks suggested the money could come from this year’s $50,000 council initiatives budget.
‘No reason to hold back’
Councillor Michael Tower, who represents Ward 3 that includes most of the former town of Sackville, agreed the streetlights should be installed this year.
“There’s no reason to hold back,” he said. “The LSDs do deserve something and for us to step forward now to give some improvements is what we should do.”
Treasurer Michael Beal agreed the money could come from the council initiatives budget, but warned installing streetlights could mean higher taxes in the former LSDs.
Beal estimated taxes would rise by about one cent for each $100 of assessment.
Ward 2 Councillor Barry Hicks
Councillor Barry Hicks, who represents Ward 2 that includes Westcock, British Settlement, Wood Point and Rockport, said the streetlights should be installed this year.
But he strongly disagreed with raising local taxes to pay for them since former LSD residents have already had their tax rates raised by 10 cents with further five cent increases scheduled in each of the next few years.
“We’ve already risen 10 cents and spent nothing in the LSDs yet,” Hicks complained.
Deputy Mayor Estabrooks agreed saying installing streetlights now is important.
“I also think we need another way to fund this,” he added.
Council voted unanimously to send the streetlights issue to its next regular meeting where installing them this fall is likely to be approved.
Treasurer Michael Beal said if council does goes ahead, the initial money would come from the total Tantramar budget, but decisions would have to be made about who will pay for them during the 2026 budget deliberations.
List of proposed streetlight locations
For previous coverage of LSD tax rates, click here.
Has anyone from lower Rockport been asked for a light at our compromised bridge? Simple answer is No!
The residents of Lower Rockport would rather have action and answers on getting our bridge replaced, so that we can have fire service, septic pumps, water delivery..etc. Ridiculous to put in a light at the bridge!
I speak on behalf of the residents that live full time down here.
I agree with Crow. I live in Lower Rockport and I’d much rather have a safe bridge that allows us to have basic services as she stated. Can someone please tell me the logic that went into this asinine idea?
Crow does speak for all of us. A streetlight on a dangerously corroded bridge – our ONLY access to our homes from town – doesn’t do much to make us feel cared about. We worry whenever we go into town that we might not be able to return. That bridge should be a high priority, before someone is killed.
Quite ridiculous to be concerned about Street lights, especially in Lower Rockport when our main concern is the bridge repair that keeps getting pushed back and back. That bridge is a necessity as it is the only means for permanent residents to get to and from town. This has been put off long enough and us residents are tired of being put on the back burner, especially when projects (like these proposed lights) are not as necessary as our bridge!
Isn’t the bridge on the Lower Rockport Rd. the responsibility of the provincial Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, not the town? The town can install streetlighting, but if Pecks Cove Bridge is controlled by the province then it’s up to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to fix it. The town should lobby them to do something, but that doesn’t conflict with the town’s responsibility for streetlighting.
https://sackville.com/2025/04/travel-advisory-pecks-cove-bridge/
Yes it is the responsibility of DTI. The 20t restriction went on right after DTI did guard rail install and widening of the road at the washed out cliff.
Our Tantramar fire service has been negatively compromised as a result. There is only one grass fire engine that can cross the bridge..and the SFD’s plan is if there is a “live event” is to bring SFD and Memramcook water tankers to the bridge to be pumped across to the engine that can cross.
Our septic pumps require us to hire two trucks, again to pump shit from one truck to another across the bridge.
Water delivery, gravel delivery..etc. need to come in smaller loads and increase delivery cost to homeowners.
One part-time resident is building a house and the concrete truck is 15t empty..so they can only transit 5t of concrete in one delivery.
The grader, stripped of all excess equipment, can only get its weight down to 23t, so our roads will be a mess in no time.
Snow clearing and sanding is being contracted out to a private (for profit) company.
And to top it off..the scheduled Pecks Bridge replacement for 2026 has vanished from the provincial government’s “moving forward” plan.
So, as taxpayers of Tantramar, our services are compromised and having a streetlight at our bridge ..(if it even lasts a winter storm at high tide with ice rocks smashing on it) is beyond aggravating and we’d rather have the cost of that light dispersed to the nine full-time residents to compensate the extra costs..tho that would barely scratch the surface.
Having said all that.. the fact that there is not an alternative route, we have grave concerns about our little broken bridge and our Lower Rockport community
The lighting tech. is also camera surveillance tech… that’s why they are even pushing it like they are .. for smartgrid and smartcity purposes.. the town is run by technocrats Jon.. figure it out man.. don’t you talk to people around here.. they know exactly why years ago Bob Berry, mayor at the time, spent $1/2million on all new streetlights within the town – money that didn’t go towards the requested skatepark project youth wanted in 2013.
https://www.news5cleveland.com/council-frustrated-by-initial-roll-out-of-new-street-lights-cameras
At the risk of sounding grumpy, a missing piece here seems to be consultation, in Rockport and eleswhere. Perhaps some of these streetlights are in places where people have asked for them. But the first anyone around here has heard of this is this article. How is the decision made to put a light at spot X vs Y? The idea of paying higher taxes to have another level of government make seemingly arbitrary decisions without consultation is not appealing.
The former LSD’s have been HEAVILY subsidized by the surrounding “urban” residents for much too long. If equivalent services, adjusted to scale, are offered the taxation rates are to be equivalent to the towns.
They utilized Sackville and Dorchester municipal services, town activities, children summer camps, fireworks, parks, lake, arena, etc. and never paid a single contribution towards these services.
To this day the disparity remains between their contributions and the levels of services they receive.
As far as the bridge, it’s a provincial matter. For 6 full time residents (what’s that, 3 households?) they should consider the toll they put on the province by asking an access that negates the entirety of the rest of the province’s taxpayer base. You need two septic trucks to do half-loads rather than one? You did choose to live in a farther than rural setting and obviously paid accordingly for your property.
Residents of the islands, ie. grand-manna, deer island, etc. or other extremely rural regions don’t expect the same services as other more central areas. The requests are essentially for preferential treatment in proportion to their population.