SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Summerside city council didn't hear a piece of bad news at its regular meeting on Monday. Instead, it heard about how mop heads were causing issues in the city’s sewer system.
The water and sewer team was so fed up, the mop issue made it into the municipal services report for February.
“This month the sewer utility experienced a lot of mop heads being flushed down the sewer and ending up jamming up the sewer systems,” read councillor Bruce MacDougall from director Greg Gaudet’s report.
After the meeting, there was no one who could elaborate on the issue, but everyone questioned the size of toilet needed to flush an entire mop head.
“The public is reminded to be mindful of what is put in sewer lines as the items can cause many problems in the operations of the sewer collection system,” said MacDougall.
The March 18 council meeting started with a presentation from Claudette Thériault and Karen Gallant, two organizers with the 2019 World Acadian Congress.
The international event will attract Acadians from Canada, U.S. and around the world to the Maritimes for the meeting that takes place once every five years.
New Brunswick and P.E.I. will share in hosting the 14-day event beginning Aug. 10 in P.E.I. and ending Aug. 24 in Shediac.
“I’m very happy that the opening day is here in P.E.I. and it will be in Abram’s Village,” said Thériault.
It will be an all-day event with a musical show in the evening featuring several bands including Barachois, who will be re-uniting for the occasion, she said.
In sports news, Deputy Mayor Norma McColeman unfurled the P.E.I. 55 Plus Games flag in chambers as she announced Summerside will be host city in 2020.
“It’s quite an honour for the seniors and they will be attending from across the province in 2020,” she said.
Summerside council passed preliminary subdivision approval to McDuff Holdings’ 50-lot development on Bayveiw Drive.
It makes five new housing developments in Summerside and councillor Brian McFeeley said it might be a record.
“It really is quite an accomplishment and we certainly want to thank those developers for their confidence in the city,” said McFeeley.
February may have also been a record-setting month for the amount of renewable energy the city was able to use.
Winter winds provided 53.9 per cent of the utility’s electricity for the month, reported councillor Bruce MacDougall.
“That’s certainly something to brag about,” he said.
Council voted to form an eight-week task force to head up the street renaming.
The six-person task force will identify new street names and themes for names and report back to council.
Themes suggested by council included former mayors, chairpersons and councillors; outstanding citizens or Good Neighbour Award recipients; family names of those who lost their lives in World Wars; and heritage names.
On the topic of commercial development, council adopted a four-year strategic framework to build the city’s commercial tax base from the current 18.6 per cent to at least 21 per cent.
The city identified three areas to focus its efforts, which include developing tools the city can use to support commercial business, taking the lead in communication within the business community and marketing the city to the wider world, and to build relationships with business, government and key sectors to fill labour gaps and access support.
