New Sackville council gets down to business

The new members of Sackville town council don't have their first official public meeting for another three weeks but they don't plan to sit idle until then.
In fact, the eight councillors - a mix of four incumbents and four newcomers to the political scene - sat down together last week with Mayor-elect Pat Estabrooks for their first discussion meeting so they could be brought up to date on town affairs.
"We need to be updated on what the present agenda is and what projects are ongoing, which projects haven't happened yet . . ." said Estabrooks.
"That's a big job in itself because we've got five new people," she continued. "So it's probably going to take us at least five or six months just to catch up on all the stuff that's happening in the area."
The newly-elected mayor, who defeated two-term Mayor Jamie Smith in last week's municipal election, said it will be up to the new council to determine if further discussion is warranted on any of the decisions that have been made in regards to upcoming plans or developments.
For council's next discussion session, Estabrooks said she has asked Sackville's Chief Administrative Officer Barry Carroll to give the councillors an overview of the RCMP contract; information on the pending construction of the proposed RCMP/fire station and the recent purchase of the land for the new building; as well as the details of the contract with Veolia Water for the operation of the town's treatment plant.
The incoming mayor said she is aware the new council won't have much say on the deals that were already made for the town's water and policing services but said she wants all of the councillors to be informed on the details of the agreements and "what we can expect from the RCMP and Veolia."
Estabrooks said she wants to ensure the town is wielding as much value as it can out of those contracts (Veolia has a seven-year contract and the RCMP has a 10-year deal).
"As I've said before, community policing to me is having policemen in our community - not sharing with somebody else. If it's RCMP and we're paying for 10 RCMP (officers), then I want to see 10 RCMP in our community and not sharing them with Shediac and Cape Tormentine, which I understand is happening."
The new council will be officially sworn in during a ceremony on Thursday evening (May 22) at 7 p.m. at the Tantramar Veterans' Memorial Civic Centre. Everyone is welcome to attend.
The first regular meeting of the new council will be held June 9 in the town council chambers where a new deputy mayor will be elected by his or her peers. Estabrooks will also announce the appointment of the liaison councillors as well as which members will sit on the various committees.
Estabrooks said that she is looking forward to getting down to business.
"I think we've got an excellent team. We've got a little bit of the old and new and we've got some quality people. So there shouldn't be any problem at all to keep us on track and keep going . . . I just think it'll be an enjoyable time for us all and I'm looking forward to it."
Within the next few months, Estabrooks said she also hopes to sit down with the new council for a strategic planning session - to determine which projects they would like to see pursued, their vision for Sackville over the next two or three years, and "how we're going to get there."
"I think we need to do that and I think we need to do it early in the session," she said.
She said this new plan will not be one that'll be "cast in stone" but will simply serve as a guide as the new council moves ahead.
"I think it's just a plan that you work from and if you have to make changes, then that's what you do . . . to me, a plan is a guide that you work by and then you decide if that's what you're going to do in 2009 or if there's something more urgent that requires the money and that sort of thing."