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Get there fast & take it slow Ernest Hemingway spent a lot of his time in the Florida Keys and so should you page 18
A sweeping success Paul Flemming looking to rock the Brier house in Edmonton
halifax
page 24
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 News worth sharing.
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Interim 3-way cost-sharing plan approved Stormwater funding. Communities hardest hit by flooding to get new storm sewers
Estimated costs • $10,000-$30,000: esti-
mated cost of LIC per property
• $5,000-$10,000:
Neptune digs deep Gil Garratt as Neil Currie and Francine Deschepper as Margaret MacNeil perform a scene from Neptune Theatre’s production of The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum. The play premiers on Friday night. Story, page 4. Jeff Harper/Metro
Sex sting leads to five arrests
Tourists die in hot-air balloon
Men allegedly agreed to pay for sex from a cop posing as a 16-year-old girl online page 3
At least 19 people floating above Egypt were killed when their balloon caught fire page 8
An interim plan to address flooding in HRM has been approved by the closest of votes at Halifax regional council, after a robust debate Tuesday over how to split the bill. The Stormwater Infrastructure Funding Interim Solution will provide deep-water storm sewers to communities facing flooding on a regular basis, with the bill split evenly between residents, HRM and the Halifax Regional Water Commission. Residents would pay with a Local Improvement Charge (LIC), and several councillors said that unfairly penalizes homeowners for a problem they didn’t cause and don’t always suffer from. “In the Cow Bay area, HRM would see 94 homes billed ap-
estimated hookup cost
proximately $10,000 each by local improvement charges,” said Coun. Bill Karsten. “Only 20 homes of those 94 who are actually being flooded would benefit.” Karsten suggested HRM should cover the residents’ share, but that raised more arguments about fairness. Coun. Tim Outhit noted residents of the MonarchRivendale subdivision in Fall River had to take on an LIC for central water service when wells ran dry — and Coun. Barry Dalrymple said they’d have jumped at a three-way cost share. “They would have been ecstatic,” he said. “They asked
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HRM and the province to partner one-third with them … and both HRM and the province bailed on them.” Dalrymple added the vote for the LIC was 80 per cent in favour — despite only about one-third of families needing water service. Halifax Water general manager Carl Yates told council that splitting the cost only two ways would slow down implementation of the new infrastructure. Coun. Brad Johns also pointed out that residents have always been asked to cost-share for water and sewer extensions. “So what we’re being asked to do is the exact same thing now, except with stormwater,” he said. Council eventually approved the three-way cost sharing by a vote of 9-8. That formula will remain in place for two years while city staff develop a five-year capital plan for stormwater management, with recommendations for permanent funding solutions. Ruth Davenport/Metro
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