Media Releases

Tidbits from Amherst town council’s December sessions

Amherst is coming to the aid of the Cumberland County Transportation Services Society.

At its regular council session on Dec. 18, Amherst town council approved a $5,000, one-time grant that will help the society purchase a bus that will be used to provide door-to-door service to clients who have doctor and other appointments.

The society recently saw its fleet of vehicles reduced to three from five.

United Way gets $1,000 grant from Town of Amherst 

Council approved a $1,000 grant to the United Way of Cumberland County in support of the United Way’s Festival of Trees.

The festival was held in November and the approval of the grant was a formal ratification of a decision made earlier to support the event.

Town looking for IT manager 

The town is looking for a full-time, on-site IT manager. Currently, the town’s information technology infrastructure is being monitored off-site by ADS Technologies Ltd. of Halifax and Moncton.

The outside service was implemented as an emergency stop-gap a couple of years ago when the town’s former IT manager departed. While the arrangement has worked well, staff felt it did not address the overall management of the IT function in terms of long-term planning and budgeting for network and hardware-software maintenance and replacement.

Staff also felt the move would also create local employment.

Council agreed and approved the search for a new IT manager.

Off-leash dog park pilot project underway

The off-leash dog park pilot project at the Robb Centennial Complex has begun, and council has ratified its informal decision to have the project end on April 30.

Users of the dog park are encouraged to provide feedback to the town at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by completing the survey that can be found at www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y8KYGWP.

Amherst Youth Town Council to hold movie night 

The youth town council will hold a family movie night on Dec. 21 at the Community Credit Union Business and Innovation Centre.

Featured flicks are A Charlie Brown Christmas and Home Alone.

The event begins at 6 p.m.

Electronic Voting 

Council, at its December committee of the whole meeting, directed staff to proceed with developing a bylaw that would enable the use of electronic voting during the 2020 municipal election.

The direction indicated that electronic voting would be used for the advanced polls only, and paper ballots would be used on election day.