Power Is Back For Many, 400 Still Without

Power is back for a lot more people in the region today.

NB Power reporting just over 400 people in Rothesay and Quispamsis are without juice, that's a very different number from the 5,000 in the dark yesterday.

The power company says they've hired extra crews and been working around the clock to fix up power lines since Thursday's storm, restoring over 100,000 homes. They say restoration will still be ongoing until tonight.

To get the latest update, click here.

Blankets To Help The Homeless

Warmth is coming to those who need it most.

Bee Green Removal's "Blanket Of Hope" has spent the past month collecting over 30 blankets for the homeless in Saint John. Organizer Brandi Green tells Tide news that's double the amount of blankets they collected last year.

They'll drive out with the Romero Mobile Unit tomorrow at 7pm to pass out the blankets.

Green says both her and fiance knew what it was like to live on the streets, and a warm blanket is a tremendous help.

Basketball Popularity Growing In Saint John

The popularity of basketball in Saint John has grown an incredible amount over the past 3 years.

That's according to David Cooper, coach of the Saint John Mill Rats. He says local kids are being scouted and getting full scholarships to play in Canada and the United States. Cooper calls it an exciting time, where there's a lot of chances for kids as young as 14 to play in showcases across the states. He says Saint John will always be a hockey town, but basketball gives kids another popular option.

Mill Rats GM Ian McCarthy adds a lot of people who never thought they were basketball fans have become one after they see a live game.

Pat McCaffrey Will Not Run For Ward 3 Councillor Spot

With a spot for a Ward 3 Councillor on the horseshoe in Saint John open and a by-election set for spring, many people are curious if previous candidates will run again.

Pat McCaffrey, the runner-up to current Ward 3 Councillor Donna Reardon and former Councillor Donnie Snook, tells Tide news he will not be seeking a seat on Council.

McCaffrey, who's retired from the Canadian Forces, says he believes Common Council is already doing a tremendous job and he doesn't believe he can offer anything that would be better than what they're doing. He says this Council has tackled many big issues that concerned him, like dealing with the pension plan in their first year and setting priorities like roads and water.

He's says they're on the right path, disciplined, have a vision and are all showing great leadership. McCaffrey feels Saint John has a great future in their hands.

Chris Belyea, another past candidate who followed McCaffrey in votes, hasn't yet decided if he'll run this year. Other candidates who ran in Ward 3 last year include Albert Vincent, Graeme Robinson, and Allan Leslie.

Year 2 For Feburary Fork Off Starts Tomorrow

The 2nd annual February Fork Off begins tomorrow with more than 20 uptown restaurants and eateries taking part.

Saint John's winter restaurant week is your chance to sample the fare of many uptown eateries in a $30 dinner, $20 lunch or $10 Fork plate.

Paula Radwan of the Taste of Egypt tells Tide News when they first opened last fall things were a little slow.

She says Saint John is a little conservative and this in a new cuisine for a lot of people but once people try it and like it they are very loyal people.

For more info on Uptown Saint John's February Fork Off which runs the 4th to the 10th, click here

City Lawyer Named To The Bench

Saint John lawyer Marco Cloutier has been named to the provincial bench.      

Justice Minister and Attorney General Marie-Claude Blais announcing today Cloutier will join Judge Andrew LeMesurier and Judge Henrik Tonning as full-time provincial court judges here in Saint John.

Blais says Cloutier's appointment will ensure the timely management of court cases.

Cloutier has been a lawyer in this province since 1998 and has written extensively in both English and French.

In 2010, he was recognized by Lexpert as one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 leading lawyers.

Pension Board Will Have No Restrictions On Travel

Saint John Common Council doing an about face at a special meeting on the new shared risk pension plan.

Mayor Mel Norton says Council will not be imposing any travel restrictions on the new pension board so that the Saint John plan is in line with the other provincial plans.

Norton is confident the new trustees, whom he describes as of the highest calibre, will act in a responsible manner when deciding on travel costs. He adds no matter what happens with the pension plan from now on, the city's contributions will not go up.

Only Councillor Susan Fullerton voted against.

Storm Keeps Fire Crews Busy

KV & City fire crews keeping busy cleaning up the storm's path.

The high winds and rain caused downed wires, flooded basements, wind damage and fire alarms going off across Greater Saint John. Bayside Drive was closed after 4 broken poles were discovered.

There were more than 20 requests for service during the height of the storm.

Over 5,000 People Still Without Power

People are still without power in many parts of the region.

In Rothesay & Quispamsis, over 2,600 people are still without electricity. In Sussex, more than 3,400 without juice.





Only 6 people in St. Stephen are without.

Saint John Energy is not reporting any outages on their website.

A Dozen People Warm Up At Qplex

About a dozen people, including a family of 4, taking shelter at the Qplex in Quispamsis overnight.

The town is offering the centre as a warm spot for residents without power to stay.

Aaron Kennedy from the Qplex says there's just short of a 1,000 people without power and the traffic lights are out by the Esso/Tim Hortons at Exit 141.

The Qplex will still be taking in residents until 5pm tonight. At that time they'll check on the power status with NB Power.

Wind Storm Hits Saint John Hard

A wild day of wind and rain have been incredibly destructive in the Port City.

The causeway is closed to traffic Eastbound because of high water and Bayside Drive is closed from the Causeway to Redhead Road due to downed power lines.
The Chipman Hill Pedway has now reopened as the windows have been secured. Large glass planes were dangerously close to coming out of the pedway and falling onto to Chipman Hill.

NB Power is reporting more than 33,000 customers are without power in the rain and wind storm. Over 8600 in impacted in Darlings Island, Quispam, Rothesay, Hampton and the Peninsula. Major outages are also reported in Sussex and St. Stephen and Moncton.

Saint John Energy is dealing with numerous broken poles and wires down and expect that work to continue until tonight.

City police telling Tide News the Redhead dyke is now closed due to the high water.
High surf is reported at Saint's Rest today.

Lancaster Avenue is blocked to traffic at Simms Corner after a power pole came down.
The storm leading to cancelled and delayed flights at the Saint John Airport.

Legion Ownership Was A Question Of Ethics

The deed is done.
However,  many residents are asking why the Town of St. Stephen is giving the old Milltown Legion building to the Legion members, when the Legion plans on selling the building to the St. Croix Christian Centre.

St. Stephen Town Manager John Ferguson tells Tide News, "Research of the deeds found that when the previous legion building burnt down in 1965, it led to the construction of a new legion building being built on Town property. But the legion that was built, was actually built by the legion members, and paid for and constructed by the legion members."

Ferguson tells us it was a question of ethics. He says, "The ethical route that Council took in this matter was to say, 'Do we believe this should belong to the Legion?' They determined whether or not they could own property, they found out that they could, and Council is basically deeding the property to them to do with what they wish."

High Winds Cause Havoc For Charlotte County

The high winds are wreaking havoc for NB Power crews who are busy with downed poles, wires and power outages.

Currently, NB Power's website says there are 3385 people without juice in Charlotte County.
The hardest hit area in Charlotte County is the Dufferin area outside of St. Stephen with 884 without power.

We have several tips to our 466-2222 News Line of a large spruce tree, approximately 50 feet long, that has toppled over power lines and is covering 3/4 of the road in Chamcook. The tree is positioned by the Clamdigger Take-out and NB Power crews have surrounded the tree with pylons until they are able to take care of the issue.

Every area from St. Stephen through to St. Andrews and Bayside, clear to St. George and surrounding areas has been affected by power outages.

Vocational Centre Needs Help!

Anything and Everything -- we just need donations.

That word coming from the St. Croix Vocational Centre in St. Stephen, who are left with only a small table of items used to support their organization.

Manager Tammy Parks tells Tide News their clients work sorting through clothes, books, and household items, as well as in the Wood & Wardrobe Thrift Store. She says, "It's kind of like a never-ending circle because the items people purchase helps the customers but they also help us because we have to make a certain amount of our own money in order to keep our organization going. The government funds us a portion, but they don't fund us completely."







Parks tells Tide News when it comes to people giving donations -- they're not fussy. "We sell clothing, men's, women's, children's, infants, we sell furniture, appliances, books, jewelery, you name it, we sell it. There is a corner for everything in this store."

The Vocational Centre serves intellectually disabled adults in Charlotte County, teaching them many things like literacy, life skills, and work ethics. Parks says donations are sorted, sold at the Wood & Wardrobe Thrift Store, and in turn, creates revenue to fund the program.

Parks says donations can be dropped off at 129 Union Street, and they are also willing to pick up any donations as far away as St. Andrews.
To contact the Vocational Centre call 466-4977.
(In Picture Kevin Clark and Bobby Clarke standing infront of what is left of their dwindling pile of donations.)

NBCC States Case To Council Over Donation To Kids Carnival

"It's a community engagement piece, not a way to fanaggle money."

That word from NBCC Student Life Coordinator Justin Sweeney while defending the 5th Annual Kids Winter Carnival to St. Stephen Town Council. The debate over a $200 donation brought Sweeney to Council Chambers last night (Monday) to clarify a few things reported elsewhere by local media.


Sweeney says, "The mention of fundraising and trying to raise funds for ourselves and things of that nature, I felt that was very innacurate, I felt that was where the misperception was." Sweeney tells Tide News he wants to clarify the event is not a fundraiser, infact, NBCC is in the hole around $1600 from the past 4 years. "People ask, and we'll say, 'Yeah, It was a huge success!' and for us, we measure success in the number of kids who attend the event, the fact that they have never had any injuries, and the only time we tend to see a kid upset is when their parents say it's time to go, so I mean, to us, that's the major success."

After Sweeney stated his case, St. Stephen Town Council voted 4-2 in favor of the $200 donation.

The 5th Annual Kids Winter Carnival will take place next Saturday, Feb 9th, at NBCC, from 10-6pm.

Charlotte County Residents Helping Local Fundraisers

Local communities were in the giving spirit this weekend.

The Tide's 11th Annual Marathon Food Drive held Friday and Saturday at the Atlantic Superstore in St. Stephen raising 1109 pounds of food along with $566 in cash donations for our local foodbank, the Volunteer Center of Charlotte County.

Meanwhile, Saturday night the Charlotte County Crime Stoppers held their annual community hockey game at the Fundy Arena in Black Harbour.
Locals saw Team 911 beat the Funday High School Alumni 14-9.



The fundraising game raised $1400 for Charlotte County Crime Stoppers.

Buildings Torn Down, Cause Still Unknown

The two buildings on Mecklenburg that received the most fire damage are being torn down today.

The Divisional Chief for Fire Prevention Mark Wilson tells Tide News they're bringing in a private contractor to bring the dilapidated and dangerous buildings down. While that's happening, investigators will be keeping a keen eye on the buildings as they continue their search for the origin of the fire. Wilson says they still don't know what started the fire, but believe it started at the rear of the vacant building.
Witnesses, first responders, and residents will all be interviewed today to help solve the mystery.
As for the frozen cars, a tow truck will move them around the corner in hopes that the sun will melt their icy casing. Wilson says there's been no other damage to the cars, that became encased after water from the fire hose froze on them.

The major fire Saturday morning fire destroyed buildings at 72 and 74 Mecklenburg street, and badly damaged another. 16 people have been displaced.

5 Busted After 4 Month Drug Investigation

Three men and 2 women, all from Saint John, busted after a four month drug investigation with police confiscating drugs with an estimated street value of more than $11,300.

City Police, the RCMP, Rothesay Regional Police and  the Canada Border Services Agency staged raids on Somerset Street, McLaren Blvd and Baxter Road along with a vehicle being searched.

Police say they seized cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills, 4 firearms, ammunition, a prohibited knife, other weapons, contraband smokes and more than $6000 in cash. 

St. Andrews Woman Helping Fire Victims In Saint John

7 kids including an unborn baby from 3 famillies are looking for everything you need to live after a devastating fire on Mecklenburg street in Saint John.

Stephanie Craig lives in St. Andrews but has an apartment on Orange street in the city and is friends with one of the fire victims.
 
She created a Facebook group in the aftermath of the blaze and has seen a tremendous outpouring of support with people offering everything school supplies to baby clothes.

She tells us she is impressed with the support was surprised to wake up this morning and see the group now has 1000 members.

Craig says they need the use of a large vehicle to transport larger items that people are offering to donate.  

To help out, you can post directly on the Mecklenburg Facebook page, click here

Fresh Start Services through the Salvation Army on Prince Edward Street.

Cannon Security on Bayside Drive above Beats and Bytes.

(photo courtesy of Brett Stevens)

Logs Smash Through Cab In Musquash Crash

Plenty of damage after a crash in Musquash last night.

Officers with the Musquash Fire Department tell Tide News a man driving a pick-up crashed his truck into a utility pole around 11pm last night (Sunday) on Route 790.
At the time, the truck was carrying logs, which crashed into the passenger side of the cab from the force of the impact.
Firefighters say they blocked traffic until NB Power crews could arrive. They tell us power and phone lines were down, including one home that had the service entrance ripped off of it.

Officials say the man was able to get out of the truck on his own and walk away from the vehicle before firefighters arrived. The man was sent to hospital to be treated.
(Pictures courtesy of Lt. Paul Poirier with the MFD)