Hantsport - a limited village

Should Hantsport become a "limited services" Village? 

Letter given to Hantsport Council, Committee of the Whole, Jan. 20, 2015

Last Spring, we all gathered in the Fire Hall to talk with the Utility Review

Board about an important part of our future together: Town or not, and if

not, what?

One idea that floated onto the table was a good ole Nova Scotia idea:

village.The Public Utility Board promised that that idea would be taken

seriously. Hantsport citizens then asked the Town to take it seriously and

the Council agreed. And so it became a key part of the Grant Thornton

Report. Hantsport as a Village: good idea or not?

Grant Thornton knew that Hantsport had operated very well as a Town for

over a century, and that "those who like it like it a lot." For the most part,

Hantsportians newcomers and old-timers alike, they like their town.

Grant Thornton also knew that, unless the current rules of the game were

changed, we probably could not afford to remain a Town. And when they

were hired by the Town to crunch the numbers, they were expressly directed

to look at the village idea.

And they did. And they took their job seriously. They listed the elements

of a "village" -- which is what you have to do before you can figure out the

costs. This is what would be involved, and this is what it would cost.

Knowing how much we liked being a Town, they imagined Hantsport as a

Village which is "almost a town." So, for example, the community would

keep the existing Town Hall ,which would become the Village Hall . And, as

a village, we would keep doing most of the things that a Town would do.

Unfortunately, it turns out that a "Village which is almost a Town"also costs

almost as much as a Town. So when the costs came in, they were like a

torpedo amidships to the 'village idea'. It just faded away, into the sunset .

I go to church in the Village of Canning. While there, I recently learned that

Canning's residential Village rate (including the fire rate) was 40 cents per

hundred. This caught my attention, since it was much lower than the

projected village rate for Hantsport. Why?I wondered; Canning is bigger

than Hantsport. So I asked for a copy of the Village budget. And the

answer is easy to see: they don't do "most of the things that a town can do."

They do just a handful of things. They are a different type of a village: call

it a 'small scale', or a 'limited services' village.

This prompted me to examine the budgets of a half-dozen villages, and talk

to their Clerks.What I quickly learned is that, quite unlike being clones of a

town, they are literally"all over the map." VARIETY is the order of the day

in Nova Scotia villages. They do very different things, and they do them in

very different ways. Some have 3 commissioners, some have 5. In some

(e.g. Weymouth), the commissioners serve a s volunteers; in others they get

a small stipend. Port Williams does a library. Weymouth, instead does a

medical clinic. Port Williams does water and sewers. Canning does water;

but not sewers (the County does the sewers). There is probably a village

out there that does neither water nor sewers! Some do sidewalks, others

do not. Some do snow removal, others do not. Some do streetlights,

others do not. And on and on it goes.

Interestingly most do fire departments. But here is what is really

interesting. Take Canning and Port Williams. It's their fire department;

they own the building; they run the department . BUT the country pays ALL

the operational costs! Why, because the county does not WANT to run a fire

department. They are delighted to have the village run it! And so are the

folks in Canning.

The bottom line is this: there is no fixed "recipe" for a village in N.S.

You can be a village to do just one thing. Or just two. Or just three.

Canning picked its things, Port Williams picked its things- - - and Hantsport

could pick its things. We could become a village to do just one thing:

secure the future of the new library. Or.... to secure the future of HMCC.

Which always has and probably always will, need some sort of municipal

support grant. As a village, the people of Hantsport could ensure that

support for the future. Or . . . .we could become a village to do both.

RecentlyI talked to a man who has moved here from away. He wanted to

find a home for his family within a hour's drive of Halifax. He drove all

around and eventually drove into Hantsport. The first thing he saw was the

Great Hantsport Park. The second thing he saw was the School. The third

thing he saw was a Church of his denomination. Check, check, check. The

next day -- literally -- he and his family decided to move here. I have

heard many stories like that. People who live here -- and people who move

here -- they know what is unique about Hantsport. What is special. That is

why they come, and that is why they stay.

No matter what happens, all of us want the same thing: we want to keep the

things that make Hantsport special, that make Hantsport unique, that make

this community an absolutely great place to live. The question is : How to

make that happen? One vehicle for making that happen might be. . . .

Hantsport as a 'small scale, limited services' village. "

Last night about a dozen of us met in the Anglican Church basement to talk

about this. We all agreed on this point: there are three things here that

we really, really want to preserve, and that we are sure almost every living

soul in Hantsport wants to preserve.
(1) The Fire Department
(2) The Great HMCC Park
( 3) The Hantsport Library.
Without them, Hantsport would just not be Hantsport. We think that one good way to secure their

future is for Hantsport to become a village which does those three things! Not "everything a Town does." Three things.That model of "small scale" village presents a distinct alternative to the

"Village that is almost a Town"model that has already been studied by Grant Thornton. This alternative has not yet been studied. But we think it has merit, and is worth a serious look.

I am asking you to do two things:( 1) think about it ; (2) meanwhile forward

this note to the Transition Team, and ask them to think about it too.

In the meantime, we are trying to do two things: First, using the factual

base of past Town spending, we are calculating what it would cost a Village

of Hantsport to do these 3 things: secure the Fire Department, secure

HMCC, and secure the new Library. Second, we are making up a chart

which will compare 7 or 8 villages roughly the same size as Hantsport, to

determine how they run their villages, what services they provide, and what

it costs them to do that, again based on budgets & financial statements from

those villages. In other words, we will be working from hard data, not just

from 'guesstimates.'

We hope to bring you results within 10 days.

Respectfully,

Joe Foy, 16 William Street, Hantsport