SEPTEMBER
September 15: After years of planning, Pictou County finally had its first cruise ship dock in Pictou harbour. Tourists from the Saga Quest milled around the Town of Pictou and the county for a day before docking their ship and sailing off into the sunset. Early reviews were positive for the cruise line committee that worked out every detail for cruise ship’s welcoming.
September 19: Some things are irreplaceable. Just ask Donna Peart who had a sign especially made for late husband Bill by a student in one of his classes. Obviously someone had a change of heart because Peart found the sign placed at the end of driveway about a month after she reported it stolen.
September 24: Rain, rain, go away. This is a lyric Pictou County residents were saying over and over again when rainwaters caused major damage along roadways in the county this past fall. Roads were washed out, culverts overflowed and transportation crews were working overtime to repair the damage.
OCTOBER
October 2: A 77-year-old New Glasgow woman dubbed the “Internet Black Widow” was arrested by police and charged with attempting to murder her husband. Melissa Shepard made her first court appearance in Sydney the next day and has been remanded into custody until her trial on June 10 on the charges. Twelve days have been set aside for the case that captured national headlines.
October 4: Harry Fraser was honoured by the Nova Scotia government with a bravery award for his efforts to save a neighbor from house fire. The Trenton resident rushed into the home in February 2009 after a neighbour re-entered the burning building to retrieve her dog. Neither Fraser nor the neighbour were injured in the fire.
October 10: A monument dedicated in honour of a 19-year-old Pictou County girl who has become known as “Pictou County’s Angel” was unveiled along the Samson Trail. Community members had come together to resurrect the monument in honour of Amber Kirwan whose remains were found in Heathbell in November 2011. The monument is named after Kirwan, but is dedicated to everyone who has died at the hands of violence.
October 17: Residents of Black Point were getting anxious to have a washed-up minke whale and its calf removed from their beach, but the municipality had to first figure out how to properly dispose of it. Residents opposed the municipalities plan to bury the whale on the beach so it was transported to a local landfill and ground up for compost.
October 18: We cover car accidents on a regular basis, but few of them involve expensive sports cars. This one occurred on Westville road when the driver of a Maserati allegedly slammed into a half-ton truck. The driver of the truck was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries while the Maserati driver will return to court this month on charges of impaired driving.
October 19: Sometimes you wonder if you really hear things right. A quiet afternoon in the newsroom quickly shifted to chaos when a call came over our scanner that there was a naked woman swimming in the East River. Fire, police and ambulance workers were quick to respond and quickly removed the woman from the river and transported her to the Aberdeen Hospital.
October 22: Little change came to Pictou County during the 2012 municipal elections. The county’s four mayors were re-elected, one by acclamation, and Warden Ron Baillie returned to his post after retaining his council seat. There are a few more woman in council chambers across the county this term, but for the most part, a large number of the same councillors who re-offered were given another shot at municipal politics.
October 30: When we heard The Bounty had sunk during a hurricane, we knew someone in Pictou County had to have had ties to the ship. Our search led us to Walter MacKay of Caribou who worked on the ship for short period of time as well Elwin Hemphill, whose brother held a senior role on the vessel. Both relived their stories and talked about the ship that had actually docked in Pictou this past summer as part of the Tall Ships festival.
