Committee wants to form rural community outside Fredericton

A steering committee is trying to form a York Countyrural community made up of Keswick Ridge, Bright, Kingsclear, Queensbury, and Douglas.

"We're responding to a couple of things, issues in the areas that our partnering local service districts are affected by in the upcoming years," said the committee's vice-chair Debbie Peck. The committee got together in March to begin planning.

One considerationis what could happen with the Mactaquac dam. NB Power currently has four options on the table about itsfuture, one of which isthe removal of the dam.

"We learned that there's a real potential for the river crossing at the Mactaquac dam area to be removed, and that will greatly affect residents in all of our areas," said Peck.

Peck saidthat if these local service districts got together as one rural community, they would be able to do a better job voicing their concerns to the government.

"With a rural community there would be a mayor and councillors elected from all of the areas of the rural community to collectively have a voice in matters that affect residents of the area," said Peck.

"We would have a voice in decisions that affect the residents of our areas that we certainly do not have as a local service district."

Support at public meetings

Peck says they've had strong support from members of the communities. The steering committee has heldeight public meetings to tell people about their plans.

The committee is currently collecting signatures on a petition to present to the provincial governmenttoshowcommunity support forthe idea. They hope thatwould lead to a feasibility study.

So far they have 150 signatures, andtheir goal is to collect 500 signatures by the end of September.

Peck saidthey've been able to draw inspiration fromHanwell, whichrecently became arural community.

"That's very helpful to us because their experience is so recent," said Peck. She saidshe has talked to people in Hanwell to get advice on the process.

Peck saidthey're hoping to have the community incorporated by spring of 2018.