Community Development

The Parks, Recreation and Culture Commission provides community development services to more than 130 groups in the community. This type of service could include providing relevant information, networking with other like agencies, workshops, training programs and equipment loaned, to name a few. In addition, the department works extensively with identified needs in the community to try to find solutions to facilitate these growing demands for community servicing. This has included active participation in the establishment of festivals for the community, active participation in the development of a family resource centre and subsequent friends of the family resource centre, and a seniors information line association to name a few. This is very much of an ongoing process as needs are identified in the community, and people try to come together to create enhanced services in our community.

Another community development area in which the department has been active is the coordinating of the gypsy moth control program for the Town of Bridgewater. Efforts have been made over the years to partner with Bridgewater High School, Department of Natural Resources, the Christmas Tree Producers Association, the Nova Scotia Community College Forestry Class, and others interested in controlling the gypsy moth. This moth poses a threat to our community as we have many tree lined streets and are also a shipping area for the Christmas Tree industry that is prevalent in Lunenburg County.

To support this initiative the understanding of the gypsy moth life cycle and an egg mass search has been built into the curriculum of the Grade 10 honours science program in the high school and all students in grades 10 and 12 science program actively participate in hands-on science in the community by searching for the gypsy moth egg masses. The efforts by this group of people coming together have not gone unnoticed in our community. There has been strong public education, public calling the office trying to identify that they have this moth in their site. Agriculture Canada, together with the Department of Natural Resources has been pleased with the control program that has been undertaken in the community that has minimized regulation throughout Lunenburg County.