A&T Countryside Realty Inc. 2244 Route 774 140 Water Street Wilson’s Beach St Andrews, Suite A Waterview 3 Bedroom Home Commercial Suite On Campobello Island Perfect For Your New MLS#NB025242 Or Existing Business MLS#NB041129 Ken MacTavish | 1-506-321.0859 NEW PRICE $995/month [email protected] https://ken-mactavish.c21.ca/ $160,000 184373 Call me for all of your advertising needs Matt Stewart Marketing Advisor TEL 506-466-3220 EXT 1302 Cell 506-321-1464 Fax 506-466-9950 [email protected] Tuesday, July 21, 2020 stcroixcourier.ca Volume 154, Issue 29 185418 CertainTeed to close its doors in August McAdam’s largest employer to cease operation pany’s going to be working closely with By Sari Green all employees to assist with job counsel- ling and job opportunities at other Cer- Student wins award MCADAM tainTeed plants. We’ll try and get a meet- The Village of McAdam was informed ing with Premier Higgs and his staff to Pg. 2 Thursday, July 16 CertainTeed Canada, see where we go from here.” Inc., McAdam’s largest employer, will be A statement on Facebook, council called closing its doors in August, with perma- the news “devastating for the community, nent closure to be offi cial by February, but even more so for the 59 employees at 2021. The closure came as a surprise to the CertainTeed plant”, as well as employ- Mayor Ken Stannix and the village coun- ees of service companies that also rely on cil, and they are in the process of trying the plant for work. to arrange a meeting with Premier Higgs “Roughly two thirds of employees af- and his staff to see where they can go from fected reside in McAdam while the re- here. And the closure won’t only impact maining third reside in Fredericton, Har- residents in McAdam, as employees hail vey, and St. Stephen,” the statement read. from all over southern New Brunswick. “Our hearts go out to all of you and your “It’ll have a pretty signifi cant impact on families during this time of uncertainty. the Village,” said Stannix. “Certainly, it’s We have notifi ed government offi cials Do you have your permit? been pretty devastating news to us this Submitted photo and will be requesting a meeting with morning when we received that from Cer- CertainTeed in McAdam announced last week it would Premier Higgs and his staff to discuss the Pg. 3 tainTeed. The details on that is they’re be permanently closing its doors, resulting in a loss of 59 CertainTeed closure and together develop going to cease production on the 28th of jobs in the region. a strategy going forward to minimize neg- August, and then the plant will be perma- ative impacts of this closure on the mem- nently closed by 28 February 2021. bers of our community affected directly “That’s going to directly impact 59 em- ing and other employment opportunities and the village as a whole. We are all in ployees at the CertainTeed plant. Roughly within the company. this together and together we will get two thirds of the employees affected re- “We recognize the impact the plant clo- through this.” side in McAdam, while the remaining sure will have on employees, their fami- On Friday, July 17, Stannix and coun- third reside in Fredericton, Harvey, and lies and the McAdam community. We’re cil met with provincial government rep- St. Stephen. So, it’s not just McAdam. committed to working closely with all resentatives, including Trevor Holder, It’s southwest New Brunswick that’s ad- employees to provide support and many minister of post secondary education, versely affected.” resources such as career counseling and training, and labour; Andrea Anderson- Director of Branding and Commu- identifying job opportunities at other Mason, minister of justice, attorney nications for CertainTeed, Dina Silver CertainTeed and Saint-Gobain plants, as general and minister responsible for the Meet the nominees Pokedoff said in an email that following well as those external to the company,” Regional Development Corporation; Dan an “extensive review” of the company, said Silver Pokedoff. Mills, deputy minister of labour; Sadie Pg. 5 the diffi cult decision to close the gypsum Stannix said council reached out to the Perron, chief executive offi cer deputy wallboard manufacturing plant in Mc- company, and received a quick response minister economic development and Adam was made. She said CertainTeed explaining this closure is based primar- small business; Robert Bowman, Certain- have had to re-evaluate their plant net- ily on poor market conditions. The plant Teed plant manager; and many other gov- $1.33 +TAX work, and make changes to will ensure is currently working at 22 to 25 percent of ernment representatives. future success of the company. This in- its capacity, and the company is unable to The purpose of the meeting was held to cludes a continued commitment to the continue operations based on those num- determine the best ways to assist and sup- Atlantic Region. bers. The village council is reaching out port the employees who will be laid off. A In her email, Silver Pokedoff said the to MLA’s and Premier Higgs for advice on transition team, consisting of represen- company is not going to leave employees this situation. out in the cold, and CertainTeed will do “It’s pretty rugged news I’ll tell you for what it can to assist with career counsel- this community,” said Stannix. “The com- Continued on page 3 Wake Up to the Importance of Your Local Newspaper As your local newspaper, we report on the news and events affecting your life and the world around you. Doing our part to keep the community connected and the public informed is ingrained in our mission, and your support is essential to this work. We invite you to subscribe today and start making every day an opportunity to be engaged, aware and a partner in our communities. The Saint Croix Courier 506.466.3220 | www.saintcroixcourier.ca 184756 2 | JULY 21, 2020 NEWS Local middle school student wins regional and federal awards for science project the University of New Brunswick asked if she could By Sari Green include his research on her own website. She asked for his photo, and permission to use his work. ST. STEPHEN Russell’s first test involved comparing exercises You might remember hearing about Sawyer Russell with and without using a thought process, and the re- last year after he won a science fair with his project action times in both instances. He gave an example of about hand/eye coordination. Well, he is still work- a test, and said to imagine catching a ball, and then to ing at it, and has received both regional and federal imaging catching a ball that has numbers or letters awards for his research. Russell said his project has written on it and having to say those numbers and let- been three years in the making. As a hockey and soc- ters before catching, and how this affects the reaction cer goalie, he was naturally drawn to learning more time. This is a project that required a fair amount of about hand/eye coordination. After watching a video time. In the second year of his research, he expanded about the benefits of using a thought process along We offerand improved many on thetypes study, and of discovered that these with the physical actions, he decided to conduct his skills are totally independent of one another. He also first test on vision training. Not only did the 14-year- discovered something to add to his project, which is old win a school science fair while attending St. Ste- Submitted photo how these exercises can improve peripheral vision, phen Middle School, he also tied for first place for a Sawyer Russell has received numerous accolades for his St. Stephen something he had not previously considered. regional award, and has received national honours for Middle School science fair project about hand/eye coordination. He said “This year, I had all that research,” said Russell. his research and the creation of an app that supports over the course of three years’ worth of science fairs, he has come up with “Basically, through trial and error, I found that add- his research. He plans to continue working on his research that shows the correlation between hand/eye coordinationPRINT and ing a thought process to exercise opens a whole new research, and is heading into Grade 9 at St. Stephen the thought process behind it. For his efforts, his work is being published can of worms. You can train one way through without High School this year. by a UNB scientist, and he has received regional and federal awards. a thought process, and it will improve reaction speed. Russell received a regional award from Make Proj- If you train with the thought process, it’s not the same ects, which is through Youth Sciences Canada. He eye coordination. My results were really inconclusive. type of training. It’s a completely different skill. It’s also received honours through Atlantic Health Explo- It was a lot, so I decided to redo it theSERVICES next year where important to train in both, because can train in one ration and Discovery. This organization was looking I had better testing and more participants.Newspapers I really but |you’re Magazines not necessarily good| Flyers at the other.” for health-related science fair projects, and was given crunched down the variables that time. I won silver in Russell said he started out with the idea of jug- Russell’s name.