ARICHAT - Rising costs for Isle Madame sidewalk improvements and mobility-enhancing facilities at a popular local beach have raised eyebrows around the Richmond Municipal Council table and resulted in the sidewalk project getting shelved for the coming year. 

The municipality's latest regular monthly meeting at the county's municipal headquarters in Arichat resulted in a 3-1 vote to refer a sidewalk extension to the current round of budget talks, with the understanding that this move would scuttle the project for the coming year. The vote took place after an initial cost estimate of $155,000 for the project jumped to a new price tag of $277,000 as the result of tenders received for the endeavour. 

The lone councillor to vote in favour of proceeding with the Arichat sidewalk extension, District One councillor Shawn Samson, was one of several municipal representatives to express disappointment that the province's Francophone school board, the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP), turned down a request to contribute to the cost of the extension, given that it would have provided a new entrance-exit point for the CSAP-run Ecole Beau-Port. The school is located just up the hill from the Richmond Municipal Building and would have been one of the prime beneficiaries of the sidewalk extension, which would begin at Highway 204, commonly known among Arichat residents as "The High Road."

In the meantime, council has voted in favour of proceeding with a series of upgrades at Point Michaud Provincial Beach in eastern Richmond County, despite the fact that the price of installing new facilities designed to increase accessibility at the beach took a sharp jump over the past two months alone. District Two councillor Michael Diggdon suggested that council may wish to wait to see if the cost of building materials for the project drops, but he still supported the Point Michaud development when it officially came up to a vote late in the April 25 council meeting. 

The meeting also saw Richmond councillors voting unanimously in favour of a rezoning strategy for western Richmond County that will make it easier for individual green hydrogen projects to crop up in the area near the Landrie Lake reservoir, which supplies water for residential and commercial customers in the Town of Port Hawkesbury as well as heavy industries situated in the nearby Richmond County community of Point Tupper.