STRAIT AREA - Two Strait Area towns are gearing up for a busy summer, exactly three months after Nova Scotia dropped all restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The first of two feature interviews on this week's TELILE 24/7 features Port Hawkesbury's Director of Marketing, Recreation, Tourism and Culture, Michelle Farrow. Her first anniversary on the job coincides with the re-launch of two traditional summer events that the town had shut down during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the week-long Festival of the Strait in late June and early July, and the six-week Sunday evening concert series known as Granville Green, with the free music event rebranded this year as "Granville Green Resurgence."

Farrow, who has overseen several successful spring events and recreation programs at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre and other town facilities, is also preparing to re-launch the town's summer recreation programs for children and teenagers, while booking standalone events well into the Christmas season. 

Across the Canso Causeway in the Town of Mulgrave, first-term town councillor Krista Luddington is also enthusiastic about summer events that are returning to her town after a three-year hiatus. These include the 40th anniversary of Mulgrave's traditional Scotia Days Festival in July, an expanded version of the Market By The Sea, and a revamped summer concert series at the outdoor stage in McNair's Cove Park that will include performers from across Nova Scotia. 

In the meantime, Luddington and her town council colleagues are working with the Mulgrave and Area Revitalization Committee to set u new commercial buildings along the Mulgrave boardwalk as part of the "Shops of McNair's Cove" initiative. This comes on the heels of town council's recent approval of its 2022-23 municipal budget, which does not include increases in the residential and commercial tax rates, a move that Luddington would have considered "unfair" in the wake of recent rises in groceries, gasoline and other essential services. 

Also this week on TELILE 24/7, we examine two recent items from Richmond Municipal Council's June 13 Committee of the Whole meeting. These include an announcement from Develop Nova Scotia that only 93 Richmond County residents will be without broadband internet coverage as of 2023 due to the province's efforts to improve wireless internet service across the county, and a push by District Two Councillor Michael Diggdon to consider a municipal purchase of land near the Babin's Hill Look-Off in Arichat to expand the available for space driven by those who wish to enjoy the views overlooking Arichat Harbour and the Atlantic Ocean.