Municipality of the County of Kings - Coronavirus Information

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic remains a serious public health threat, and the situation continues to evolve.

The Municipal Complex at 181 Coldbrook Village Park Drive, Coldbrook is open to the public.

However, the Province of Nova Scotia continues to operate under a State of Emergency and although the Municipal Complex is open, we ask the public to consider the following before coming to our worksite:

Plan your visit. In order to support appropriate physical distancing protocols, not all municipal staff are on site. If you need to speak with a specific staff person when you come the Municipal Complex, please contact them in advance to ensure they are working on site on the day you plan to visit.
Wear as mask! Effective July 31, 2020, the wearing of masks shall be mandatory for all persons in publically accessible areas of the municipal complex and municipally owned buildings. For more information on mask wearing please visit https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/masks/
Be symptom free! Please refrain from an in-person visit if you are experiencing any of the symptoms found here.
Help keep our communities healthy! When you arrive at our worksite you will see sanitation stations and way finding signage to help direct flow and support physical distancing. We ask that you comply with public health recommendations and consider wearing a mask when you visit us. If you’re unsure of what to do, just ask one of our staff. We want you to stay healthy and are happy to help!
Consider conducting your business with us remotely. We’re ready to serve you. With rare exceptions, most Municipal business can be conducted remotely. Please consider reaching out to staff to see if we can help you from a distance before deciding to work with us in person. We’re only ever a phone call or email away!

Changes to Tax Bills

MORE TIME
This year, the Municipality is spreading out the two tax bills as much as possible to provide relief for those who are out of work or facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

EXTENDED DUE DATES
The interim tax bill, issued September 1, 2020 will be due on October 31, 2020

INTEREST CHARGES
Interest charges for fiscal 2020/21 tax accounts will not be levied for the month of September and the month of October, provided that full payment is made on or before October 31, 2020.

QUESTIONS?
If you have questions about your property tax or water bills, Municipal staff can be reached through the general office at 902-678-6141 or 1-888-337-2999 or by emailing inquiry@countyofkings.ca.

Municipal Sewer

With the rapidly rising use of sanitizing and disposable wipes amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Municipality of the County of Kings reminds residents and businesses of the importance of NOT flushing wipes of any sort- including those labelled “Flushable” or “Biodegradable”.

We are already seeing impacts on our municipal sewer system due to the increase in usage of these and other products. Pump Stations are being blocked and disabled and the only way to clear the obstruction is to physically handle the pump and remove the sewer debris by hand.

This unnecessary action puts you, your home and/or business at risk of a sewer backup. It is also an avoidable and unpleasant use of resources. The Municipality of the County of Kings thanks our staff for their continued efforts in keeping municipal services and infrastructure functioning. We ask the public to please do your part and keep wipes and products of all sorts out of the sewer system.

Planning and Inspections

Our office is open to the public for in-person consultation (Inspectors, Development Officers, Planners, By-Law Enforcement), including making application, however, given the continued state of emergency, we encourage the public to contact the office prior to attending, as much of our interactions can occur without the requirement of the public attending the site. Regular, in person inspections are occurring and can be booked by phone or email, see contact information below. Staff are taking precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by wearing of masks and physical distancing being required by both staff and the public.

Permits and Subdivision applications can be applied for in-person but we continue to encourage the public to apply remotely via email, mail or the available drop box located in front of the Municipal Office. Applications for both can be found on our website here. If you have questions on what information should be included with your application, please feel free to contact us at:

Phone: 902-690-6152 for all Planning, Development, Building, Fire, Bylaw inquires. Please leave a detailed message to assist frontline staff with linking you up with the correct staff member and calls will be returned promptly during regular business hours.

Email: inspections@countyofkings.ca

We appreciate your understanding and we will do our best to accommodate all customers on a case by case basis.

Guidelines for Public Interaction with Water & Wastewater Workers

While Nova Scotia is under a declared state of emergency, the Municipality’s Water & Wastewater staff are not to enter homes while any other person(s) are inside (single unit or duplexes)

Our staff are not healthcare experts so we don’t want to ask our team to try and determine who may or may not be sick or risk unnecessary exposure.

The planned work is to be discussed over the phone or email in advance, agree for residents to come out once staff arrive, and have our staff travel directly to the area of required work as agreed to with the resident.

Municipal staff shall discuss with the resident the need to maintain social distancing before arriving on site (via phone or email)

For Multi-unit (apartments), coordination is to be made with the landlord or superintendent to have an isolated travel path arranged for requiring entry into a building.

Our staff are not to travel together in the same vehicle to a site.

Staff members working together on site are deemed to be working as essential services and are expected to maintain social distancing when possible but not to deviate from Standard Operating Procedures to complete tasks safely together.

Increases in cleaning supplies (wipes, sanitizers, soaps) have been made available for pre and post work

Grants

Grants (https://www.countyofkings.ca/grants)
Council has decided to extend the application deadline for programs closing April 1 to now close on June 1st, 2020.

Program Name	2020/21 Application Deadline
*NEW COVID-19 Community Group Relief Grant**	Continuous Intake, ending Mar 31, 2021
Youth Travel Assistance Program (YTAP)	Apr 01, Jul 01, Oct 01, & Jan 01
Community Recreation Programming Assistance (CRPA)	NOW CLOSED
Community Festivals and Special Events (CFSE)	NOW CLOSED
Councillor Grants to Organizations (CGTO)	NOW CLOSED
Community Hall Assistance Program (CHAP)	NOW CLOSED
Kings Vision Grant (VISION GRANTS)	NOW CLOSED

NEW* COVID-19 COMMUNITY GROUP RELIEF GRANT Deadline: Continuous Intake, ending Mar 31, 2021 or until such time as the $150,000 budget has been allocated.

The Municipality of the County of Kings values the work and contributions of non-profit organizations that serve our communities. Because COVID-19 has brought unanticipated hardships for many of those organizations, relief grants of up to $2,000 are now available!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Amie Johnstone at your convenience at grants@countyofkings.ca

It's called Feed Nova Scotia's COVID-19 Food Box Program. Our priority now is to make sure everyone who could benefit from the program knows about it.

Please visit our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages:

COVID-19 Response Report

For information on Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) including social distancing, self isolation, when to get help and more, please visit novascotia.ca/coronavirus.