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.

Our office is currently 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. Inspections can be booked by phone or email, see contact information below.

You can continue 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.

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

Annual Community Grant programs offered under Policy FIN 05-018 can be found at www.countyofkings.ca/grants

The COVID-19 COMMUNITY GROUP RELIEF GRANT closed on March 31, 2021 providing assistance to over 70 non-profit organizations in the County!

If you have any questions regarding grant funding assistance for your non-profit organization please contact Amie Johnstone at grants@countyofkings.ca