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ARICHAT - Tuesday night’s regular meeting of Richmond Municipal Council spent a significant amount of time on issues dealing with heritage properties around Richmond County, as well as the heritage and culture of several county communities.

Much of these developments are centred on Isle Madame, where council has agreed to donate $10,000 towards the Association Portuaire de Petit de Grat. The association was established to erect a monument that designed to celebrate the community’s history, heritage and unique Acadian culture, in a similar fashion to other monuments established in Acadian communities across Nova Scotia.

The county is also directing staff to check out the costs and logistics involved in setting up interpretive panels at lighthouses around Isle Madame. Warden Amanda Mombourquette says the project came about as a specific request from Isle Madame residents, but it could expand to lighthouses on mainland Richmond County if the experiment is a success.

In the meantime, council has approved a new scoring criteria to judge whether buildings around the county could be considered as heritage properties. Following the meeting, Warden Mombourquette suggested that this new criteria is designed to improve communications between council, staff, the county’s Planning Advisory Committee and its By-Law and Heritage Committee when it comes to approving heritage property designations.

The warden also hopes to avoid seeing applications for heritage properties falling through the cracks as a result of the current criteria.

As well, the county will  investigate the cost of purchasing and engraving plaques to be handed out to those Richmond County buildings that are designated as heritage properties.