CHSR-FM 97.9

Hi there folks. I hope that you are doing great and I’m really happy that you’ve tuned in.

This is episode 83 of Testing For Echo on CHSR FM 97.9 in Fredericton and around the world and I am your host Tim Scammell.

Episode Song List

“The World of Music, One Song at a Time, Take Good Care”

The Fredericton Community Kitchens serve 11,516 meals per month through its daily meal service and outreach program. That number represents an 8% increase in the past twelve months.

Chef Louis Cosman oversees all the meals served at the Fredericton Community Kitchens’ Downtown location and makes it his personal responsibility to create a welcoming environment for Fredericton’s most hungry residents. According to Abby Clarke, that clientele includes people from all walks of life, including university students, families trying to make ends meet, and the elderly.

With over 70% of the food served in the kitchens coming from donations, Chef Cosman noted that he often gets creative with recipes. One of his most popular dishes in recent years was a chocolate chip meatloaf that not only generated buzz from those eating at the kitchen, but provided a lighthearted topic of conversation for people often faced with daunting daily challenges. Cosman finished by asserting that his work at the Fredericton Community Kitchen is the most fulfilling he has ever done, and that “love goes into everything we do here.”

This summer, large sections of the roads on the University of New Brunswick’s Fredericton campus are being repaved. According to a statement by the University, The new maintenance to UNB’s roads are intended to repair drainage while also upgrading the adjacent sidewalks. Wren Meadus, a UNB student and full time wheelchair user, has advocated for improved sidewalk maintenance on campus since January 2025.

Wren described the current state of accessibility on campus as “not good at all,” with the hope that this new construction will address some of their concerns.

A major challenge facing Wren’s efforts to raise awareness for UNB’s accessibility shortfall was finding the right person to talk to. Back in the winter 2025 semester Wren fell from their wheelchair after hitting a pothole filled with snow. After Wren reported the incident to UNB administrators their complaint was directed to the University’s Student Accessibility Centre (SAC). The SAC then told Wren that the Centre only addressed classroom accommodations—not general advocacy or maintenance—resulting in Wren’s concerns getting passed around without any action. By the end of the semester Wren was assured that paving would be a top priority when the asphalt plants opened in May, a promise the University appears to be upholding.

On Sunday, August 3, 2025, at approximately 10:15pm, a red pickup truck drove the wrong way down King Street, near the Smyth Street traffic circle, before travelling through the front window of Chase Benjamin Antiques. First responders appeared on the scene minutes later and reported that no one was injured during the accident. Four tenants live in the building alongside Chase Benjamin Antiques, all of whom were forced to find alternate accommodations due to the severe damage to the building’s structural integrity caused by the accident. Chase Plourde, the owner of Chase Benjamin Antiques, explained that he has not been allowed into the building to assess the damage due to those concerns about structural integrity. Plourde noted that an engineer needs to sign off on the building’s structural safety before he can begin filing an insurance claim and determining the extent of the damage. He has also not received any additional information, including the driver’s insurance information, from the Fredericton Police Force, who explained that the staff working Sunday night are not available until Friday, August 8th.

On Monday, July 21, the Charlotte Street Art Centre (CSAC) announced that they received a $20,000 grant from the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation to create an audio recording and live streaming education program for youth aged 12 to 18. The program will build upon CSAC’s existing ArtReach programming for youth, which includes the Girls+ Rock summer camp and Jam Sesh, both of which offer opportunities for young people to learn instruments, form bands, and perform in front of audiences. Oscar Tecu, CSAC’s ArtReach Coordinator, explained that kids who learn to play and perform will inevitably want to record their work, meaning that focusing the grant on audio recording was only natural. A focus on audio recording also means that Oscar can help facilitate the program, utilizing over ten years of recording experience he picked up on local badns like Chill Teens and his own solo projects.

On Monday, July 21, 2025, Hon. Marjorie Michel, Federal Minister of Health, announced $578,100 in federal funding for the John Howard Society of Fredericton (JHS), to support a new overnight outreach program that will see the JHS hire six new staff members and purchase a sprinter van to respond to emergency calls related to drug use and mental health crises. The federal funding is part of $2.8 million committed to Atlantic Canada through Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program – Emergency Treatment Fund. The funding’s purpose is to address the worsening addiction and overdose crisis in Atlantic Canada. The JHS’s daytime outreach program has operated in Fredericton for several years, but with this new funding the program will to expand its scope to offer 24 hour service. John Barrow, the Program Manager at the JHS, explained that 24 hour service allows emergency crews to offer support to Fredericton’s most vulnerable when they need it most. The City of Fredericton took an active role in ensuring the JHS received the Federal Government’s support, with City officials providing oversight during the funding application process and helping facilitate the purchase of the new sprinter van. The city’s involvement directly addresses Recommendation 32 from the City’s Community Safety Task Force Report published in May of this year, which asked for 24 hour outreach units to address health, mental health, social services.

On Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025, Matt Carter, the Director of the Charlotte Street Art Centre (CSAC), found a hole burned in the floor of the gazebo in the Art Centre’s backyard. Carter explained that the damage was caused by a small fire contained in a can that had gotten too hot and ignited the floor. The damage prompted internal discussions at CSAC about how to prevent further damages, with suggestions including cutting back vegetation that obscures the gazebo and putting up signs to encourage visitors to respect the space. The damage to CSAC’s gazebo is an example of the 65% increase in outdoor fires Fredericton has seen over the past four years. After announcing the damage on CSAC’s social media, Brooke Batchelor, a community member and carpenter, offered to help repair the gazebo for free. Batchlor explained that she wanted to donate her time to CSAC because of its inviting atmosphere, noting that spaces like CSAC can easily go away without community involvement.

On Friday, July 18th, 2025, the Mudroom, a new art gallery at 220 Charlotte Street, opened its first exhibition titled “DUSTOFF.” The Mudroom is situated in Seger Dow and Sienna Ingham’s front porch, which they converted into a DIY art gallery over the past month. Dow explained that he and Ingham wanted to provide an alternative avenue for young, contemporary artists to display their work. The Mudroom sharply contrasts the more institutional galleries already in Fredericton, which tend to favour more traditional forms of art—like landscapes and portraits—or pose too much of a financial barrier for young artists to consider. Ingham explained that creating a gallery in her front porch—where rent is free—and including a small group of artists already engaged with the scene kept costs low, making the Mudroom more accessible than larger galleries. Ingham hopes that the Mudroom will serve as inspiration for other artists in the city, not just to submit their work to her gallery, but to create their own spaces for art.

On Friday, July 18th, 2025, the Fredericton Fire Department and Police Force responded to a fire alarm in the old Hartt Shoe Factory, which is now an apartment building at 401 York Street. shortly after arriving, first responders found a man in distress and over a dozen more officers arrived on the scene. Kevin Clarke, who was on the first floor of the building when the alarm went off, said that a man was taken out of the building covered with blood with visible burns. The window of the top floor’s south east corner was broken and glass littered the parking lot. According to Mark McVicker, a passerby, an ambulance left the scene without its sirens on. Both Kevin and Mark noted that the intensity of the police response, which included plain-clothes officers and officers armed with rifles, was out of the ordinary for Downtown Fredericton, and startling.