Business View Civil and Municipal | March 2021

169 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL MARCH 2021 AMHERST , NOVA SCOT I A key strategies for our business growth. We have all the infrastructure in place, from broadband to natural gas. We have even been recognized for having one of the best municipal water sources in the country. Tamara, Eileen, Jenn, and Cheryl (the marketing team) promote Amherst as a great place to live, work, and play – and I really think that is true, you can even work remotely here and beat the big city rat race!” Herrett acknowledges, “The infrastructure is second to none for our size and location. The town of Amherst has spent significant money upgrading sewer and water, we’ve switched all municipal lighting to LED for a green initiative… we’ve spent millions of dollars on the infrastructure in the last few years.” “The environment has been a big issue here,” Kogon adds. “About a year ago, we declared a climate emergency and have been working on everything through that lens. We have just begun a solar power project for the hockey arena and, after that, we are going to be doing nature, are great places to be during a pandemic. “We have only had a few cases of COVID-19 in Cumberland County since this all began,” says Kogon, “and we are seeing growth in housing and real estate transactions because of that. We have so much to offer, and we are also a really safe place to live.” The retail housing market has been on fire for the last six to eight months, and there is nothing but an upward trajectory from where they started. In part due to a lot of recent effort in terms of attracting new residents, as well as new businesses. “Here is the thing,” says Kogon, “We certainly have people here who are willing to work, and people from the local area have a great reputation for that and a great work ethic. But we are actively looking at attracting a larger workforce. Some industries set up here because of location and we want to be able to get the people to work in those industries, but we recognize that must be an intentional focus. Encouraging people to move here is one of the