by The Pulse of the Eastern Townships, via The Newport Dispatch

The Border Report is a weekly roundup of news from Quebec’s Eastern Townships, brought to Newport Dispatch readers through a media partnership with The Pulse of the Eastern Townships.

The Pulse is a daily English-language newspaper covering Stanstead, Coaticook, Magog, Sherbrooke and the surrounding communities just across the line. Each week we share a selection of their stories most likely to matter on this side of the border.

Stanstead’s new fire hall waits on power

Stanstead’s new fire station is essentially complete but firefighters still can’t move in, because the building has no permanent electrical service, Mayor Jody Stone told The Pulse on Sept. 3. Bell Canada, Hydro, the town and the property owner are coordinating the hookup, and poles have to go in before the lines can be installed, with no firm completion date.

Stone called the missed connection “an administrative oversight,” saying the town had assumed a usable line was already there. The project drew $2,132,900 in provincial assistance announced in June 2025 for a single-storey, roughly 735-square-metre station built with the Régie incendie Memphrémagog-Est, and had been expected in service around June 2026.

Once power arrives, the contractor needs only to finish testing and release the building — Stone expects the crew to move in the same day, and the town plans an opening event once a date is possible. The old Station 1 beneath town hall at 425 Dufferin St. was deemed obsolete in 2023, and Stone said its future use is undecided and may be storage for now.

Read more: https://publisherpt.substack.com/p/stansteads-new-fire-hall-nearly-complete

Phelps Helps hiring in Stanstead

Phelps Helps, the bilingual youth nonprofit at 700 Dufferin St. in Stanstead, is hiring a full-time operations and administration coordinator. Executive Director Katie Lowry told The Pulse the role is meant to shore up the behind-the-scenes systems of an organization that now sees more than 400 children and youth pass through its programs.

The job blends financial administration — invoices, payments, payroll, reconciliations and year-end audit prep — with human resources work and hands-on building and equipment management. French-English bilingualism is a key requirement, since Phelps Helps runs its programming in both languages.

Lowry described it as an office-manager-style position for someone who can problem-solve, learn fast and “wear many hats even in one given day,” and said candidates don’t necessarily need a traditional career path. The position is based in person in Stanstead, with some scheduling flexibility, and comes with a competitive salary and medical benefits.

Read more: https://publisherpt.substack.com/p/phelps-helps-hiring-bilingual-operations

Sherbrooke police seek convenience store robbery suspect

Sherbrooke police are asking the public to help identify a man suspected of robbing the Couche-Tard at 2525 King St. W. during the night of Aug. 11. According to the identification notice released Sept. 4, the suspect demanded the contents of the cash drawer while claiming he had a gun in his pocket, and left with the money from the register.

Police say he was a regular customer of the store, and did not indicate whether a firearm was actually seen. He is described as a white man roughly 20 to 25 years old, about five foot nine and 130 pounds, slim, with shaved hair, a brown moustache, pierced ears and possibly a facial piercing.

At the time he was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with white lines, a black hat and children’s fabric gloves, and fled on a black bicycle toward Jacques-Cartier Street. Anyone with information can reach the SPS criminal investigations division at 819-821-5544, ext. 4418, or Sherbrooke police at 819-821-5555.

Read more: https://publisherpt.substack.com/p/sherbrooke-police-seek-suspect-in-bd7

Ayer’s Cliff manufacturer on the tariff churn

Alec van Zuiden, CEO of Zen Metal Technologies in Ayer’s Cliff and the town’s mayor, told The Pulse in a Sept. 3 update that shifting U.S. tariff rules have become “the business equivalent of Whac-A-Mole.” He says the real burden falls on work the public never sees: rewriting quotations, recalculating landed costs, absorbing risk and trying to hold onto customers and staff.

Zen Metal, a contract manufacturer that has historically sold heavily into the northeastern United States, has seen its workforce drop from 32 employees to 11 during the trade dispute, though van Zuiden previously said the company remains profitable on thinner margins.

The rules changed sharply this spring, when an April 2 proclamation moved Section 232 steel, aluminum and copper products toward tariffs based on full customs value rather than metal content alone, with rates that can land at 50, 25 or 15 per cent depending on classification. Canada is set to impose its own counter-tariffs Sept. 8 on $27.6 billion in U.S. imports, concentrated in steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper and electronics.

For manufacturers, van Zuiden said, the day-to-day problem is less the political argument than the repricing work every rule change sets off.

Read more: https://publisherpt.substack.com/p/ayers-cliff-manufacturer-says-shifting

Haskell announces fall lineup and 125th anniversary play

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House has released a full fall schedule, capped by an October play marking 125 years since the institution’s founding. Saturday children’s programs return in September with the Coding Club on Sept. 12, Space Saturdays on Sept. 19 and the Comic Book Club on Sept. 26, alongside Collage Poetry for Kids that same morning.

A seven-week creative writing series led by Marguerite Dunlop runs Thursdays from Sept. 17 through Oct. 29, capped at seven participants, and two author events fill out the month: children’s author David Alexander on Sept. 23 and local writer Andrew Retchless launching Where Time Stands Still on Sept. 25.

On Oct. 9, the Vermont Historical Society will lead a discussion of Tillie Walden’s Charity and Sylvia, the Vermont Reads 2026 selection, in the historic reading room, with free copies available and no registration required.

The anniversary fundraiser is Two Tents, an English-language comedy written and directed by Ross Murray with support from Memphremagog Community Theatre, running Oct. 23–25, Oct. 30–31 and Nov. 1, with all proceeds going to the Haskell. The library sits at 1 Church St. in Stanstead and 93 Caswell Ave. in Derby Line.

Read more: https://publisherpt.substack.com/p/haskell-free-library-plans-fall-activities