ARICHAT - Only three weeks into his contract as Richmond County's new Emergency Services Coordinator, Steven Marcellus received a quick test of his abilities as Hurricane Fiona swept through Nova Scotia. 

The native of Winnipeg, who had spent three decades working with various emergency-management and first-responder positions throughout Ontario, initially decided to relocate to Richmond County because its people, communities and Atlantic Canadian scenery won him over. However, Marcellus didn't have much time to drink in his new surroundings before he found himself manning Richmond's hurricane command centre with a fellow newcomer, Chief Administrative Officer Troy MacCulloch, and keeping in contact with emergency responders across the county while monitoring 22 comfort centres set up in different parts of the municipality in the days falling Fiona's landfall. 

"There's nothing like getting your feet wet in the first month," Marcellus quipped during an interview with TELILE 24/7 host Adam Cooke. 

"We were very fortunate that it was very minimal - power outages were probably our major concern... In Grand River and L'Ardoise, up in that area, we had a big pocket [of outages], but in other communities we only had five-to-20 outages."

Also on this week's TELILE 24/7:

12:54 - Richmond Warden Amanda Mombourquette is pleased with the progress of the Cape Breton South: Recruiting For Health committee, which recently received one of three Ukrainian-speaking navigators assigned by the provincial Department of Health and Wellness to bring healthcare professionals from war-torn Ukraine to set up shop in Nova Scotia. 

17:02 - Our special report on the Nova Scotia government's new legislation that gives municipalities the chance to increase tourism marketing levies in their regions puts the focus on the Cape Breton Island Marketing Levy, with discussion from Destination Cape Breton Association CEO Terry Smith, Port Hawkesbury Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton, and Richmond Warden Amanda Mombourquette, along with three other members of Richmond council. 

40:49 - The Richmond County Literacy Network's new executive director, Lisa Berthier, explains the role of the three levels of government in assisting literacy efforts within the county, and expresses her hope that the position she took on this past March will enable her to reach out to communities across the municipality to meet their literacy needs. This interview is the first portion of a two-part series about the Richmond County Literacy Network that will continue later this month on TELILE 24/7.