A bargain at the price: That’s what Shawville gets for its thousand dollars a year paid to the Mayor and its $500 to the Councillors; and it will still be a bargain when these honorariums double next month. A bit behind the times in the matter of compensation for Councillors Shawville has finally started to catch up with other towns of a similar size.
Each member of Council attends at the very least 24 meetings which occupy the entire evening and often extend beyond midnight, taking their toll of energies the morning after. In addition to these 24 regular meetings there are special meetings and committee meetings which mean that any Councillor can count on a sporadic social life with no firm commitments possible, other than to Council. As for his family, well they just have to know that Council comes first, before picnics, outings, birthdays — even before Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Shawville Fair if an emergency comes up.
Each member of Council also knows that whatever his regular job may be, whether he is self-employed or works for someone else, he has to be available for consultation and often to go and help out whenever he is needed by town employees, or by ratepayers with a problem on their hands.
In addition to interruptions during their working hours, they are often interrupted in their sleep by the phone when someone can’t wait until the next day to talk about dogs running at large, noisy traffic or whatever.
It takes a concerned and public-spirited person to take on the job of Mayor or Councillor at any price. Giving them a thousand dollar incentive is not much but at least it’s better than half that was.
Figure Skating in Shawville: The executive of the Shawville Figure Skating Club have been busy making arrangements to get Figure Skating started early this year. The ice has been booked for Saturday afternoons 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm and two local instructors, Mary Manuell and Heather Crick have been engaged to teach the classes.
Cost is $15.00 for one child, $20.00 for two and $25.00 for three or more in the one family. There will be an extra charge for late registration. Parent or guardian must sign registration card.