Police report quiet season: The holiday season was a quiet one for the Sûreté du Québec and went smoothly. There were no tragic incidences in the Pontiac region on New Year’s Eve and there were only a few accidents around Christmas.

“We had a few drivers go into the ditch and a few fender-benders, but no serious accidents,” said Sgt. Mario Briere of the SQ. “It was very quiet and went smoothly.”

Compared to last year, very few people were pulled over for drinking-and-driving this year.

“I don’t know the exact statistics but the number of people pulled over for drunk driving was down compared to last year,” Briere said. According to Briere more people had designated drivers and they also had more road blocks set up.

Murray Brothers Axed: The axe fell hard on two members of Shawville’s Murray clan down in Florida, Dec. 28. While praising the two brothers for their work with the Panthers hockey club, team president Bill Torrey said in the end, “It’s only the record that counts.” 

He dismissed Bryan, general manager and vice-president of seven years and his brother Terry, head coach of the team for three years. The move came hours after a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers and ended speculation on how long head coach Terry could last with just one win in the past 14 games.

The Panthers record was 6-18-7-5, tied with Montreal for dead last in the league at the time of the firing. The Panthers had just won two games in their own arena.

With the Panthers (Terry’s third NHL team including Philadelphia and Washington), his record is 79-85-31-11. In his twelve years in the league, he sports a 360-283-89-11 record.

Terry Murray guided the Panthers to their best season ever last year, finishing second in the Southeast Division but were knocked off in the first round by the New Jersey Devils. Murray made one appearance in the Stanley Cup finals while with Philadelphia, where the Flyers lost four straight to the Detroit Red Wings.

Two of the Murray brothers’ nephews, Tim Murray, director of amateur scouting and Todd Hearty, an eastern Canada scout for the Panthers have contracts with the Panthers until July 2002, and are still scouting for the team unless new owners change that. Both are in Russia for the World Junior hockey tournament.

Inflation blamed for mill rate rise in Otter Lake: Due to inflation the mill rate went up two cents from last year in the Municipality of Leslie, Clapham and Huddersfield.

“The rise in the mill rate is to keep up with the rise in inflation,” said Mayor Terry Richard. “Everything seems to be going up and the mill rate reflects that.”

The mill rate rose two cents to 77 cents per $100 from 75 cents last year. A property evaluated at $50,000 will be taxed $385 this year, compared to $375 last year.

More money will be put into maintaining the Leslie Lake Park this coming year and $19,700 was spent in 2000 towards the park. Money will also be put into the municipalities water system after a request by the Quebec government.

The total expenditures for the year 2000 are $791,237. Police protection was $93,927 and fire protection was $33,430 of the budget.