Return Pontiac Municipality to Pontiac MRC: For the second time this year, Pontiac mayors unanimously adopted a resolution asking Municipal Affairs to return Pontiac Municipality to the Pontiac MRC. Spurred by Mansfield Mayor Robert Ladouceur, the mayors entered a lively debate Monday on whether to accept the Gregoire Report’s recommendation for the three-way split of Pontiac Municipality with Quyon going to Bristol.

“Maybe we should bring back the entire Municipality of Pontiac,” Ladouceur suggested.

Waltham Mayor Paul Ryan concurred: “Bring back what we lost.”

From that suggestion, the mayors entertained the notion of a union of the MRC des Collines and Pontiac MRC.

“Can you tell me one reason why it would be disadvantageous to ask if the MRC des Collines can become part of Pontiac MRC?” said Campbell’s Bay Mayor Cletus Ferrigan.

Ferrigan then introduced a motion to advise the Quebec government that we are interested in joining the MRC des Collines. The motion died on the table when it failed to attract a seconder. Waltham Mayor Paul Ryan then reworded Ferrigan’s motion to leave the MRC des Collines “join with the Pontiac MRC rather than the other way around.”

“We don’t want to join the MRC des Collines, they will swallow us,” Fort Coulonge Mayor Raymond Durocher said in explanation of Ryan’s choice of wording. However, the reworded motion was defeated 13 to 4.

“If we have to be realistic, come down to earth,” Ladouceur said.

“We should at least tell (the government) that we should get back what we had 20 years ago.”

Ladouceur said requesting the return of Pontiac Municipality would be a gesture “if we want to help our neighbours. It may never come about, but you’ve got to show your hand,” he said.

With a show of hands, the mayors adopted a resolution requesting that Pontiac Municipality be returned to the Pontiac MRC, the second such resolution this year.

Playground structure dedicated to its founder Carson Hodgins: Words cannot express what the late Carson Hodgins meant to the Municipality of Shawville. Nevertheless, those who knew him did their best to put into words what he accomplished for the town as a businessman, a Lions Club member, a member of council and a citizen of Shawville.

The occasion was the completion of the new playground equipment at Mill Dam Park. About 40 people crowded around a plaque in Hodgins’ memory Saturday to open the new play structure, the last project he began, in his memory.

Paul Thomson, of the Shawville Lions Club, called Hodgins a “true humanitarian.” He recalled a few of the major accomplishments Carson made such as the creation of the Pontiac Reception Centre, a long-term care facility for the aged. Thomson also made note of Hodgins’ faithful work in organizing the CHEO telethon up to the year of his death.

Though the equipment was only installed recently, it was purchased before Carson died. He was not there to see his grandchildren scrambling up and down the structure on Saturday, but he really did see his dream come true before his death by viewing the equipment.