During Monday night’s council meeting in Smiths Falls, Councilor Jay Brennan shared an update on the recently-celebrated Local Government Week. Members of council were busy engaging with the community face-to-face from Monday October 16 to Friday October 20. 

The town council meeting was held in the cafeteria at the high school during school hours. “We had a council meeting in the cafeteria at SFDCI with approximately 90 students present, Brennan said. “It was great to bring democracy to them. It’s good to do that.”  As well, 250 students came to the municipal job fair at the library and chatted with members of council about the role of councilors. 

Council also welcomed members of the public into the town hall. “We had a coffee morning with the public,” Brennan said, “we had some good conversations and it was very informal; I enjoyed that as well.”

The town also held an essay contest for grades 5-6 students at Chimo Elementary School. Students were requested to write a 500-word essay on the topic ‘What does Smiths Falls mean to you and what would Smiths Falls look like if you made all the decisions?’”

Councilors read the essays and selected first place, second place, and third place essays. 

“We all read the essays. They were all worthy and very well written. Nobody wanted to put root beer in the fountains or anything like we used to say, but they had some aspirational things that they think the town should do; a lot of things we should keep in mind,” said Councilor Brennan.

“First place essay was written by Kaden Chambers. Second place was a four-way tie: Tobin Vandermeer, Charlotte Doherty, Emma Berthelette, and Cain Staples. Third place was written by Raija Salama.”  

“I really want to thank staff, particularly Clerk Costello, for organizing that week,” Brennan added, “Let’s make that an annual thing. It was a really good week.”

Article by Janelle Labelle.