Last Thursday night, I sat in the Outlook Civic Centre and kept my eyes glued to the front of the building where the main entrance was located. My hope was that the 400 chairs that had been set out and arranged would soon be filled by local taxpayers, and that this public meeting called by town council would end up being worth the trouble of having in the first place.
I was happy to see that almost all of those chairs were filled by the time 7:00 rolled around. The first couple of rows were scarce, but I noticed that people coming in were grabbing chairs and sitting in the very back.
(I’ve never understood the fear that people seem to have of sitting in the front at these kinds of events. You’re not being asked to stand up and recite Shakespeare, but I digress…)
I honestly thought the meeting would begin and there would be *maybe* 100 people there. It was made official at the November 14 council meeting, where I said that I’d begin the promotion for it a day later. News articles on our website, articles in the print edition, sharing it all over Facebook, the whole kit and caboodle. The town also bought advertising for it.
But we’ve all seen it before. You can hype something to the point of getting blue in the face, but if the people aren’t interested, they just ain’t gonna show up.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case with this. Once 7:00 hit, almost all of those 400 chairs had a butt in each seat. I likened it to the crowd that came out for the candidate forum that The Outlook hosted in October of last year during the civic election. We saw a standing room only crowd that night with upwards of 300 people before anyone had even been elected. A year later, close to 400 came out to ask questions and share the views with those very same elected officials.
And there I was, sitting front row for it all; a front row seat to democracy in action, if you will.
As for the meeting itself, the true meat of it all? Well, you can read the recap article that begins on the front page of this fine publication. Since this space is for my own personal views and insight, I’ll say this: I thought the meeting went almost exactly how I figured it would.
There were a few topics that came up that I had almost pre-written notes for, such as the Mann Street subdivision project and the regional landfill. There were others, such as the allegation of supposed “donation funnelling” concerning the fire department that definitely raised a few eyebrows, mine included. I also thought the public was more aware of the number of practicing physicians in town, but council seemed to have to remind people that there are four doctors now; perhaps a public awareness campaign is in order to show what, or rather who Outlook has to offer prospective patients?
If I myself had any personal dog in this race, it would have been the topic of obtaining drinking water. I live in Conquest, where the drinking water leaves much to be desired, so my family has always gotten our water from the filling system at the Outlook water works building. That was closed in October, and the question of why was popular on Facebook for some time. When the topic didn’t come up at the meeting, I just chalked it up to town residents not needing to worry themselves about it; if it doesn’t affect them, why ask about it?
I thought the aftermath of the meeting was interesting too. The feedback seemed to be mostly positive, but others were perhaps frustrated with the safe “political speak” heard at times. But I also think some of the people frustrated were the ones who neglected to get up and ask questions.
Overall, I thought the public meeting was a success, and the near-full attendance should mean that this will become a regular thing.
The people showed up. The people showed that they care, and that they give a damn about what happens in their community.
The public meeting showed that it’s not only up to the mayor and town council to ensure that the decisions made for the community are good ones; it’s also up to the community’s residents to keep caring, and ensure that their local officials are in fact making those right decisions.
Because if council makes one wrong move, I’m pretty confident that the enthusiasm seen last Thursday night will mean residents will be there to correct them.
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.
