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December 29, 2005

Hey, what are they doing here?

So at last week's Jamestown council a whole bunch of council veterans showed up to watch the swearing in of Brock Thomas. It was kind of cool to see and the retired members are hoping to start a new tradition.

I wrote something up about it, but it got lost in the wash last week, so to speak. So I thought I'd put it up on the blog since it's getting a little stale. Still worth hearing about though.

Back to the future

What were all those old-timers doing at Jamestown’s Town Hall the night of Dec. 19? Looking for the buffet line? Swapping retirement stories?

Nah. They were there to welcome Mickey Peeler into the club and maybe start a new tradition. Ten of Jamestown’s 18 living former council members — including Peeler — attended the swearing-in ceremony for the new town board.

The invitation came from former councilman Loren Hill and former councilwoman Keith Lackey. The pair are hoping it will become a tradition for former members to gather at Jamestown’s biannual swearing in ceremony.

Among those present were council members from every decade since the town’s incorporation in 1948 except the 1940s.

For some, like Robert C. Green who served in the 1970s, the visit was their first to Jamestown’s new town hall. He hadn’t been to a meeting since 1978.

“We thought it’d be nice to come and see them get sworn in seeing as how usually it’s just a quite affair,” Green joked. “Usually there’s just family there. And a lot of them aren’t even family.

The former council members couldn’t recall another time when they all got together.

“I’ve never seen it done,” said Dr. Austin Fortney. And he would know. Fortney served on Jamestown’s council in the 1950s, and again in the early 90s.

To honor those present, Councilman Keith Volz formally proposed an idea that had been kicking around for a bout a year: turn the foyer leading into council chambers into a Wall of Honor where pictures of Jamestown’s previous leaders could hang.

Posted by Jonathan Jones at December 29, 2005 10:47 AM