Spaniard’s Bay plans to add new public works position

by Olivia Bradbury

Spaniard’s Bay council made an initial move May 19 to shift the organizational chart at the top of their public works division, but it stopped short of completing the change.

Deputy mayor Gerald Sheppard made a pair of motions to that end, the first was to eliminate the vacant public works director position, which passed with unanimous support. He then moved to to add the position of public works supervisor/superintendent.

He said that, while a public works director would be situated more in an office than outside, a public works supervisor/superintendent would be a more hands-on role.

 “This person, as I see it, would be supervising our public workers,” said the deputy mayor. “And there’s many more things that he would be looking at that our director did do when she was in the position—snow-clearing and our infrastructure with regards to water, sewer, and different

Councillor Sherry Lundrigan said she agreed with the idea of adding the position, but felt council should hold another meeting to discuss the responsibilities that would fall to the public works supervisor/superintendent before hiring someone for the job.

The motion to add the position of public works supervisor/superintendent was defeated in a tie vote, with deputy mayor Sheppard, councillor Terry Sheppard, and councillor Lundrigan in favour while councillors Ann Marie Singleton and Debbie Newman and Mayor Tammy Oliver voted against.

“I would just like to say that I would like us to be more prepared before we actually go ahead,” said Singleton. “Like have all the roles and responsibilities already lined up, right?”

Deputy Mayor Sheppard pointed out that the motion was just to add the position, not hire someone. Newman acknowledged this, but suggested it was not something that needed to be done immediately.

“I think we need to be more prepared than what we have,” said Singleton.