Argyle council (with 3 new members) to hold first post-election regular council meeting Nov. 18

Normally, Argyle’s regular council meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month, but because the second Tuesday this month fell on Remembrance Day, the session was re-scheduled.

The Municipality of Argyle’s new council was officially sworn in during a ceremony last week that brought some new faces to the council table.

The swearing in of the nine-member council was the first item on the agenda of the Nov. 4 event.

Aside from three newcomers, the new Argyle council, for the most part, consists of returning council members, including Aldric d’Entremont and Bruce Hubbard, who both returned by acclamation.

Joining them are incumbents whose seats were contested but who prevailed in last month’s municipal election, including Roderick Murphy Jr., Charles LeBlanc, Richard Donaldson and Calvin d’Entremont.

New to the Argyle council table are Guy Surette, Malcolm Madden and Kathy Bourque. (Bourque becomes the second woman – the first since the early 1940s – to serve as an Argyle municipal councillor.)

Once sworn in, councillors had a chance to vote for warden, but no ballot was needed after Aldric d’Entremont (warden for the previous two terms) accepted the position after being nominated by Bruce Hubbard.

The Municipality of Argyle does, however, have a new deputy warden, that title going to Richard Donaldson, who accepted the position after having been nominated by Roderick Murphy.

The afternoon ended with the newly sworn-in council members each given a chance to speak, sharing thoughts they might have regarding their goals and priorities.

Different councillors cited different issues – notably when talking about their own district – but common areas of concern arose, including heath care (particularly doctor recruitment and retention), transportation and tourism.

There was mention of the Tusket Industrial Park – council hoping to see something positive happen with that facility – and concern also was raised about the movement of young people out of the area.