With Monday being municipal election day, our Cochrane history feature is about the first town council meeting in January, 1950, right after the election the previous month.
A referendum as part of the election had a majority of voters turn down the idea of paying councillors for attending meetings: $5.00 for a councillor, $10.00 for the mayor.
Despite the referendum result, the new council voted in favour of being paid.
Mayor R.R. Mitchell reminded his colleagues they were going against the wishes of the electorate, and vowed not to accept the pay himself.
Thanks to the Cochrane Public Library for the use of its archives.
