Councillors had a long discussion about the issue at their meeting Wednesday.
Mayor Leigh Stoddart says it was decided to reduce the size from 6 councillors and a mayor to 4 councillors and a mayor.
He says the vote was close…4-3.
Mayor Stoddart says there were cases made on increasing or reducing the size of council.
He says other municipalities have reduced the size of their councils.
“Some people feel that it’s a distortion of representation. Personally, I like seven. Especially in a small community likes ours where you have people that mostly work. For example, I’m the only one on the council now that’s retired. It makes it difficult if you go down to five and they’re all working.”
Stoddart says reducing the council’s size will result in a savings of $24,000 a year, which he says is substantial for a town as small as Clark’s Harbour.
On the budget for this fiscal year, Stoddart says staff and council are still going over numbers.
He doesn’t anticipate an increase in either the commercial or residential tax rates.
However Mayor Stoddart says council voted in favour of increasing the public sewer rate by $30 per unit..
The current rate, $158, hasn’t changed since 1989.
