To the people of the Village of Glendon,
Once again history was made in Glendon. Larry Lofstrand is the only mayor in the history of Glendon that did not finish his term.
I must write this note because I have people coming to me and asking what happened. In my words, this is what's happening in Glendon – I do understand that if you do a good job and stay too long, people start as your best friends then turn against you for whatever reason. I do not know why, but that's what happens.
When I was mayor of Glendon for over 40 years, we built the village up with equipment and homes and turned it into a good place to live. I started with 239 people, with a debt of over $30,000 and when I left we were debt-free with a house full of furniture and money in the bank. It took us a long time to build up the town.
Today, people are coming to me and asking how come our CAO is getting paid about $70,000 per year, while being helped by another person. My answer to this is, I can't figure it out.
The most we had paid our CAO was about $26,000 plus we were only open three days a week and ran the senior citizens housing complex for an extra day per week, which was paid for by the provincial government. The province paid for wages and use of the village office for the seniors housing complex.
Other people tried to take the seniors housing complex away from us, but we formed the village management board and ran it. The recent changes that have happened are the doing of the present council.
I would like to end this letter by saying, if the younger people of Glendon do not get involved in the village soon, in less than 10 years Glendon will become a place nobody will want to live.
I thought this would never happen, as I was raised in Glendon and am now 74. Please, if anyone would like to speak to me, my name is Johnnie Doonanco, past mayor of Glendon.
Phone (780) 207-0521 or Box 55, Glendon, AB, T0A 1P0.
It is also very important to have people on council and staff that have the village in their best interest, not only themselves.
Johnnie Doonanco,
Glendon, Alberta
