September 17, 1998 

On the 19th February, 1874, at 10:00 a.m., six newly-elected councillors of the village municipality of Notre Dame de Grâce met in an upstairs room of a farmhouse. Its owner, one incongruously-named

Prosper Savage, rented them the room for $50 a year, with "wood and fuel" included. This marked the founding of a new village that was destined, after substantial shrinkage, to become today's City of West-mount. The main item of business: choose a mayor. They wasted no time in electing from among themselves the Honourable Eustache Prud'homme, a member of the first Canadian Senate who became the first mayor of West-mount.

Twenty-five years later on June 24, 1899, following an "at home" in a spanking-new building, some 800 people attended the opening of the Westmount Public Library, while a military band played in Westmount Park. It was the first tax-supported library in Quebec.

Only a few months ago it dawned on me that next year would mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of our city. At least our librarians were more on the ball, as they had already started making plans for the 100th anniver-sary of the Westmount library.

It is a very human quirk that, in the pecking order of anniversaries, the decimal system wins hands (or digits) down: 10th and 100th anniversaries are far more important than any others. But then we atavistically revert to fractions: one-half and one-quarter centuries mean more to us than 10-year milestones. Certainly, a 125th anniversary means more than a 120th, say.

Latin had an adverb for one-and-a-half times: sesqui - as in sesquicenten-nial. But there's no fancy name for a 125th anniver-sary.

Council has struck a steering committee of citizens to plan for the 100th/125-th celebra-tions. We will be staging a number of major events such as receptions, parades, concerts, and tours. Annual events such as Family Day, Winter Carnival, and Canada Day will have a special flavour. For those looking for more intellec-tual sustenance, the library will be putting on readings, lectures, and displays. A resplendently-restored Victoria Hall will be officially opened near the beginning of the year.

The idea is to get everyone involved: schools, community groups, merchants. Aside from myself and Karin Marks from Council, we are fortunate to have the following volunteers on the steering committee: Ann Birks, Beryl Bowser, Victor Drury, Virginia Elliott, Margo Hall, Sue Khan, Judy Martin, Robert Vézina, Rhoda Vineberg, and Joan Winser. Specific event committees will shortly be formed. City employees, both from the library and from City Hall are also involved.

All events we hope to carry off in style, with sub-stance, but without too much seriousness. Watch this space and the rest of this newspaper for more news of this double-barrelled celebration. Next year, it'll be time to kick up our heels a bit.

• September 3, 1998 SOUND BEGETS FURY
  
• 2 Oct TAXATION BY MISREPRESENTATION
  
• 12 OCT on $500,000,000 TAX GRAB Tax grab turns into burlesque
  
• 16 OCT A MEETING WITH BOUCHARD
  
  
  Stories in 1997 are available on reauest dtnicholson@videotron.ca
  
  
  • Search "trent" matched 5 GAZETTE documents Mar 19th puls many others