Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

tor system, and, in August, the board passed a resolution to budget $4000
for a new system. A shocked town council told the board to try and fix the
old system.
• The Board had grates and cold air return shafts put in every room. The
traces of this work can still be clearly seen. They also had repairs done to the
furnace. There was little or no improvement.
Above: In-floor duct and grate systems of the hot air system
• First Public Meeting August 1st 1921 A Majority of One!
The town mayor and his fellow school board members felt they were pouring
good money after bad, and, authorized by the Town Council, called a public
meeting to vote on the issue. Secretary, Orren Joudrey, read out a list, totaling
$1150, of recent expenditures to try and make the system work.
Doctors Cochrane and Mitchener moved a motion to authorize ‘the installation
of a steam heating apparatus in the academy…’ Result of vote: 19 for,
18 against. It was obviously a steamy meeting! The Progress wrote an ode:
The Knockers....If you’re used to giving knocks, Change your style, Throw bouqets
instead of rocks, For a while, Let the fellows count on you, You’ll feel better when
it’s through, Don’t you know
•Second Public Meeting May 11th, 1922 A Solid Majority
Town Council was not prepared to endorse a controversial majority of one.
Mr. Harrington, a senior manager with Dominion Radiators was brought in
to explain the system. This time, the Town Council, led by Mayor Reg Hyson,
formally endorsed the proposal and it called a meeting of taxpayers.
The vote to spend a maximum of $3500 on installation was passed with
a vote of 20 For, 5 Against and 5 Abstentions. The tender [$3002.10] of G.W.
Crouse of Middleton was accepted, and the new system was installed in the
summer of 1922.
Aspects of the new “steam furnace system”
In September 1923 the Board directed ‘the radiators and pipes be painted by Allen
Eisenor with black engine paint….’
Albert Daurie, the janitor, had to adapt to the new system. The December
1924 board meeting discussed, ‘… keeping steam up in the radiators, and making
fire at an early hour …and asking the janitor to try heating the building by 7 a.m.’
Town Council, School Budget, Town/Board Staff and Town Hall
• Elected in the spring of 1919, the first Town Council was elected, consisting
of: councilors:
D. A. Fancy [the blacksmith], who had been elected to the school
trustees in 1918,
William D. McLean [the merchant and boat builder],
Charles B. Begin [the sail maker and one of the new school’s ‘founding fathers’],
Dr. W. N. Cochrane [medical doctor and parent of school children],
Fred A. Penney [owner of the hotel] and H.H. Smith.
• The Town Council had final authority over the School Budget.
In 1919 Orren S. Joudrey was appointed full-time Town Clerk Treasurer and
School Board Secretary. He served the town and school well until his retirement
in 1949.
The First Town School Board Met in June 1919 after the civic elections
Mayor Arthur L. Ernst, who had been elected to the school trustees in 1919,
was First Mayor and School Board Chairman.
Augustus Joudrey, brother of “Pumpey” was appointed the first town policeman,
just in time to enforce a new by-law: Bicycle riding on sidewalks is strictly
prohibited. $5 is the fine for the first offence.
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