By Pepper Parr
July 18th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
David Vollick has been serving as the Town Crier for the city of Burlington for at least five years.
He gets called upon to ring his bell and bellow out the message he is in the room to deliver.
A number of months ago during the day the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation was trying to set a new Guinness Book of Records record for the largest crowd forming a letter of the alphabet.
They did their level best to get a crowd that would form a huge J in Spencer Smith Park.
They didn’t quite make it – the falling rain didn’t help.
David Vollick in “full throat” making an important announcement. Vollick was awarded First Place in a recent Town Crier competition.
But Vollick was there with his footwear covered in mud.
We asked Vollick a sensitive question – who pays the cleaning bills? David looked at the ground and sadly said that he was still playing the cleaning bills.
A Beachway resident offered to send Vollick a cheque to cover the cost of some of the dry cleaning.
When Vollick appeared before city council saying he was setting himself up as a Town Crier for the city – the biggest question was – how much is this going to cost us?
Vollick said it wasn’t going to cost the city anything – he would just like their blessing for what he was setting out to do.
He did wonder aloud if there might be some support for the cost of dry cleaning the uniform that he has to get done twice a year. They didn’t offer a dime but the city calls on him frequently.
Chisellers treat people like that.
However there has been some sunshine in Vollick life. He recently entered a Town Crier’s contest in Easton, Pennsylvania where he was awarded “First Place”.
In his constituency newsletter Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven thanks David “for representing Burlington and the Museums of Burlington.”
But nothing for the cost of cleaning the uniform.
Surely this man who adds character and ceremony to our city, and asks so very little of us deserves to get his uniform cleaned a couple of times a year. Chisellers is an apt description.
The Mayor and Council can find hundreds of thousands of OUR dollars to throw away on boondoggles such as the Pier and bike lanes but cannot find a few dollars to support a man who is doing wonderful work to represent Burlington Internationally?
Shame on you Burlington City Council. Shame on you.