Killaloe — A familiar face was back in her usual position at the head of the council table in Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards (KHR) Township last Tuesday night after more than a two-month hiatus.

Mayor Janice Visneskie Moore attended her first meeting in person last week after being housebound with a broken ankle suffered when she slipped on ice outside her residence on Island View Drive in North Algona Wilberforce on February 6.

“I just want to say hi to everybody and I’m glad to be back,” she said before getting into the business part of the meeting. “Thank you council for accommodating me and allowing me to participate in the meetings by phone.

“I do appreciate it,” she added. “And now you guys are stuck with me again because I don’t want to break anything for a while.”

Shortly after her accident, council passed a by-law enabling Mayor Visneskie Moore to participate in the meetings via the phone which enabled her to stay in touch with what was happening in the municipality.

Now able to get around with a walking cast on the injured leg/ankle, she said it felt really good to be back at the table in person.

“Even though I was able to do some work during time I was away, it was just nice to see council face-to-face and the staff. I’m really, really happy to be back.”

Mayor Visneskie Moore said she had another two weeks to go with the air cast/walking boot and then she was having another x-ray done.

“If it comes back looking good, then I can take the air boot off, and the doctor will authorize me to drive again,” she said. “I’m looking forward to that.

“I’ve misused my friendship with a whole lot of people, asking them to drive me around, so it will be nice to be able to do it myself.”

She was in a regular cast for eight weeks prior to getting the air cast.

“Council was wonderful,” she said of her time away. “I appreciated that council had passed the by-law to allow me to participate by phone so that kept me in the loop as to  what was going on, even though I couldn’t be there.

“The staff did drive out if there was anything urgent that I needed to see because I didn’t have the ability to print anything,” she added. “It was really good that they did that.”

Mayor Visneskie Moore said during her recovery she was unable to participate at the County of Renfrew level, noting she attended a health committee meeting the previous week. She is vice-chair of the committee.

“Mayor Donohue (Michael Donohue of Admaston-Bromley), the chair, was unable to be there, so I got a drive in and I was able to chair the meeting in his absence,” she said. “That was the first time I had returned to the county.”  

In her 33 years in municipal politics, the mayor has never been away from the chambers any longer than the three weeks she used to take for holidays with her late husband, Les Moore.