Christmas miracle in Brighton revealed

Phot by Dan Jones

By Cecilia Nasmith

Northumberland County Councillor Brian Ostrander shared details of a true Christmas miracle with his fellow councillors at this week's meeting.

The Brighton mayor recalled that he had been on-line on Christmas Day reading a post “on one of our favourite social-media sites” from a Brighton woman that said, “my husband was dutifully cleaning up the garage and he inadvertently packed up two boxes of gifts and took them to the landfill site.”

Ostrander private-messaged her to say he would send a message to someone, though it was Thursday and the landfill would not be open until Monday – but she should keep her fingers crossed.

The mayor insisted that he does not expect municipal employees to monitor their e-mails and official communications channels on holidays, but a supervisor did. And on Boxing Day, he actually went to the landfill himself, found the boxes of gifts and took them to their owner.

“A Christmas miracle happened because staff were reading their e-mails on Christmas Day. Thank you very much!” Ostrander said.