What you don’t get to see - besides the hours of study, mountains of paperwork and multitude of civic duties - is some of the pain-staking choices our elected nine must make from week-to-week.

About the toughest they will face is to decide the immediate and long-term future of the shire’s unwanted, abandoned and most vulnerable living creatures - those little darlings waiting for new love at the animal shelter (see front page story).

Revelations the pound is running at massive losses couldn’t come at a worse time for Council, nor the animals housed in it.

Wingecarribee is not in a place to be wanton with its spending and nor can it keep on absorbing losses of such magnitude.

Because of its sensitive financial predicament, Council is considering several options to help cover the shelter’s mounting debts.

One of them is increased euthanasia. The word, just like its implicit meaning, immediately conjures up division and dread. But as much as it spells out a dire end for the shelter’s animal residents, it’s an option that must be considered.

o On another note, it’s terrific to see Aussie larrikinism hasn’t been totally swallowed up by commercial exploitation, and it seems those pesky kids (to steal a Scooby Doo term) out Robertson way have got away with some pretty creative vandal... er, sorry, art (see page 4 story).

For while some juveniles deface property with meaningless scribbles and damage, this trick has actually generated new life for a township’s iconic landmark. As for a name, how about Mr Chipps!