You’ve got to be kidding! Goat beats out dogs, cats to be ‘mayor’ of US town

FAIR HAVEN, Vermont — A 3-year-old Nubian goat named Lincoln is poised to become the first honorary pet mayor of the small Vermont town of Fair Haven.

The nanny goat was chosen this week by townspeople for the oneyear post at the community’s Town Meeting Day.

Lincoln takes office on Tuesday. He may be a political novice but the goat’s name, Lincoln, brings with it a storied pedigree.

The ballot of 16 pets was open to all town residents. Most of the other candidates were dogs and cats; a gerbil named Crystal also was a candidate.

Lincoln, with 13 votes, beat out a dog named Sammie that received 10 votes. The other candidates combined for 30 votes.

Fair Haven, a town of about 2,500 along the border with New York just west of Rutland, does not have a human mayor, but the Town Manager, Joseph Gunter, holds similar functions.

When Gunter read in a newspaper that the village of Omena, Michigan, had made Sweet Tart the cat its “top” official, he got the idea to organize a similar election to raise funds for building a playground.

He thought it would be a good way to raise money for a local playground. It only raised about $100 through a $5 entry fee, but it provided other benefits.

“It was a great way to introduce the elementary school kids to local government,” he said.

The goat, which belongs to a math teacher, will get an education in the town’s major festivals which it will represent during its one-year mandate: “Memorial Day parade, the Apple Fest and the events we organize every Friday in the summer,” Gunter said.

The balloting for pet mayor was held alongside the regular Town Meeting Day vote, but any town resident could vote.

With 53 votes cast, the turnout was low, Gunter admitted, “but it was the first time, we expect it to be better next year”.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ACCRA, Ghana — As Ghana’s urban landscape gently slides by the train window, Shaibu Amoah swells with pride.The 37-year-old has been helping to renovate railway lines in Accra since last June, clearing debris and shoveling ballast in the hot sun.When the short line from Accra to the port of Tema finally reopened in January, Amoah was on the first public run.“I am feeling proud of my work because I am helping my country to move ahead,” he said.The head of the Ghana Railway Development Authority, Richard Diedong Dombo, said the transport sector was crucial for the country’s development, pointing to railways as historic “engines of growth”.Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo established the Ministry of Railways Development in 2017 to restore existing lines dating back to British colonial rule — and build new ones.Ghana’s railway network comprises three lines with some branch extensions, totaling 940 kilometers of track.Under a 2013 Master Plan, the country aims to have 4,000 kilometers of track by 2048.It would connect Accra with Sekondi-Takoradi in the southwest to the central city of Kumasi, and to Tamale in the north, and link Tema to Burkina Faso, Ghana’s northern neighbor.The total cost is estimated at about $21.5 billion. Sally Stanton (right) holding her grandson as he feeds Lincoln, the goat who was elected “Pet Mayor” for the town of Fair Haven, Vermont, on March 6.