Legacy cash latest
Massive response
Shaky Village residents have stepped up to the task of collectively deciding how the fortune of a former prisoner of war should be spent.
Over 250 surveys were returned to the Interim Steinmeyer Legacy Committee, which has been set up to consult with the village on ways of spending the £384,000 left to the elderly of Comrie by German Heinrich Steinmeyer.
The committee was overwhelmed by the amount of green forms returned when they made the count at a meeting last Wednesday. More responses than expected had come in with many forms containing more than one idea.
Chairman Murray Lauchlan said: “After the efforts of a voluntary group trying to disperse the survey forms as widely as possible, 266 responses was a fantastic number of survey forms to be returned against the number of people living in the village.
“Many of them, of course, will have more than one suggestion. I want to thank everyone who has helped so far, and to thank those who responded in the survey.”
It will now be a mammoth task for committee members to analyse and collate all the ideas.
Mr Lauchlan said at the meeting there was a need to get a view of what ideas were supported by the survey and that the results must be transparently available to everyone in the village.
A preliminary public meeting also generated ideas, which have already been transferred into a report as have the views of those attending Silver Circle.
These will be posted on the community website and available to anyone who wants a copy.
Another public meeting will follow once all the data has been recorded and the most popular ideas will be set out. When Mr Steinmeyer visited Comrie a couple of years before his death he said: “Everything I owned will be sold and given to the people of Comrie because the Scots treated me as a human being.”
The returned survey forms also identified 14 people expressing an interest in being members of the Legacy Fund Committee, which will be set up to distribute the funds once the village has decided on the final plans for the bequest.
Prospective members will be contacted and invited to join the next meeting of the Interim Committee.
It was agreed that some form of village vote on permanent Legacy Committee membership would be required and this could be carried out at the next public meeting.