Chamber president Peter Tonks (right) with the inaugural citizen of the year, Michael Adams. (0648133)

SARK Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural citizen of the year is Michael Adams.

Mickey, as he is widely known, works for the island and is a familiar sight to residents and tourists alike, ensuring that as far as possible the roads are kept clear of horse manure, leaves and general rubbish.

He is also responsible for the somewhat thankless task of emptying septic tanks and taking their contents to the sewage-treatment works at Les Laches.

Making the presentation at a large gathering of Chamber members and guests, president Peter Tonks described Mr Adams as one of Sark’s many unsung heroes.

Referring to the adage that a person’s worth to a community sometimes becomes apparent only in his or her absence, he said that Mr Adams’s recent enforced break from work, through surgery, was evidence of that and added that he was always willing to go that extra mile.

There were two recipients of the commercial lifetime achievement award – Werner and Phyllis Rang who, for more than 40 years have run their jewellery shop in The Avenue. Mr Tonks said that their other service to the community, notably as members of Chief Pleas for very many decades, had been well documented.

‘Their business has been “open shop” for tens of thousands of residents and visitors, not to mention the hundreds of curious journalists and television crews who have imparted their fascinating story to a worldwide audience,’ he said.

The community lifetime achievement award went to Pam Cocksedge, whose work for charity – notably, but not solely, the Professor Charles Saint Medical Fund – was legendary, said Mr Tonks. He described the award as a token of thanks from the community for a lifetime of giving.

The Sark Commerce personality of the year award was given to Kevin Delaney, widely known as the Barclay family’s man in island. Mr Tonks said that the award was to Mr Delaney personally and recognised his invaluable investment in the people and community.

The young citizen of the year Award went to Gemma Dewe for being one of the youngest people to become a member of the Sark Carnival Committee. Her responsibilities included the organisation of the Miss Sark Princess competition at the sheep race weekend.

The overseas ambassador of the year is artist and illustrator Martin Remphrey, in recognition of his contribution through his work to the promotion of Sark. Island-educated Mr Remphrey contributes appropriate works of art each year for the Keep Sark Tidy campaign and the carnival brochure, the originals of which are always auctioned for charity.

For a significant number of people – the owners and co-owners of tenements – this will give them their first opportunity to take part in a Sark election because, when they had an automatic seat in Chief Pleas by virtue of being landowners, they were disenfranchised in much the same way as were members of the House of Lords.

The meeting called last week by current members Diane Baker and Helen Plummer to give potential candidates an idea of their prospective workload was encouragingly well attended by more than 60 residents.

The most telling piece of advice given came from Deputy Tony Dunks, who said that elected members would need ‘a filing cabinet or a shredder or both’. Even in a place as bureaucracy-free as Sark, the paper mountain continues its inexorable climb.

• The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.