OCEAN CITY – Although Councilwoman Margaret Pillas announced this week her time is done on the City Council, she is excited to pick up her grand adventures of traveling the world.
“This is the last Monday night meeting before the Oct. 6 filing deadline. I want to inform the town that I will not be seeking another term on the council. As an elected official, I prepare myself every day to live up to the responsibilities and opportunities of this position. It has been a pleasure to know and work with the town’s dedicated staff who I appreciate a great deal. It has been satisfying and at times challenging to deliberate and debate on town issues with my colleagues, and it has been a privilege to represent the public, the voters and all the taxpayers of Ocean City. From my heart, I thank those who voted for me and gave me their support and opportunity to serve the Town of Ocean City for two terms, and I hope they still hold me in their confidence,” Pillas said at the conclusion of Monday evening’s Mayor and City Council legislative session.
On Wednesday, Pillas told The Dispatch elaborated on her reasoning, feeling it is just time for her to move on.
“I have served enough time on the council and it feels right to go back to being a citizen of the town,” she said. “There are so many things that I was involved in but my entire eight years was dedicated to one purpose and that was to keep the public informed. That is me, period.”
Many may not know but Pillas and her husband, Perry, live for adventure. She has traveled to 70 countries and has been to every continent except for Antarctica, spending months in every place she visits.
“That [travel] is what we do when we aren’t doing civil work for the citizens or spending time with our family, and that is what we will continue to do. I will not be at my last council meeting because I am going to be in Turkey for a couple of weeks and then we are heading for Spain where we will participate in The Way of Saint James that is a 400-mile walk across Spain to St. James Church.”
As former seasonal business owners, the Pillas’ lifestyle has always been to take nine months off a year during the off-season following the busy summers. Her tip in traveling is to take time wherever you go and don’t just pass through airports.
“We have the habit of just taking a little bit of clothing with us, just the basics and buy items along the way. Whether we are in Germany or China, we just like to walk the streets and eat the local cuisine and experience everyday life,” she said.
Pillas shared an off the cuff experience her and her husband encountered while visiting Rome. One morning they decided to take an early morning ride on the subway to enjoy the peacefulness of Vatican City where they walked around and eventually made their way into the church. As they were getting ready to leave, a group of people filed into the church, and they ended up being lumped in with them.
“The guards began ushering this group of people, and I thought they were taking us a different way to exit but they ended up taking us up the back steps of the church, and the group that we ended up being lumped in with was the family of a Saint that was being canonization. We kept saying to the guards we are trying to exit but we ended up on the alter where Pope John Paul said a mass before this family,” Pillas said. “Those types of things happen when you spend time. I am always telling my friends and family to not just go for a week and hang out in the usual places. Get off the beaten track and explore during odd time frames and remarkable things will happen to you.”
While in Egypt, Pillas decided she wanted to go on a camel ride into the desert and ended up being only a short distance from the pyramids.
“When we got there [pyramids], we walked around and spent some time there. The archeologists were doing a small dig on a portion of the pyramid. It was the first month after Desert Storm was over, and they said they haven’t seen any travelers in the area for over nine months, and they took us into the pyramids and through the burial chambers,” she said. “I have thousands of stories from all over the world. I am ready to start over again … we are thrilled to pick our lives up again.”
On top of traveling the world, Pillas has been in the process of achieving her pilot’s license. With all of her hours completed, she is on the verge of receiving the license, in addition to already being a certified scuba diver.
“I am a dare devil,” she said.