Mayor's Message 6 October

Hello everyone,

As regular readers will have noticed, my weekly Mayor’s Message has been missing the past couple of weeks while I took some time off to enjoy the school holidays with my young children.

This past week had many in our community nervous, with the heavy rain leaving many feeling anxious. The events of last Spring are still fresh in our minds and we still haven’t fully recovered.

While we’ve received some funding for flood repairs, we’re still seeking funds for the Indigo Valley Road bridge replacement and its likely there’ll be additional damage caused by this week’s rain event, especially to infrastructure in the Kiewa catchment.

Funding for road repairs is a major advocacy issue for us, along with pretty much every other regional and rural council across the state, and it’s something we raise with government at every opportunity.

As the CEO addressed last week, we have awarded contracts for a significant amount of road repairs and maintenance to get underway. These works total more than $6M and include major patching and resealing.

This week, I also want to talk about a number of projects currently underway that we’re seeking your input on.

We received state government grants to develop master plans for four of our recreation reserves and the first two draft plans have been developed following extensive stakeholder engagement. While the engagement period for the draft Coulston Park master plan closes today, we are keen to hear from the broader community on the Barkly Park master plan and will be seeking feedback on the Allans Flat Waterhole and Yackandandah Sports Park draft plans in the coming weeks.

We’re also engaging on small township planning for Barnawartha and Stanley and our new economic Development Strategy.  Details on how you can get involved are on our ENGAGED INDIGO website.

I strongly encourage you to take a look and if you have something to offer, then please do as community involvement is so important to ensuring that the work we do reflects your needs and aspirations for our Shire.

Take care

Cr Sophie Price