Council Connect: 7 November 2024

Published on 07 November 2024

It was very pleasing over the last couple of weeks to see some of our new young guns step up with a video presentation, and certainly congratulations to Councillors Carruthers and Ley.  Well done you two, I thought you did very well indeed. We're still reflecting on our media presentation and whether we should do a video presentation like this every week or maybe once a month, or just go back to the correspondence that you can read. So give us some feedback on that, and we're happy to adjust to whatever you're comfortable with.

Don’t forget to listen to Dungog radio on Friday. This week, we've got Belinda from tourism, and she'll be definitely worth listening to. She's full of enthusiasm, and tourism is a main driver of our economy. So tune into Dungog radio on Friday at 1pm.

And of course, our roads and infrastructure keeps powering on. You can chase all those work updates on our Facebook page. You know, as I come along the Clarence Town Road, you can see massive work being done there, so well done to that team.

I'd like to talk this week about a couple of community events. This new council is certainly focused on the community and what they're being involved with. And the first one I'd really like to flag is the Paterson Rotary Club hosting a Pride of Workmanship Award, which I was fortunate enough to be asked to hand out the awards. This recognised great customer service and pride of workmanship from the staff and the businesses around and in Paterson. That sort of stuff is a win win for both the business and the staff. And it was a really commendable evening and a great success.

The other one I'd like to give you a heads up on was a great event at Clarence Town, the Swim In at the caravan park. It was a great outcome, with a range of military vehicles attending, and amphibious vehicles which was exciting to see too. And of course, they tell me a record set with 18 Bren Gun Carriers lining up outside the pub. So well done to those guys. And I must say, Council staff worked extremely hard to make sure the event was a success. So well done to everyone there, and we look forward to seeing you guys come back with the Swim In next year.

Finally, on the community messages, the last of the Community Building workshops will be held Thursday night, and we have a special event for council staff and council on Friday with the presenters there, and this will finalise with an event at Strout and a dinner at the Farmer’s Wife. This has gone on for quite a while, and it's an investment of $250,000 from Rural Aid, and it's getting a lot of media attention, and a number of magnificent projects have been picked up across the shire. One that certainly attracted a lot of attention is the Platypus Tourist Trail. And let’s see how that one goes, it’s an exciting little venture and the enthusiasm from those involved is absolutely fantastic.

Well, anyway, that's enough from me for the week so cheers and have a good weekend.