Message from the Mayor: 10 November 2023

Published on 10 November 2023

Hello, I'm John Connors, the Mayor of the Dungog shire, bringing you this week's Mayoral message.

The Council is very pleased to be able to report that of the 23 timber bridges that were funded for replacement under the NSW government’s Timber Bridge Replacement Program, 14 bridges and their approaches have been completed.

There are a further four bridges that have been completed but their approaches are still under construction. Construction is currently being carried out on three bridges, and two bridges are at the design stage and will be commenced within the next couple of months.

All of the works should, subject to weather, be completed by April 2024. By that time, the whole 23 bridges throughout the shire will have been replaced which will leave only one bridge requiring replacement. That bridge didn't meet the criteria of this program because of the amount of steel in it and that is the Suspension bridge at Gresford. Council is hopeful that funding will be forthcoming very, very shortly, which will facilitate the replacement of that bridge. And if that occurs, then the maintenance going forward of bridges will be a thing of the past and that will allow monies to be spent on other infrastructure, road maintenance and the like, rather than maintenance of all timber bridges.

So it's a great outcome. It's been a great program and it's been very well administered by the engineer that’s involved and for that, Council and the community should be very grateful.

Commencing today, Friday, is the Dungog Show. It’s on today and tomorrow, the 128th Dungog Show at the Dungog Showground.

An enormous amount of effort has gone into the preparation for the show. And I'm sure it'll be a great success and I encourage all those who are able to pay a visit to the show, be it for the animals or the side shows, the grand parade or whatever, but please go take part and enjoy the event.

Next Wednesday is the monthly Council Meeting at 6pm at the Council Chambers, but as usual, it will also be live-streamed on Facebook. So I encourage members of the community to either come along and sit in the gallery at the council or alternatively, tune in on Facebook and watch the live stream and become familiar with the process and familiar with the decisions the Council makes and perhaps the reason for those decisions. The business paper that details the matters that will be considered is available on Council’s website. And again, I encourage you to go and look at the business paper and again become aware of the matters that are before Council and the decisions that Council will be making.

As I've mentioned previously, nominations are currently being called for the Australia Day Awards. The awards consist of Citizen of the Year, Sports Person of the Year, Young Sports Person of the Year, Environmental Person of the Year, and Volunteer of the Year.

Full details and nomination forms are available on Council’s website. And I ask that the members of the community might give thought to nominating the people they think deserving of these awards. Nominations close on the 24th of November, so there's not a lot of time. But I encourage you to think about it and participate in this process. There's people out there that are deserving of having their service to the community acknowledged and this is an opportunity to do so, but it can only happen if those that are aware of what others are doing put in the effort to nominate them. So I ask that you do.

With that I think that's it for this week, so until next Friday, good luck and goodbye.