Message from the Mayor: 24 May 2024

Published on 24 May 2024

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

During the week whilst moving around the shire for my ‘Meet the Mayor’ sessions, I was in Vacy on Wednesday and one couldn't help but notice the major improvements that have been made to the Vacy Oval. Not only is there now a nice white picket fence, but there has been significant tree planting along that fence line on the roadside. It's going to look amazing once the mature trees they've put in grow.

So that is a great way to move to thank all the members of Council’s Section 355 Committees and it's one of those committees that looks after the Vacy Oval that has organised, done and funded the planting of the trees. The fence was done in conjunction with council but the trees solely an initiative of the committee and I think it shows what can be done by volunteers in the community.

So I thank all of the members of the ten Section 355 Committees of Council throughout the shire. Without these committees Council would be unable to manage the sporting fields, look after the various halls and of course the James Theatre in Dungog. Volunteers are an absolutely integral part of the operation of Council and the operation of the community.

In the community, there are too many volunteers to thank individually and too many organisations to pick out but one obvious one, I suppose was the SES, who put up a stand in front of Council on Wednesday to highlight the fact that it was volunteers week and to seek more volunteers to recruit people to assist them in the work that they do in times of need.

So again to all the volunteers, thank you for the contribution you make to the community!

On Thursday, continuing my ‘Meet the Mayor’ sessions I was in Paterson and as darkness fell, Council workers were still at work on the rebuilding of the road through Tucker Park. They know they're on a deadline, and they know they have to have it looking nice by the 1st of June for the fireworks night which is the Paterson Rotary Club's major fundraiser for the year, and I thought it was a great effort to see them still trying to get the job done as darkness fell. So a big thanks to them for the effort they're putting in to try and meet the deadline, after having been hampered by the wet weather. So I hope it stays fine and I hope they get it done, and I hope Tucker Park dries out a little bit to enable the fireworks to take place.

Roadworks continue in Queen St in Clarence Town where there are detours in place, and continue at Durham Rd between Gresford and East Gresford.  Again, there's traffic control in place there and those works are moving along and hopefully will change, the work will move from one side of the road to the other and the road that's been worked on will get sealed very soon.

Stroud Hill is underway and works have commenced and the contractors are underway on the four kilometres of Stroud Hill that have to be rehabilitated.

The weather's been unkind it for roadworks in recent weeks and hopefully, going forward the weather might be a little kinder for all of us, because the ground is certainly very waterlogged and wet weather is not conducive to road building or road maintenance, and it is conducive to growing potholes. So hopefully, the weather might be a little kinder in the coming weeks and more progress can be made both on filling the potholes and on the significant roadworks that are underway throughout the shire.

I think that's it for me for this week. So until next week, good luck and goodbye.