Message from the Mayor: 7 July 2023
Published on 07 July 2023
Hello I'm John Connors, the Mayor of the Dungog Shire bringing you this week's Mayoral Message.
July the 19th sees the opening of the revamped library in Dungog. The official opening will take place at 11:30am and will be performed by the Honourable George Souris, the former member for the Upper Hunter, who is president of the Library Council of NSW. The Library Council of NSW gave about 50% or a bit more of the funds that enabled this project to proceed. They gave the first lot of funding without which the project would never have got off the ground. So it's appropriate that the Library Council be recognised and its chairman, our former member, have the honour of officially opening the building.
The community is invited to attend. And if you wish to attend, go to Council's website and follow the instructions there to let everyone know that you that you're coming. Numbers are required as it's intended that they'll be a light lunch following the official proceedings. So to assist, please go to the website and indicate the fact that you will be attending.
As you are watching or reading this, NAIDOC Week is coming to a close and Council participated in the previous week, the last week of school before the school holidays, with various NAIDOC functions throughout the Shire. So I'm sure by now you've all either participated in or have a greater awareness of NAIDOC Week and its significance to the first Australian community.
We're in July and that's Plastic Free July. And Dungog as you know is a leader in trying to minimise the use of single use plastic and the boomerang bags initiative has been a great driver towards that end. Everyone is encouraged to use reusable coffee cups and reusable water bottles and not to use single use plastic bags. Either use canvas bags, cloth bags of some description or a boomerang bag which are available in Dungog or if you don't have a bag, IGA outlets and I'm sure other outlets in Paterson and East Gresford, have cardboard boxes available which you can use rather than using single use plastic bags.
The work has commenced on Jordans Bridge and as a result of that Summerhill Road will be closed. It's acknowledged that this will cause inconvenience, but unfortunately, hopefully the end result will be worth the pain along the way.
Talking of bridges, unfortunately this week the Dusodie Bridge which is being replaced, but the existing bridge which is still in use, suffered potential damage as a result of an overweight vehicle traveling over it. As a precaution Council has inspected the bridge and has imposed a 40-tonne load limit on that bridge just to ensure that there is no catastrophic event.
So I know that will probably cause inconvenience to some. But unfortunately, there's no alternative to protect the safety of road users.
That I think brings this week to an end. And of course there'll be Council Happenings bringing you further additional information from Council at this time. So until next week. That's it from me, good luck and goodbye.