Message from the Mayor: 13 October 2023

Published on 13 October 2023

Good morning everybody. I'm Gareth Curtis, the General Manager here at Dungog Shire Council. Welcome to the message for this week. I'm filling in for Mayor Connors who's out of the Shire this week in Brisbane on business. But let us get into the update for this week.

So earlier this week we had the pleasure of meeting with Senator Deb O'Neill and one of her staff members down at the Clarence Town bridge. This is quite an important bridge. As many in the community know we've been advocating for additional funding so that we can actually deliver this bridge for the benefit of the community so that people can get safely from one side of Clarence Town to the other without having to worry about the current issues we have with the existing Brig O’Johnston Bridge.

The Senator was very impressed actually. When she came down to visit she met with myself, the Mayor, our Executive Manager Steve Hitchens, and our Deputy Mayor Steve Low who's from that area, and she was also quite supportive of what Council was actually trying to do in seeking those additional funds. And whilst she did indicate that she felt our case was quite good, she said that she would make representations on behalf of us as the Duty Senator for this area, and those representations would go to Minister Catherine King and her office in relation to the 90-day strategic review, which is holding up a lot of these projects across the country, not just in Dungog Shire.

But we were also very pleased to hear this week from staff that Clarence Town Road funding was not being considered in that particular review. So we're quite happy about that. So that project will continue as it has been. We look forward to hearing more about the bridge funding as soon as possible and we will certainly be in contact with the Senator's office in following up that matter.

The other issue we did discuss with the Senator when she came back to Dungog Library to meet with other Councillors and senior staff at Council was the Betterment Program. The Betterment Program relates to $9.7 million of funding. The Gresford Suspension Bridge is part of that and there's 26 river crossings across the Shire that rely on that funding, as well as the Hooke St culvert in Dungog Town Centre. We understand that really what that funding is waiting on is the Federal Minister for Emergency Services, The Honourable Murray Watt, to actually sign off on that funding so that deeds of funding agreements can be sent out to the councils across Australia. And we're really looking forward to that because, as the residents in all of these areas know, that funding is actually proactive funding to improve infrastructure so that in future disasters we are more resilient, and that is a little bit of a change from the government in the past. Funding is often provided after the disaster. This is funding that's provided beforehand so that we are better prepared for future disasters that may occur. So we're also following that up with Senator Deb O'Neill as well and she's quite happy to make representations on that on our behalf as well.

Other issues we did raise with the Senator included matters dealing with Hunter Water and inequities across the Shire in relation to potential future projects. For example, the Glennies Creek to Lostock pipeline, and different catchment restrictions that Hunter Water might apply in different parts of our Shire. And I think all we're looking for is a little bit of consistency from Hunter Water in relation to matters that are occurring in our shire. And we're also looking for a reasonable hearing in relation to some of the things that come back to the community from that organisation. As many would know, and many might not, 80% of the water needs for greater Newcastle which is 600,00-700,000 people rely on water coming from Dungog Shire and as the restrictions that apply as a result of that impact this area and the ability of people to do business and to do developments in certain areas. So what we're looking for is a reasonable approach from Hunter Water that can either look at increasing the community grants which they currently provide and/or other mechanisms that can help us maintain the infrastructure that helps support the infrastructure that they use to deliver water. More on that soon, I hope.

Just for the community's benefit we also have the Chichester Dam picnic area closure. It's a good segue from Hunter Water. My understanding is that they've recently closed that indefinitely particularly the upper picnic area access of the dam remains open. But access to the dam wall will be intermittently closed from Tuesday the 10th of October, which was earlier this week. And that's for routine survey work. So this is not a Council project and Council is not responsible for that infrastructure or for closing that area off. So I would direct further inquiries to Hunter Water in that regard. And certainly, we've been sharing Hunter Water information on our Facebook sites and social media. So keep your eyes open for that if you're interested. Our Visitor Information Centre is also providing that information to potential tourists and visitors that come to town looking for experiences and to visit those dams for example.

On a great note too, the Australia Day Nominations are open so please encourage your fellow members of the community to put in nominations or put one in yourself. There's a number of different categories. This is such a great thing that Council does for the community.

It certainly recognises people who make contributions locally in the community. It's a great thing. So let's recognise the people that are trying to help this community by putting nominations in! The categories we have are:

- Citizen of the Year

- Young Citizen of the Year (certainly encourage young people and students to get involved in that one)

- Environmental Citizen of the Year

- Senior sports award

- Junior sports award (we do have some excellent sporting achievements occurring across this shire. So we should have a lot of people nominating for those I'm sure)

- Volunteer individual service to the community of award.

So take some time to have a look at those all those details and nominations are available on Council's website and our Facebook page. So if you'd like to do that or you know somebody who you would like to nominate do it yourself and those nominations the important closing date is the 24th of November.

So that's pretty much the brief update for this week. If you've got inquiries about any issues that were raised, certainly give my office a call during the week. Or you can also contact the Mayor he's also available his contact details are available on the website as well. So thank you very much for your time and I hope you all have a great week. Thanks