From the Mayor's Desk By Cr IAN GOSPER Mayor of Cabonne Council

POSTED 16 JANUARY 2017

Cabonne marks year of achievements despite merger threat

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says: “May you live in interesting times.”

To say 2016 was an interesting year for Cabonne Council would be an understatement and 2017 is shaping up to be very interesting indeed.

Ever since the NSW Government announced a proposed amalgamation of Cabonne, Orange and Blayney Councils in December 2015, we have been operating in a merger-proposal period under a number of strict guidelines.

It could be an excuse for indecision and inaction, but for Cabonne it was the opposite.

Not only was it business as usual, but we have experienced an exceptional year of achievements.

We are in the middle of implementing a record $67 million budget, with a record $32 million being spent on roads and transport.

Cabonne is experiencing probably the busiest period of roadworks in its history.

As well as implementing our record roadworks program, our staff have been extremely busy repairing all the damage caused by months of heavy rain, floods and the diversion of Newell Highway traffic through our Shire.

It is remarkable that all the heavy patching due to the detoured traffic from the Newell Highway was completed in two-and-a-half months. This work, undertaken by Cabonne on behalf of Roads and Maritime Services, started in October and was finished before Christmas at a cost of $3.8m.

Cabonne’s staff have done a remarkable job of carrying out these repairs and progressing the Council’s unprecedented road improvements program.

In fact, the way Council staff in all departments have performed in difficult circumstances is a credit to their dedication and professionalism and is the main reason we have been able to deliver the key elements of our 2016-17 Budget, which will future-proof the Shire for many years to come.

Major roads and bridges projects in 2016 included:

— Construction of a new $1.9m bridge over Hanover Creek between Cumnock and Yeoval.

— Reconstructing and sealing 6.4 kilometres of Gumble Road at a cost of $2.25m.

— $1m worth of rehabilitation works at Reedy Creek for the RMS.

— $2.2m worth of culvert widening, overlay and stabilizing on Packham Drive.

— 5.2 kilometres of rehabilitation works on two sections of Cargo Road.

— Implementing of a $2.4m reseal program on State, regional and local roads.

—Sealing the remaining gravel section of Canobolas Road to the summit of Mt Canobolas.

— Resealing the lower section of Bank Street in Molong’s CBD.

Away from roads, there have been many other major highlights in a remarkable year of achievements for Cabonne.

These included:

— Receiving tenders for the first section of a $23.5m pipeline to provide drinking water to Yeoval and Cumnock. The $16.7m first stage is for a pipeline from Orange to Molong Creek Dam and from Molong to Cumnock.

—Lodging the Development Application for the construction of a new library at Molong adja-cent to Molong Community Hall, with work to start this year.

— Starting construction on the first stage of the $1m multi-purpose synthetic sports field at Mo-long which should be completed in the first half of this year. This will provide synthetic hock-ey and soccer fields, plus synthetic netball and tennis courts.

— Preparing for the construction of a $600,000 fossil storage and research centre at the Age of Fishes Museum at Canowindra, after receiving a $300,000 NSW Government grant to match $300,000 from Cabonne.

— Conducting the highly successful Discover the Riches television and social media marketing campaign to promote Cabonne towns and villages, which reached more than four million people.

— Winning a major Local Government award and being runner-up in another when the annual NSW Local Government Excellence Awards were presented in Sydney in April. Cabonne received the award for Special Project Initiatives for its Business Improvement Program and was runner-up in the Excellence in Workforce Management category.

— Providing $63,000 in Community Assistance Program grants to community organisations to undertake 15 projects throughout the Shire.

— Donating $20,000 to the Canowindra community to help buy an ultrasound machine for the Canowindra hospital.

— Hosting the NSW Master Road Race Cycling Championship in April at Molong, which will be the venue for the next two years.

— Winning the award for the Best Individual Contribution to Workplace Health and Safety at the NSW Government SafeWork Awards for a portable lifting device invented by Council employee Kerry Dent. Kerry’s invention beat entries from Mirvac Constructions, Lendlease and the State Transit Authority. It was also successful in the StateCover Awards earlier in the year.

Cabonne continues its legal challenge against the proposed merger with Orange City and Blayney Councils after lodging an appeal in the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal just prior to Christmas.

We are now awaiting notification of hearing dates and will keep you fully informed of any further developments as they occur.

I wish everyone in Cabonne a happy and successful New Year and may we still be here to pass on the same greeting next year.

*Based on media release issued by Cabonne Council.

Cr Ian Gosper ... Cabonne is experiencing probably the busiest period of roadworks in its history.