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Posted: Wednesday, 26 September 2018

Councillor Kris Civitarese was elected as Deputy Mayor at the August Ordinary Council meeting. His position, like that of former Deputy Mayor Noel Hayes, will last for 12 months.

Council commemorated Australian National Flag Day on 3 September with a ceremony to remind all Australians of the importance and significance of Australia’s national symbol. Anthony Crafter delivered the Welcome to Country with Deputy Mayor Kris Civitarese and Councillors Ray Aylett and Ronald Plummer raising the Australian, Northern Territory and Aboriginal flags.

The Juno Centre has been shortlisted for a Chief Minister’s Award – ‘Making the NT a better place to live in through innovation’. Since the start of school this year, there have been 1281 students from Canteen Creek, Ti Tree, Neutral Junction, Alpurrurulam, Corella Creek, Elliott and Ali Curung using the accommodation and facilities.

As the new chair of the Regional Development Australia Northern Territory (RDNAT), the Mayor Steve Edgington discussed a range of development issues relevant to all parts of the Territory at its quarterly meeting in Alice Springs.

The Mayor and four members of the Tennant Creek Regional Economic Development Committee (REDC) – Josephine Bethel, Tony Civitarese and Steve and Jared Baldwin –  attended the two-day 10th annual NT Resources Week, including presentations on Mining the Territory, Building the Territory and the South-east Asia Offshore and Onshore Conference, in Darwin. The Mayor also chaired the Barkly and Tennant Creek Regional Spotlight session which included presentations from the NT Government geological survey, Emmerson Resources, Verdant Minerals and Territory Resources.

Mayor Steve Edgington and Deputy Mayor Kris Civitarese were given a tour of Warrego, the site of a new gold processing facility, by Territory Resources Chairman, Mr Yuzheng Xie and General Manager, Mr Stephen Jones. The new Mill will provide a Centralised Processing Facility for gold deposits and potential new mines, which means more jobs, more opportunities for local business, and more investment for Tennant Creek.

Patta Ward Councillors Sid Vashist and Jeffrey McLaughlin and Mayor Steve Edgington met with Year 9 students at the Tennant Creek High School to talk about the role of Council, local events, council decision making and its role with the media. The students presented the elected members with a number of ideas for their news reports and interviewed them individually about a range of topics to be published in a class newspaper.

Mayor Steve Edgington and Deputy Mayor Kris Civitarese attended a forum on the development of the NT Tourism 2030 Plan. Held by Deloitte Access Economics, the forum gave stakeholders in Tennant Creek the chance to provide important input as well as consider the challenges, opportunities and barriers to improving tourism. A draft of the NT Tourism 2030 Plan will be available later this year.

The Mayor met with the Director of the Aboriginal Justice Unit Leanne Liddle to discuss the development of an Aboriginal Justice Agreement (AJA) to make a positive impact on reducing Aboriginal imprisonment rates across the NT.

Area Managers from the communities of Ali Curung, Alpurrurulam, Ampilatwatja, Arlparra, Elliott and Wutunugurra came into Tennant Creek for three days of meetings and workshops to provide support and assistance with the continued improvement of delivery of services in the Barkly region.

The Bush Botanics exhibition is worth a visit. Launched earlier this year by Barkly Regional Arts, Bush Botanics is a collaborative community arts exhibition exploring local plants through art, language, videos and stories about bush medicine and bush tucker. The exhibition is open Monday-Friday, 8am-4.30pm, at Barkly Arts, 65 Staunton Street, Tennant Creek, until Thursday, 20 December 2018.

Deputy Mayor Kris Civitarese and Mayor Steve Edgington met with the team from Connected Beginnings to celebrate the children of Tennant Creek at the primary school oval.

Next Ordinary Council meeting on Thursday, 27 September 2018, starting at 8.30am.

Next Mayor's column out in the Tennant and District Times on Friday, 28 September.