Council News 6 November 2019

Council News 6 November 2019

COUNCIL NEWS 6 NOVEMBER 2019

Tuesday 29 October, 2019 was a significant day for sport in the Weddin Shire with the Member for Cootamundra the Hon Steph Cooke MP attending Lawson Oval together with Councillors, staff and members of the Grenfell Rugby League Club to ‘turn a sod’ to officially mark the commencement of the Lawson Park Amenities Upgrade project. As residents are aware Council’s grant funding application under Round 2 of the Stronger Country Communities Fund (SCCF) was successful with the project to be funded as follows:

Project Title

Grant Value

Lawson Park Amenities Renewal

$820,000

Lawson Park Spectator facility

$110,000

Lawson Park Fitness Circuit

$50,000

It was terrific that all in attendance were able to express and extend their appreciation and thanks to Steph and the State Government for the grant funding, as well as Council for their assistance with the grant funding application process. 

This funding will be a real ‘game changer’ for sport in the Weddin Shire as it will enable us to upgrade our sports facilities to give every person in the Weddin Shire access to ‘State of the Art’ sporting facilities which will assist them in reaching their full potential in their chosen sport.

The 2020 Henry Lawson Festival will be held from the 4 – 8 June 2020 and planning is underway.

The Festival Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held Tuesday 29 October, 2019 at the Grenfell Community Hub with an excellent crowd of over 40 people in attendance who were all very keen to assist where possible with the arrangements for the 2020 festival. While all of the executive positions were not filled a number of the co-ordinator positions were which was very encouraging.

As previously advised with the upgrade of the Grenfell Main Street there may be a need to relocate the festival event for a year as the Main Street area may not be conducive to conducting an event such as the festival. This issue will need to be considered by the new committee. Council and the new committee will certainly make every endeavour to conduct the event in the Main Street as from a business, economic and social perspective the Main Street is certainly the preferred site to conduct the event.  It is also proposed to conduct a festival workshop in late March 2020 to assist in the future direction of the festival.

The next meeting of the Henry Lawson Festival Committee will be held on Tuesday 26 November, 2019 and residents are encouraged to attend the meeting and consider taking on an executive or co-ordinator role to assist in conducting the 2020 festival.

Nominations for the annual Weddin Shire Australia Day Awards are being invited this week and interested persons and organisations are invited to make nominations for the 2020 awards within the categories detailed below:-  

- Citizen of the Year   

- Senior Citizen of the Year  

- Community Event/Organisation of the Year   

- Community Achievement Awards in any category.   

Nominations forms are available at the Council Chambers or by clicking here and will be accepted up until Friday 6 December 2019. 

Residents are encouraged to nominate community members who they think are deserving of an award in any of the categories.

Council’s works program is continuing and the following works have been completed, are currently in progress or about to commence:   

General maintenance Shoulder widening (6km) complete and sealed on Henry Lawson Way Driftway Road repair work and primer seal completed Newell Highway and Mid-Western Highway asphalt repairs in progress 2019-2020 Slashing program in progress for Mary Gilmore Way, Henry Lawson Way and Gooloogong Road Emu Creek rehabilitation continuing Guide Posting on Driftway and Bimbi-Quandialla Roads.

These works are all part of Councils works programme and are vital to ensure our assets are upgraded and maintained for the benefit of our residents.

The coming months will continue to be very busy with a number of events taking place, detailed in the updated events schedule below:

10 November- Grenfell Rotary Markets 10 November- Grenfell Kart Club Race Day 12 November – Asteroid Vesta 17 November- Leonid Meteor Shower 3 December to 11 January- Paris and Other Places - Gallery Exhibition 8 December- Grenfell Kart Club Christmas Race Meet 8 December- Carols in Taylor Park 15 December- Geminid Meteor Shower 20 December- Combined Service Clubs Christmas Carnival 26 December- Solar Eclipse- a daytime event

There is certainly a lot happening in the next couple of months which is excellent as these events are very important to the economic and social fabric of our Shire.

Arts Outwest Mobile Office will be in Grenfell on Monday 2 December, 2019 at the Grenfell Community Hub.

Arts OutWest are taking the office on the road and residents will be able to book a time to chat with the executive director Tracey Callinan about your project, funding questions, professional development needs or something else arts related. 

Residents are encouraged to come by to update Tracey on your or your group's latest arts activities.

Book for spots in Grenfell at: https://calendly.com/artsoutwest. The Facebook event link is https://www.facebook.com/events/490100014878102/

Limited places available and it's FREE.

The new exhibition at the Grenfell Art Gallery is “Earth and Water” by Annie Joseph and Graham Watt and is on display until 1 December, 2019.

Annie Joseph’s art is in watercolour, charcoal, pen and wash, and acrylics. She mostly draws inspiration from the landscape around her whether in her heartland of the Central West of NSW or further afield in Portugal, France, Ireland or Scotland!

Graham Watt’s pots are hand formed using pinching and coiling techniques. They are then pit fired using a combination of cyprus pine, kurrajong, sawdust, cow dung, copper sulphate and seaweed. His pots are made from commercial and locally sourced clay.

The Art Gallery is open Monday to Friday 10am - 4pm, Saturday 10am - 3pm & Sunday 10am -2pm.

The next movie to be screened at the Grenfell Cinema will be ‘Yesterday’ on Saturday 9 November, 2019 at 8pm. Please see the adjacent advertisement for further details.

GLENN CARROLL

GENERAL MANAGER