Mayoral Column 26 February 2020
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Along with mayors from NSW and other bush fire affected areas, I attended the State Memorial Service to honour those who lost their lives during the devastating bush fires of 2019-2020.
The service allowed people to show their appreciation to the NSW Rural Fire Service firefighters, United States Firefighting Aircrew and community members who passed away as result of the bush fires.
Our region will always have a special connection with the US Firefighting Aircrew who were protecting our region when their aircraft crashed. A special tribute was delivered for the three members of the aircraft, they were: Captain Ian McBeth, First Officer Paul Hudson, and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr. We thank them for their service to our region.
Council held its first meeting for the year last Thursday in Bombala. To start the meeting, a minute’s silence was held to honour those who lost their lives due to the fires.
A focus of the meeting was the Disaster Recovery Funding Program Arrangement. Council is committed to assisting our bush fire affected residents and business operators. We are mindful of the need to ensure this assistance is delivered swiftly and reaches the people it needs to.
Council has allocated funds for three local recovery officer positions. The recovery officers are working with our bush fire affected communities to help with the recovery process by providing information, co-ordinating recovery efforts and liaising with state agencies to ensure affected property owners are supported.
Congratulations to the following community members who will form the Section355 Snowy Monaro Tourism Advisory Committee: Luke Kneller, Susie Diver, Peter Cottrell, Gail Eastaway, Tim Corkhill, Barry Wrenford, and Duncan Isaken-Loxton.
As this was the first meeting for 2020 it was good to see all Councillors participating and eager to get on with the business of providing our services to the community.
A reminder that Mobile Recovery Assistance Points continue to be held in the region. On Wednesday 26 February a recovery point will be held from 10:30am to 4pm in the Cooma Library. Further information on upcoming recovery assistance points can be found at Council’s website.
Councillor Peter Beer Mayor of Snowy Monaro Regional Council