Mayoral Column – July 8 2020

Counting is still underway in the Eden-Monaro by-election. This was an unusual by-election with 14 candidates standing. At the time of writing, the Australian Electoral Commission had yet to officially declare a winner for the seat.

Whether it’s Kristy McBain or Fiona Kotvojs, I look forward to continuing the productive working relationship our Council has with its federal member.

There has been much discussion in our community about land values and rates. Land valuations are set by the Valuer General of NSW and not by Council. Land values recently issued have shown large variations across our region. Increased land values don’t increase the overall revenue received by Council but it does change how the rates are distributed among ratepayers. You can appeal your property’s valuation with the Valuer General.

Council has been awarded $50,000 through the Bushfire Community Resilience and Economic Recovery Fund with the grant to support the Snowy Scheme Museum in Adaminaby.

While the town itself was spared from flames, Adaminaby has suffered a significant economic impact with the major tourism attraction in winter being destroyed and some of its popular summer activities affected including fishing.

This funding will help Adaminaby in its economic recovery by bringing tourists back to town and to our region.

Thank you to John Barilaro and the NSW Government for their ongoing bushfire recovery assistance.

Congratulations to the hard working volunteers of the BlazeAid Bombala camp who have now been helping bushfire affected landholders for three months.

Volunteers have cleared 60km of damaged fences and erected almost 40km of new fencing. They been a fantastic asset in our bushfire recovery process.

Further details on how the closure of the NSW and Victorian border will affect our region are being worked out. As of 12.01am Wednesday the border was shut to protect NSW residents and to help Victoria in their attempts to bring the COVID-19 outbreak under control.

Provisions will be in place for residents of our border communities, freight operations and critical services.

Details on the closures and the impact these will have for our region will be published on Council’s website as more information comes to hand.

Councillor Peter Beer Mayor of Snowy Monaro Regional Council