Mayoral Message - April 2022

Mayoral Message - April 2022

It has been another busy month as your mayor.

March began with a series of funding announcements for Yass Valley, including $279,900 to improve and maintain our Crown land reserves. I was delighted to meet with Member for Goulburn Wendy Tuckerman to receive the cheque, which will go a long way to protect land regularly used by our community for sport and recreation:

$155,000 - Bowning Recreation Ground - new amenities block $58,500 - Lake George - weeds control $50,000 - Victoria Park - new amenities block, perimeter fencing and accessible pathways $4,400 - Gundaroo Common - weeds control $3,000 - vacant land opposite Gilbert Grave - St John’s wort control $3,000 - Yass Cemetery - blackberry control $1,500 - Joe O’Connor Park - blackberry control $2,250 - Kangiara Cemetery - weeds control $2,250 - Old Yass Tip - blackberry, scotch thistle and variegated thistle control

It was fantastic to see everyone out and about later in the month at Yass Show, which returned after a two-year break due to COVID-19. Congratulations to all the ribbon winners! Many people approached me about the removal of the sports stadium at the showground. We are talking with the NSW Department of Education about use of the new community hall being built at Yass High School and advertising an expression of interest for the building: https://www.yassvalley.nsw.gov.au/our-council/tenders-quotes-and-eois/article/1515

It was also a real privilege to open the Movers and Shakers Exhibition at Yass Museum in March. The Yass and District Historical Society has also experienced a difficult couple of years due to COVID-19, so it was great to see members welcoming the community through its museum doors once again. The exhibition showcases the lives of 27 local identities who were born, lived or died in Yass and is well worth a visit. The museum is open between 10 am-4 pm on Sundays.

I also got to spend some time with the younger members of our community when visiting Wee Jasper Public School to launch the Mayor’s Reading Challenge. The students have been tasked with reading 30 books over 26 weeks, which will help them gain a deeper understanding of the world and make reading part of their everyday. I will be back in September to check on their progress!

While things are starting to look brighter in our shire, grey skies continue to look over our northern cousins, and I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the tremendous effort from volunteers in Yass Valley, particularly the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service to assist flood-affected communities. We often forget that they too can be adversely affected by the fires and floods they respond to.

Finally, there are ANZAC Day commemorations in almost every village across Yass Valley this year, so I encourage you to attend your local event. I will be attending the 6 am dawn service at Yass Cenotaph in front of Yass Soldiers’ Memorial Hall. Hope to see you there.

2 2022

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