At July's Yarriambiack Shire council meeting, councillors endorsed our submission to the draft Local Government Bill that the state government intends to introduce into parliament later this year.
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Councillors were unanimous in their objection to the proposed electoral structures reform of either single member wards or an unsubdivided model if the ward structure proves unworkable due to population dispersion.
Yarriambiack Shire wants to retain its current councillor structure of three multi-member wards representing the northern, central and southern parts of the shire. This model provides the fairest opportunity for residents to access and engage with their elected representatives.
Local councillors are in best position to know what issues and matters of interest are important to their region.
On July 24, chief executive Jessie Holmes and myself attended a joint school council meeting of the three schools involved with the Warracknabeal Education Precinct.
As yet, there has been no announcement for funding for stage 2 of the project. This would complete the buildings for the special development school and the secondary college. At the moment, only one third of the SDS and the WSC facilities have been completed.
Council will continue to actively support the three schools in their advocacy campaign for this project to be finished.
Warracknabeal Action Group has had a number of meetings over the past few weeks to prepare an updated draft community action plan for 2019-20. This draft will be presented for community comment at WAG's annual general meeting on Tuesday, August 13.
The current committee is hoping that a broad cross-section of local organisations will attend and provide feedback on the suggested ways that will see Warracknabeal progress in coming years.
Two of the proposals are already on the road to being implemented. Rotary has drawn up plans to improve facilities at its Kelsall Street Park. The shire has included a 24-hour accessible gymnasium in the redesign of the leisure centre.
Yarriambiack Shire is one of the 30 councils affected by the closure of SKM's recycling facilities. Its contractor is considering future options for the disposal of recycling bins. At the moment, this material will not be going to landfill. Yellow bins will continue to be collected and the material stockpiled until a solution is found. To help with this, residents are encouraged to separate glass and newspapers and take them to transfer stations where they can be left free of charge. Yarriambiack has joined with all councils in requesting the state government take the initiative in resolving this recycling crisis.
