During the past few weeks, Yarriambiack councillors have attended community consultation meetings at five of our towns - Murtoa, Brim, Hopetoun, Beulah and Rupanyup.
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The main concerns raised by residents were the same at each venue. Roads that needed grading or patching, potholes that required filling, tree limbs that should be lopped, what's happening with waste management and recycling and what library service the shire intends to provide when it withdraws from the Wimmera Regional Library Corporation in June 2020.
Staff and councillors were able to address most of these concerns and details were taken of those that required further investigation.
Of course, there were issues that were unique to each town. Residents at both Murtoa and Rupanyup were concerned that West Wimmera Health Service and Tristar were still unable to provide a doctor for the towns in the Dunmunkle part of the shire.
The issue of road signage was raised at Brim and Rupanyup. Brim wanted signs on the Henty Highway alerting travellers to facilities at Redda's Park and at McPherson's store. At Rupanyup, the call was for signs alerting to Woods' museum and the Murtoa stick shed to be erected at the four town entrances. The site of the former supermarket at Beulah has been cleared and questions were asked about the future use of the block.
The future of our library service and the introduction of three-year-old kindergarten in 2020 were two other issues that were discussed.
Over the past month, our shire has had visits from three state members of parliament - Stuart Grimley, Bev McArthur and Sonya Kilkenny.
Sonya, as Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education, visited the bush kinder facility at Batchica and Murtoa kindergarten to meet with staff and students and to congratulate Emily Hurley and Kathryn Camilleri, who have been awarded scholarships to complete their bachelor degree in early childhood education.
Stuart and Bev were keen to find out how they can advocate on our behalf on matters concerning the state government.
They were briefed on issues such as completion of Warracknabeal's Education Precinct, resolution of the current recycling problem, a clear state-funded program for country roads, our submissions to the Local Government Bill and for the state to continue funding the Rural Outreach Program mental health initiative.