I hope everyone had a lovely Easter and a nice break. The Camel Races on Good Friday were great and the numbers were excellent. Even though Orange has their Camel Races on Easter Sunday now it doesn’t make a difference to our numbers, it actually makes it more viable for the camel owners by having two meetings over one weekend.

The Federal Court decided on Tuesday that the Local Government NSW Board has been dissolved and a new vote for the 13 board members, including myself, will be conducted by a postal ballot. Our Acting General Manager Max Kershaw started with Council on Tuesday and has a long and highly respected career in Local Government. We look forward to working with him over the next few weeks to months and I welcome him to Forbes on behalf of the community. Seniors Week starts today and there are plenty of activities to celebrate. Among the events is a Seniors Expo at the Forbes Youth and Community Centre and a concert, Songs of Love and Loss, on Sunday at the Forbes Town Hall. There are also a number of come and try days and morning
teas at the Mater and Jemalong Residential Village.

Next Wednesday the Pollie Pedal will be stopping over in Forbes. They are arriving at about 3.30pm in Victoria Park so come down and show your support. There are a number of politicians taking part including Tony Abbott.

Have a great week, stay safe and God bless.
Mayor, Cr Phyllis Miller OAM

Our March Council meeting was held last Thursday and Council resolved to recruit a new General Manager after the resignation of Brian Steffen. We wish Brian well in his future endeavours and in the interim Council has been fortunate in obtaining the services of Mr Max Kershaw who has a long and outstanding career as a General Manager. Max will commence on Tuesday,
March 29.

Our Director of Corporate Services Amity Howe had her last day with Council on Thursday. She has been an outstanding Director of Corporate Services and will be sadly missed by all.

Council also resolved at the March meeting to extend the pool season for another four weeks until Sunday, April 24. This means that families will be able to continue enjoying the pool during the Easter school holidays.

I attended Stuart Livingstone’s funeral on Tuesday morning. Stuart was one of our local born and bred people of the area that had a stellar career in policing. Sadly Stuart was taken from us way too early but he will always be remembered for his common sense approach to policing and his sense
of humour.

On Tuesday afternoon, Council took part in the Let’s Stand Together to Prevent Suicide event at Parkes Showground. It was a joint collaboration between a number of organisations and Councils in the Lachlan
Area Command.

Have a Happy Easter, stay safe and God bless.

Mayor, Cr Phyllis Miller OAM

The CMCA Solos Network Rally has been in full swing this week and I was lucky enough to go along to their welcome dinner. Out of the 350 members attending the rally there are 90 newbies in that mix, which is great.

The CMCA Solos Network takes away the fear of travelling on your own as you are in a group with so many other people who are in the same situation. They really are just like one big happy family. The economic value to the Forbes community is amazing when we have these rallies come to town.

The NSW Fire and Rescue Regional Championships were a success on the weekend with our Forbes firies placing eighth overall, which was a great effort out of 25 teams. The competition was really good to watch and it was also delightful to catch up with NSW Fire Commissioner Greg Mullens.

Speaking of firies, our NSW Rural Fire Service had three new category 7 trucks delivered this week for Lake, Forbes Central and Jemalong Fire Brigades. The three trucks are worth almost $600,000 in total and will replace the older tankers in the near future.

Tomorrow is the Forbes Rugby Union President’s Lunch and it is always a great event. Kim Muffet and his band of organisers do an excellent job of putting it together.

Have a great week, stay safe and God bless.

Mayor, Cr Phyllis Miller OAM

This weekend Forbes is hosting the NSW Fire and Rescue Regional Championships at Stephan Field. There will be 25 teams from across the state competing in a range of events based on the skills that firefighters use in emergency situations. It is great for Forbes to be hosting these championships,
so grab a chair and head down to Stephan Field to see how fun and fit our
firies are.

Speaking of visitors to town, next week Forbes will welcome about 350 members of the CMCA Solos Network as part of their annual rally. The group will be staying at the Forbes Showground and are looking forward to introducing themselves to locals and will be participating in a range of activities while in town.

One of the main reasons they have chosen to come to Forbes is because of how friendly our community is and the great shopping we have. The Free Cuppa for the Driver Scheme has started back up again and will be running until May 31. Forbes is one of 18 local councils to be a part of the project with 62
businesses ready to serve drivers with a free cup of tea or coffee. The businesses taking part in town are the Bakehouse, Lakeside Takeaway, Superbee Café and Metro Ben Hall Roadhouse.

To find out the other cafes part of the project, download the smartphone app Free Cuppa.

Have a great week, stay safe and God bless.

Mayor, Cr Phyllis Miller OAM

Just a quick reminder that this Sunday is Clean Up Australia Day and I encourage all residents to get involved. The Forbes clean-up is being held from 9am to 12pm with volunteers to register from 8.30am at Victoria Park. After the clean-up all volunteers will be treated to a free barbecue lunch at Apex Park. Unfortunately I won’t be there as we have a family function planned this weekend.

Tonight there is a free event taking a wider look at mental health, drugs and alcohol from 6pm to 9pm at the Forbes Services Club. For those people that need assistance, this is a great opportunity as there will be drug and alcohol clinicians as well as local service providers in attendance.

It will also be a fun night with a comedian providing entertainment. Junior basketball has started on Monday nights and it is great to see all of those kids out there enjoying basketball again. There are around 120 to 140 players involved in the sport and there is a very self-sufficient group of parents that are running the show. Our next hurdle is to get lighting for the courts.

The Forbes Sportsperson of the Year Awards ceremony was held on Saturday night and it was a great night to honour our sporting achievers. Congratulations to Tom Drane on winning the Forbes Sportsperson of the Year. At only nine-years-old, Tom has a very bright future in front of him!

The Adrian Motel has a new Indian restaurant with a new chef and staff. Council would like to welcome them to town and by all accounts I’ve been told the food is wonderful. We can never have too many nice places to eat!

It is my understanding that there has been a Facebook page set-up about the
new waste collection service. I personally haven’t seen it and just so you all know, I don’t do business through Facebook. My door is open to every member of this community.

In regards to the new service, it is hard to decide whether there will be a problem before it starts on April 4. Once it is up and running, then if there is a problem, please come and see us and we will look at your issues on a case by case basis. We will certainly do our best to assist you.

On a sad note, after 15 years of tireless representation for our area, John Cobb announced earlier this week that he is retiring. He will be missed by many but he’s assured me that if Michael McCormack gets re-elected, we will be in very good hands.

On behalf of all of the Forbes community, I wish John all the very best for his future endeavours and may he have good health and happiness. Have a great week, stay safe and God bless.

Mayor, Cr. Phyllis Miller OAM

International Women’s Day is coming up and this year the Forbes Phoenix is hosting an International Women’s Day Luncheon on Friday, March 11 at the Forbes Services Memorial Club to raise money for the One Girl charity. The guest speaker for the event is One Girl Ambassador Tara Scott and $5 from each ticket sold will go to the charity.

At our Council meeting last Thursday, Council donated $400 to the One Girl charity to show our support for this event. One Girl is a charity that believes that every girl has the right to education with the aim of educating one million girls across Africa by 2020. It is really hard to imagine that not everyone is
entitled to an education because we take it for granted in Australia.

During Thursday’s Council meeting we received a report on the terrific job our Department of Environmental Services and Planning is doing. Paul Bennett’s team of Mat, Scott, Alex, Bri, Rowan, Melissa and Jenny received an excellent report card on the way development applications are processed.

Council also resolved on Thursday to work in partnership with CanAssist to host an information night for prostate cancer awareness in Forbes. We will be getting together with CanAssist in the near future to work out how best to present the information to the community of Forbes.

Council’s Third Bore construction is well underway and is due for completion in mid-2016. We had a visit of the site on Monday with our Local Member Andrew Gee also attending. The bore is located on the Lachlan Valley Way and its completion will sure up the water supply.

Have a great week, stay safe and God bless.

Mayor, Cr. Phyllis Miller OAM