Last week Councillors Phyllis Miller and Jenny Webb, along with the General Manager Steve Loane and Central West Livestock Exchange yard supervisor, Cassi Walmsley attended the ALMA Conference held in Casino. The conference highlighted the need for IT systems in relation to the saleyards industry. The other major element to come out was the Chain of Responsibility legislation in relation to the weighing of vehicles on site and leaving the Central West Livestock Exchange. Council has been speaking with lawyers and members of government on how to respond to the order we have recently been served.

Council welcomes the recent announcement for drought support from the State Government. Forbes Shire Council has strong connections with our farming community and seeing support being given to our farmers is one we celebrate.

Maureen and I are attending the Forbes Preschool 60th Anniversary dinner on Saturday night at the Forbes Golf Club. With their wonderful achievements in educating and preparing young people for school, Forbes Preschool has been and continues to be, a part of many households in our community.

Our Bulky Waste pick-up starts next Monday. We ask everyone to place all of their unwanted bulky items on the kerbside this weekend in readiness.

I will formally open the ‘Be Road Ready For Harvest Field Day’ at the Central West Livestock Exchange on the 8th August. This will be followed by a Performance Based Standards Demonstration for heavy vehicles.

Have a great week.

Mayor Graeme Miller

Council has been running a competition to find a name for the bronze dog outside the Forbes Post Office. The installation is part of the sculpture trail in conjunction with the Forbes Arts Society, the Agents Association and Council. We received over 200 suggestions all with names relating back to Forbes history or a past farm mate. After a social media blitz and over 190 votes the community has voted for… Rosa, after the wife of the architect who designed the Post Office. Thank you to Jemma McLennan for the suggestion!

Following on from a successful application to the Federal Government last year for $100,000 in funding to upgrade JREC to better accommodate the Yoorana Gunya Family Healing Service, Yoorana Gunya has just been successful in gaining an additional $280,000 in funding through the State Government. The work includes a range of building upgrades and office spaces.

The project will allow Yoorana Gunya to employ one additional doctor and also accept up to two Registrars per term.

There are a lot of great events coming up in the Shire over the next month with the Mitchell Conservatorium presenting The String Contingent at the Forbes Town Hall, Forbes Cup on the 6th August and Bedgerabong Show on Saturday, 18th August.

Big congratulations to the Grazing Down the Lachlan team who sold over 800 tickets to make this year’s event a sell out.

Have a great week.

Mayor Graeme Miller

Opening and running a café, small bar or restaurant in Forbes just got easier! Supporting and growing our local business economy is a priority for Council. We are delighted to partner with Service NSW and the Office of the NSW Small Business Commissioner to launch Easy to do Business.

Through one online portal you will receive step-by-step guidance and support across local, state and federal government requirements, to open and grow your business.

For more information on the Easy to do Business initiative, visit www.service.nsw.gov.au or call 13 77 88.

Maureen and I attended the Bowls tournament at the Forbes Sport and Recreation Club. It was a very successful and well organised event by Leisa Burton and Brian and Annette Tisdall. We had dinner recently with James Phillips, grandson to Yvonne Shaw, who was part of the crew from HMAS Warramunga, home after nine months in the Middle East. Since deploying last November, they’ve seized and destroyed narcotics from 16 vessels valued at more than $2.17 billion.

On Tuesday, the General Manager and I along with Hon. Mark Coulton MP Member for Parkes, the Hon. Michael McCormack MP Member for the Riverina and Deputy Prime Minister and Senator the Hon. Matthew Canavan, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia with Parkes Mayor Ken Keith and Mayor John Medcalf from Lachlan Shire visited the proposed mine site at Fifield as part of Clean TeQ Sunrise.

Have a great week!

Mayor Graeme Miller

We are very proud of our Central West Livestock Exchange. It’s a real asset to the community with throughput of more than $330 million. Users of the Central West Livestock Exchange may have noticed that there is increased signage on site relating to speed limits and the safe and appropriate loading of trucks. If you use the saleyards we would really appreciate your compliance with these signs. If everyone does the right thing, the facility is safe and efficient.

Looking for something to do these school holidays? The Forbes Action Team will be hosting ‘Arvos at the Youth and Community Centre’. The centre will be opened on the Thursday and Friday afternoons of the 13th, 19th and 20th July from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. There will be a bbq lunch, board games, afternoon tea and a range of activities to keep the kids busy.

And finally, as you know we have been running a campaign to find a name for the dog outside the Forbes Post Office. A committee with representatives from Council, the Arts Society and Forbes Agents Society narrowed over 100 name recommendations down to five. Voting is open until 6:00pm on Friday, 13th July and can be done by visiting Council’s Facebook page or calling Council on (02) 6850 2300.

Have a great week!.

Mayor Graeme Miller

The dry weather conditions we are experiencing at present is causing havoc for farmers and are a real concern to the livestock industry. An enormous amount of money is being spent on hay from down south to feed stock. Unfortunately, some farms have no choice but to destock and with this comes the loss of breeding stock.

If you have the ear of our politicians, please ask them to put subsidies in place to assist in recovery when it eventually rains. The last thing farmers need is more loans.

The development on the Bunnings site will commence shortly. Council has forwarded our trades list for the developer to use our local businesses. If you have not registered your details, please contact Forbes Shire Council on (02) 6850 2300.

The Forbes flood study draft report has been received and Council will be working their way through that document over the next few weeks.

On that note have a great week, God bless.

Regards, Phyllis Miller OAM

Last week’s Australian Local Government Association conference in Canberra was excellent! Congratulations to Forbes Shire Councillor, Phyllis Miller who served on the board of directors as one of two directors appointed to represent NSW.

A major topic of the event was waste. While no Australia wide solution has been resolved to deal with the increased volumes of recyclable waste, we here at Forbes Council continue to work on the issue with our regional waste partners.

Maureen and I had the great pleasure of attending the Rotary Ipomoea Changeover lunch on Saturday. For an organisation with such a small membership, I am absolutely in awe of what they achieve throughout the year. It is just wonderful!

Last week, the General Manager and I, met with Northparkes Mines for an update on operations. It is always good to keep up to date with their progress.

Thank you to Deputy Mayor, Councillor Jenny Webb who attended the rural community meetings at Bedgerabong and Garema. It sounds like both meetings were well attended but were completely different.

I really do believe this is the best way to connect and continue to communicate with our rural residents.

It’s been a busy week here in Forbes. I attended the Garden Club on Tuesday to welcome the President of Gardening Clubs Australia to the district.

Best of luck to the many, many participants and performers taking part in the Forbes Eisteddfod. It really is a fantastic and busy event!

Mayor Graeme Miller

At the beginning of the week I attended the Australian Local Government Association 2018 National General Assembly. Tuesday’s keynote address was by author and columnist Bernard Salt. His address on Population and the Policy Imperative was absolutely fantastic. His foresight into Australian communities was wonderful and his address was very informative.

It was a privilege to present young Tom Drane with a Forbes Shire Council Medallion this week. I know I have mentioned Tom before because I just think his efforts were absolutely outstanding especially when you consider it was on the international stage.

Special thanks to Deputy Mayor, Jenny Webb who stepped in to welcome those attending the Central West NSW Heavy Vehicle Breakfast forum at the Forbes Inn on Wednesday. As well as welcoming members of the farming community who attended the breakfast meetings. Breakfast was provided by Forbes Shire Council when staff met with community members in Bedgerabong and Garema.

Don’t forget next week, in partnership with the Forbes Art Council and Forbes Wiradjuri Dreaming Centre, we will be hosting a National Tree Day with tree planting and a barbecue lunch on the banks of Lake Forbes.

Best of luck to all the local talent and performers travelling to our shire for the 25th annual Forbes Eisteddfod. Starting today at midday, the week-long event is a showcase of young talent with music, speech and drama sections. It is well worth dropping in to see some of the talent.

Mayor Graeme Miller

Forbes Shire Council

Hearty congratulations to Youth Rider of the Year, Tom Drane, who did so well in all three classes of the American Motorcycle Association Flat Track Grand Nationals held at Springfield, Illinois last week. It was an outstanding effort to compete so well overseas.

Forbes is honoured to have two dedicated community members recognised on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, namely Barry Shine and Dr Untung Laksito. It is a great honour and wonderful to see people who work so hard for our community being recognised.

On Wednesday, I attended a lovely event at Carrawobity Homestead to acknowledge John Smith, Murray White and John McCallum for all their work for the heated pool here in Forbes. Congratulations and thank you, it was lovely to be involved.

The General Manager and I will be attending the National General Assembly of Local Government at the National Convention Centre in Canberra. This is the main annual event for 800 mayors and councillors to engage directly with the Federal Government.

The Forbes Business Chamber is hosting a range of exciting events next week, a cocktail party, shopping frenzy and lunch. It sounds like a wonderful line-up of events.

Make sure you go along to enjoy them.

Also please note, plans for extensions for the Livestock Selling Exchange will be on display at the site next week and we are looking forward to plenty of feedback and comments to make sure we are continuing as the state of the art leading selling centre.

It’s been another massive weekend for sport in Forbes and it was especially great to see the town buzzing with a large range of junior sport.

We have had some big carnivals to town which have a major impact on the local economy. It’s a significant benefit to local businesses and accommodation venues with people travelling from right across the state. As well as providing opportunities to play against other teams and skill levels, these carnivals are vital to keep Forbes moving forward.

The National Carp Control Plan hosted a briefing to discuss the integrated strategy for the control of carp, as we know that they are a real problem in our Lachlan River.

The plan aims to help recover the health of Australian waterways and aquatic biodiversity and is based on thorough and measured approaches, ensuring the benefits and risks of carp biocontrol are understood and the right recommendations are made to government.

The carp virus, Cyprinid herpes virus 3, is a naturally-occurring disease first observed to kill large numbers of carp in 1997 in Germany. A critical challenge for the National Carp Control Plan is to demonstrate how we can manage carp that are killed by the disease in a way which minimises impacts on water quality, people, livestock and native species.

Congratulations go to Tom Drane for his fantastic effort in Illinois at the AMA Flat Track Grand Nationals. He has done Forbes proud.

Councillor Jeff Nicolson

The General Manager and I attended the Centroc meeting in Parliament House last week. Here the Central West Councils were the first to form a new government recognised body to represent the area, in place of the volunteer body. Central NSW JO was launched and hosted its inaugural meeting with Lachlan Shire Mayor, John Medcalf elected as the chairman and Blayney Mayor, Scott Ferguson elected deputy chairman.

Mayors will vote and continue to push state and federal governments on important issues such as improved road links to Sydney, better telecommunications, upgraded health facilities and continued development for the regions.

There are 10 member Councils in the Central NSW JO: Bathurst Regional Council, Blayney Shire Council, Cabonne Council, Cowra Shire Council, Forbes Shire Council, Lachlan Shire Council, Oberon Shire Council, Orange City Council, Parkes Shire Council and Weddin Shire Council.

Maureen and I travelled to the Marina Prior and David Hobson concert in Dubbo on the weekend. It was absolutely fantastic and a truly wonderful afternoon of entertainment.

Best wishes to young Tom Drane as he represents our town in the US this week. We are all very excited for him to have done so well in his chosen sport.

We are very excited to host the Sydney Youth Orchestra for the State Showcase also featuring the Forbes Town Band tonight at the Town Hall. The doors will open at 6.30pm. What an opportunity to hear the wonderful acoustics of our Town Hall.