Country Mayors Association: Forbes Shire Mayor Phyllis Miller has been elected to the executive of the Country Mayors Association of NSW (CMA). The new executive team was elected at the AGM on Friday, 11th March with Cr Ken Keith OAM (Mayor of Parkes Shire) returning as chairman, and Councillor Jamie Chaffey (Mayor of Gunnedah Shire Council) elected deputy chair. The seven other country Mayors elected to the Executive are Cr Craig Davies (Narromine Shire Council), Cr Rick Firman OAM (Temora Shire Council), Cr Russel Fitzpatrick (Bega Valley Shire Council), Cr John Medcalf OAM (Lachlan Shire Council), Cr Sue Moore (Singleton Council), Cr Kylie Thomas (Kyogle Council), and Cr Russell Webb, (Tamworth Regional Council). Kent Boyd PSM, General Manager Parkes Shire Council, was elected secretary/public officer. Priority areas for the CMA include working with the State Government to close the gap between health services in the regions and metropolitan areas, ensuring towns have sustainable water supplies and to ensure the financial sustainability of local government.
Free Online Holiday Fun: Code Camp is offering two free build-your-own games this school holiday for kids living outside of major cities. In the free online tutorial kids can choose to make the game Super Slimer, guiding a friendly slime blob collecting coins and avoiding baddies, and Firewall, where a heroic wizard or witch wards off evil spirits. To access the free online lessons visit www.codecampworld.com
Wagga Wagga Medical School: The $21 million Wagga Wagga Medical School has been given the green light to start works with development approval granted. “The very first thing I did when I became Deputy Prime Minister was to establish the Murray Darling Medical Schools Network, which comprises of schools in Dubbo, Orange and Wagga Wagga in NSW and Bendigo, Mildura and Shepparton in Victoria,” said Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack.
New Employment Program: Not-for-profit employment, training, education and apprenticeship service provider VERTO has been selected to deliver Workforce Australia services in Forbes, Parkes and the Central West for the next six years from 1st July. Workforce Australia is the Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s new employment model to deliver simple and efficient solutions to assist local job seekers and employers. Workforce Australia will enable job seekers to self-manage, while those with greater needs will be supported by experienced VERTO consultants. For more information visit www.dese.gov.au/workforce-australia.
VERTO Workforce Development Consultants (L-R) Lau-ren Rozyn, Mikayla McVicar, Stacie Caslick and Claudia Limon.
