LATEST NEWS FROM MAYOR MARK KELLAM 25 May 2023
Published on 26 May 2023
Waste to Art is a community art competition which aims to educate, inform, and challenge the way we look at waste. The theme of Waste to Art this year is textiles and fast fashion.
All the Waste to Art entries for 2023 are on exhibition at the Masonic Lodge, 70 Oberon Street, from Friday 26 May. Exhibition times are;
Friday 26 May 10am-4pm
Saturday 27 May 10am – 4pm
Monday 29 May 10am-4pm
Tuesday 30 May 10am – 4pm
The presentation of prizes for all categories will be at the Masonic Lodge on Wednesday 31 May at 5.00 pm.
Based on the works created from waste in previous years you can expect a wonderful range of quirky, creative, and beautiful pieces fashioned from recycled clothes and textiles.
This week the General Manager and I have been travelling.
On Wednesday we travelled to Canberra to attend the Board Meeting for the Central NSW Joint Organisation (of Councils) and on Thursday met with a variety of Federal Government Ministers and some opposition Shadow Ministers.
This was our first opportunity in over a year to speak directly to those who either make decisions in the Federal Government or can influence decisions. This opportunity is very significant as there are very few members of the current Government from rural areas and none from west of the Great Dividing Range.
This paucity of representation, and importantly, communication to the Federal Government is concerning. Having a group of Mayors from Oberon to Lachlan Shire provide unfiltered information to Federal Ministers goes some way to bringing rural issues to the front of the political discussion in Canberra. This is particularly important for our region and for rural communities across the state.
After Canberra we head to Sydney for the Country Mayor’s Association meeting on Friday morning. This meeting is at Parliament House, and it will provide the opportunity to meet with a number of Ministers in the newly elected NSW Government. This is the first opportunity to speak to the new NSW Government and bring our needs and concerns directly to the NSW Government.
The Board Meeting, the meeting with Federal Ministers and the Country Mayor’s meeting are all reported in the Council Business papers and are part of the public record.
The New Library and Community Centre is looking very good with completion scheduled for the 31 May.
The temporary Library in the Anglican Church Hall will close on 9 June and the complex process of moving the books and setting up the new library and community centre will continue through June with the Library and Community Centre opening in early July.