Loddon Shire Mayoral Column 1 July 2019
Published on 01 July 2019
2019/20 budget adopted
At its meeting last week, Council adopted the 2019/20 Budget, following the closure of the public comment period.
The budget sees Council remain in a strong cash position with a small surplus and no new borrowings. It includes a 2.5 per cent average rate rise which is in line with the State Government’s Fair Go Rates System capping level.
In addition to ongoing delivery of services to the community, the budget contains a capital expenditure program of $13.68 million. This includes $4.71 million for roads, $4.51 million for recreational, leisure and community facilities, $0.92 million for urban and road drainage, $0.26 million for footpaths and $0.55 million for parks, open space and streetscapes.
There is a continuing commitment to Council’s Community Planning program of $750,000 as well as support for Community Wellbeing programs.
Citizenship congratulations
I’d like to congratulate our Shire’s newest Australian citizens Patrick Colleary and Feliz Garchitorena, who are originally from Ireland and the Philippines respectively. It was an honour to present them with their citizenship certificates during last Tuesday’s ceremony at the Serpentine office.
Kindergarten enrolments are now open
Enrolments for children to attend kindergarten in 2020 are now open until Friday 30 August 2019.
Council offers three-year-old and four-year-old kindergarten on selected days at Boort, Dingee, Inglewood, Pyramid Hill and Wedderburn.
Council's aim at kindergarten is for children to learn about themselves, who they are and what they can achieve, and to like the individual that they are. Kindergarten encourages self-confidence, self-reliance and resourcefulness through play and gives children the skills and processes to cope with and solve situations that occur at home or later at school.
Council encourages parents and caregivers to make sure they enrol their child or children in kindergarten, as it helps Council to plan and make decisions about kindergarten programs for the following year.
Applications received after the closing date of 30 August will be considered, once all other applicants have been offered a place, in line with the priority of access criteria of the kindergarten.
If you have any queries, Council’s kindergarten teachers are more than happy to have a chat, or give Council’s Early Years team a call on 5494 1201.
More information is also available via Council’s website at www.loddon.vic.gov.au/Live/Services-for-our-younger-residents/Kindergartens
Better recycling – lids
Thanks to the Loddon Mallee Waste and Resource Recovery Group (LMWRRG), this week I’d like to share some handy hints around better recycling.
When it comes to plastic lids, if the lids are large, for example from a peanut butter jar, then they can go in the recycling on their own or attached. This also applies to metal lids on glass jars.
Smaller plastic lids that are on drink bottles should be screwed back onto the bottle, as unattached lids are too small for recycling machinery and cannot be processed. It is important to make sure that the bottle is empty and it helps to squeeze some of the air out of the bottle. This not only gives you more room in your kerbside recycling bin, but helps avoid compressed cubes of baled plastic breaking open due to air expansion.
Never place your recycling in plastic bags. The soft plastics take extra time to open on the sorting line, causing inefficiency. They can also jam the machinery, delaying the process and can cause damage.
I’ll provide some more handy recycling tips from the LMWRRG next week.
The free Loddon Mallee Waste App has a complete list of items and how to dispose of them. To download the app, go to your app store and search “Loddon Mallee”.
Did you know?
Through funding from the State Government, Council runs the FReeZA program in our Shire. Activities through the program give young people the chance to plan, organise and stage local music and arts events in a fully supervised drug, alcohol and smoke-free environment.
In Loddon Shire, the program is managed by Council in partnership with schools.
Past events include Battle of the Bands, movie nights, pool parties, the annual Kool Skools recording experience and Street Arts. Council also supports youth expos and other youth programs such as skills training, youth mentoring and the L2P – Learner Driver Mentor Program.