Mayoral Matters - February 2025
Published on 27 February 2025
It has been a productive month as our Council Position Statement on Mining, Renewables, and Transition Lines has received positive feedback from both our community and beyond. I would like to recognise and appreciate the community members from our Shire and neighbouring Shires who have taken the time to send messages, emails, letters, and meet with me in person to express their gratitude for our Councillors’ efforts in outlining our position and advocating for our communities. We have met with Emma Kealy, our local member of State Parliament, and Jacinta Ermacora, member of Parliament for Western Victoria, to discuss our position statement in greater detail. We have written to Ministers with an aim of securing a meeting in the near future.
Our Coffee with a Councillor sessions have commenced with a terrific turnout of people across the towns that we have visited to date. Conversation topics were many and varied, including roads, footpaths, town maintenance, tree policies, emergency evacuation points, speed limits in towns, signage within towns, progress and community meetings, and general information being asked about recycling. I thank the community members who dropped in and look forward to speaking with more people across our Shire as we head to other towns within our municipality in the upcoming weeks.
The Community Engagement Van attended the sessions also and I encourage people to utilize this service when it visits their town. Library services with self-service are on offer and the van provides internet access and assistance with digital services, including eBooks and digital literacy learning opportunities. The friendly customer service/library staff can assist with logging Customer Requests, offering access to community feedback documentation such as “Have Your Say” forms and accompanying information documents, as well as general Council enquiries and information.
We also celebrated the opening of the Dunmunkle Community Library Precinct, with approximately 45 people in attendance. It was wonderful to see the community embrace the redeveloped former Shire Office.
The recent Council Meeting featured the lease and service agreement for the Hopetoun Early Years Service. The long daycare is one step closer, with the new licence scheduled to be issued to Emerge Early Years Services (Emerge) on 10 March 2025. This will then enable Emerge to commence the application process for the childcare subsidy and advertise for staff. We look forward to working with Emerge to support the reopening of the service.
Cr Kylie Zanker
Mayor - Yarriambiack Shire Council