After 20 years at Cootamundra Shire Council and the past year at the helm of Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council, general manager Ken Trethewey is leaving confident in the future.
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He wanted a merger with Harden Shire but instead was handed one with Gundagai and says it will work.
“As a general manager, I wanted the town of Cootamundra and the wider area to be an equivalent place to live in to any city,” Mr Trethewey said.
He said while Cootamundra may not appeal to everyone and there are vocational and lifestyle reasons people leave, it is an ideal town to raise a family or retire.
State government assets such as schools and the hospital create a solid base while Mr Trethewey said local government has been able to deliver in the areas of the heated pool, parks, the Arts Centre and public toilets.
“We are one of the preferred places in the Riverina for people to move to," he said.
Mr Trethewey said council often receives feedback from people who have moved here that they looked elsewhere first before being taken in by what Cootamundra offers.
The efforts of council staff were rewarded in 2014 when Cootamundra Shire Council picked up the Bluett Award for being the most progressive non-metropolitan council in the state.
Mr Trethewey’s time will perhaps be defined by the issue of council amalgamation.
From the beginning of his time as general manager he was open about being pro-merger.
He said councils have used technology and shed human assets to the point where they can no longer do this and the next step would be a cut in services.
Rather than do this, Mr Trethewey saw the benefits of merging and combining the approximate 15 per cent of income expended on running costs.
“The problem we have is the merger which made sense is not the merger we got,” Mr Trethewey said.
That said, he offered his committment to the state government to make the merger work and said he still believes that over time the amalgamation of Cootamundra and Gundagai will provide benefits.
Mr Trethewey’s final day will be Friday, with new general manager Allen Dwyer appointed for at least 12 months.
Mr Dwyer’s most recent appointment was with Hay Shire and Mr Trethewey welcomes a fresh face to the new council.
He said it has been clear that anti-merger protesters from Gundagai associate him with Cootamundra and see his appointment leading the council as a takeover by the larger town of the two.
“It’s not factual but that is the perception,” Mr Trethewey said.
Now 62, he will take some time off with wife Daina before re-assessing his future.