Forced council mergers
Understandably, the Gundagai community is very angry. Because of the forced merger with Cootamundra, the residents feel like they have been living under a dictatorship. And they are right.
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After having their democratically-elected council kicked out of office, they are now being ruled by one person. She makes all the rules and decisions with very little input from anyone else and has absolute power.
As an example, at a recent council meeting, questions went unanswered and a council agenda that contained 14 items that were, without any discussion or debate, moved, seconded and carried by the administrator.
And what has happened to our saviour National Party leader, John Barilaro?
He was quoted as saying (The Australian, January 1, 2017) just after he got the leadership:
“The policy of local government amalgamations has impacted 20 councils, 12 of which are in regional NSW causing uncertainty and anger, and others are locked in costly legal action - that all stops today.”
He has also said: “We will no longer be forcing local government mergers and that will be the first course of business”.
Since making the above statements Mr Barilaro has been listed as “missing in action”.
However, he was certainly on the right track when he said the amalgamations are causing uncertainty and anger within regional communities.
No doubt he would have experienced that first hand when he visited Gundagai on February 10.
Sadly, politicians have become just another pair of rubber stamps for Premier Berejiklian.
The entire ill-conceived, undemocratic amalgamation process has turned out to be a real fizzer and a total disaster.
Geoff Field
Gundagai
Bingo for good cause
The Ex Services Club held its latest Charity Cash Bingo fundraiser on Saturday night for the Cootamundra Retirement Village.
More than 100 people braved the cooling night air to try their luck at winning a part of the $1300 cash prize money pool. 20 lucky people went home with the $65 game prize and one lucky person won our top prize of the night, game 21 which was worth whopping $303 cash. A $50 fuel voucher was up for grabs as the nightly raffle prize and over $300 was raised from the lots of delicious homemade cakes and goodies on the trading table. More than $1000 was raised on the night with all of that money going to the Cootamundra Retirement Village and a great time was had by all. Why not get your own table of friends together and come along to our next Charity Cash Bingo night and get among all the fun and excitement of our latest fundraising venture. All money raised from our Cash Bingo nights stays local.
The more people that attend Charity Cash Bingo the bigger the prizemoney for each round and the more money that goes back into our local community.
Our next bingo night is on Saturday, May 6, with funds raised on the night going to the Cootamundra Nursing Home. Eyes down from 7.30pm. For more information or to reserve your table to be part of the fun phone the Cootamundra Ex Services Club on 6942 1677. If your charity would like to get involved in one of our fundraising nights please give the club a call and we will be happy to have a chat with you about the possibility of your group coming on board with this great night out and help raise funds at the same time.
Megan Sawyer
Cootamundra Ex Services Club
It’s a numbers game
AS A CONCERNED citizen, can somebody explain to me how much is a billion and how much is a trillion as these figures are mentioned when talking about national debt.