THE Gunnedah shire community is set to see many major council projects come to a head in 2018.
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Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey sat down with the NVI to discuss the challenges, projects and strategies that face Gunnedah Shire Council (GSC) in 2018.
Projects to be completed in 2018
Cr Chaffey said there will be a number of “major projects” that will be completed in 2018.
“2018 will be a year of delivery,” he said.
“You can look at the number of projects that are very close to being complete at the moment, we are very close to completing the upgrade of the sewage treatment plant.
“This is an infrastructure program that is desperately needed for a growing community, so that will be very exciting to see delivered in early 2018.
Cr Chaffey described the completion of the Gunnedah Memorial Pool renewal program as “exciting”.
“We have spent a lot of time planning and in consultation as well as money on our way to a our new pool so that’s quite exciting and at the moment we are on time in delivering that,” he said.
“Again this is an infrastructure project that is needed and will be part of the attraction of bringing families into Gunnedah and our shire.
“These projects encourage young families specifically to come into our shire to work and hopefully meet some of the skill shortages.”
Cr Chaffey said many of the projects set for completion in 2018 had been in planning for several years.
“We look at the Blackjack Creek flood mitigation project is a project that has been in planning for some time,” he said.
“It’s well and truly started and that will see an area that has been prone to flooding residential areas mitigated and is likely to be completed in early 2018.
Another project that has spent a long time in planning is the Curlewis pipeline project which Cr Chaffey described as an “awesome project”.
“It will be delivering high quality water to an important part of our community within Curlewis,” he said.
“For a long time this project has been the subject of frustration and patience for the people of Curlewis and when it will be great when it is delivered in 2018.”
Along with the council directed projects, 2018 will also see two major state driven projects completed.
The Boundary Road, Oxley Highway roundabout is set to be complete in the early half of the year, while the Gunnedah Police Station upgrade is expected to be complete later in 2018.
“A new police station is something that has been called for in our community for a really long time,” Cr Chaffey said.
“It’s quite exciting to see construction has started on our new police station so hopefully a new facility can see our community continue to grow and be able to sustain more police officers.
“While we have the amount of officers we need right now as our community forecast suggests as our community continues to grow we will need greater numbers of essential services such as police officers to sustain that growth.”
Challenges
Cr Chaffey said one of the major challenges facing council in 2018 would be bringing the community’s wishes to state and federal government.
“This organisation is the closest to the people and the issues within our community,” Cr Chaffey said.
“It’s our responsibility to make sure, loud and clear to our local member or our state member or federal member through to the ministers in charge of those areas what the people of our community want and need.”
Cr Chaffey said a shortage of skilled workers in the Gunnedah region had also been identified as a challenge in 2018.
“We have certainly seen the skills shortage in Gunnedah as a challenge for some time,” he said.
“So our focus for this year is exploring through various avenues such as the Gunnedah Chamber of Commerce what is needed to help rectify the issue of a skill shortage.
“As well as that we are also exploring what is needed in regards to the shortage of medical professionals in our area and what can be done to overcome that challenge.
“There has been a long term issue of a doctor shortage in our area and we certainly be looking into what is needed to happen to help overcome that.
“Those two issues are certainly among the highest on our agenda.”
2018 project wishlist
Cr Chaffey said there would not only be several projects being completed in 2018, but there will be a variety of projects commencing this year as well.
“I look forward with great anticipation for the start of the second road over rail project,” he said.
“That is forecast to start in the second half of 2018 and that project is in the last stages of approval with a sod-turning date to be set for the second half of the year.”
Cr Chaffey said council would again “put great focus” on road upgrades.
“We will continue on with many road projects throughout our shire with a particular focus on Bloomfield Street and the eastern gateway to our community with the new roundabout at Boundary Road that will be constructed in 2018.”
Also high on council’s wishlist is a new koala park.
“I am very hopeful that within this first quarter we will be successful with our funding that we have sought to build our new koala park or for our world class facility to showcase our native wildlife,” Cr Chaffey said.
“Tourism as well as greater resources and facilities for agricultural processing and infrastructure are also high on our agenda in 2018.”