Message from the Mayor
What a difference a month of proper winter weather can make to the feelings of people around the district. Although I know there are some who are still in need of a soaking, most have had some very worthwhile gaugings over August. Of course, to be entirely useful it needs to keep raining until November but at least now the crops and feed are finally growing.
Paul and I attended a Flinders Alliance meeting hosted by Pirie Regional Council where we were given a presentation by the new contractors running the Northern Passenger Transport scheme. It sounds like the transition has been reasonably smooth and business is going along as usual. I trust this will continue as it is very important for all those who utilise the scheme that it functions well and grows into the future. My thanks go to all the volunteers who do a great job in supporting those who need assistance in this way. It would not function without you.
The meeting also gave a resume of the last 12 months of shared services between the six Councils which make up the Flinders Alliance, all our neighbours plus Port Pirie Regional. It has long been a desire of the Orroroo Carrieton Council to benefit by sharing personnel, equipment and administration functions with our neighbours and thus being more efficient and finally after many years of trying to get something off the ground, things are happening. Thank you to all the councils involved & especially Pirie Regional for taking the lead role as the biggest Council.
Closer to home, we had a highly successful gathering of the main street traders/owners in relation to the shop fronts upgrade funded by a partnership between said people and Rural Aid. It was wonderful to see so many in the hall and such enthusiasm for a project.
I hope we will see some great outcomes over the next few months. Congratulations to Ahmad for driving this project & thanks to Lyn from the Council for her support & coordination. The small local Rural Aid committee appreciate your help.
It is a requirement of Council that we draw up and adopt a Long Term Financial Plan and over the past little while we have been doing an upgrade of ours. The intent of the plan is to make sure that the Council is financially sustainable over the next ten years so we include all known income and expenses. Any surplus is used on upgrading existing facilities or providing new facilities. Certain assumptions are made in relation to inflation over all the different aspects of council. The Long Term Financial Plan factors in a constant inflation rate of 3.5% on rating revenue. It shows over the next ten years the rates would rise from approximately $1.2million gross to almost $2million by 2032. In a community which consists largely of rural landowners as price takers and retirees on either the pension or a fixed income, just keeping up with an inflation rate of 3.5% could be quite problematic. It will be a challenge for many sectors, not least of all local government over the next few years if inflation is not brought under control.
Kathie