Our new Council has been declared and on Wednesday afternoon Councillors took the oath and affirmation to fulfil our duties in the best interests of the people of Forbes and to fulfil functions, powers, authorities and discretions to best of our ability and judgement.
Congratulations to our new Councillors Aidan Clarke, Steve Karaitiana, Jenny Webb, Marg Duggan, Chris Roylance, Michele Herbert, Brian Mattiske and Sarahlee Sweeney. I look forward to working with you all over the next four years to continue to build on the success and growth of our community.
I had the honour of officially launching the Binaal Billa Domestic Violence month activities on Tuesday, there was a good crowd at Victoria Park to honour the victims of Domestic Violence and to take a moment to consider the harrowing statistics of DV across our nation. I also took the opportunity to again call for our community’s need for 24 hour policing. There will be more activities over the month of October, including businesses being encouraged to wear purple to work on Tuesday 15 October to help spread awareness, like the little purple hands dotted around our CBD.
October is also Small Business Month and the Forbes Business Chamber got off to a great start on Tuesday night with a Learning and Networking event. The speakers were Paige Thomas from Service NSW and Dr Belinda Mawhinney a leadership and executive coach. Matt Armstrong from NBN was also on hand to talk communications and the upcoming fibre optic updates starting in Forbes next month. It was a really good night for business owners to connect and learn, the chamber is hoping to host these quarterly – keep an eye out for the next event.
October is filled with events so make sure you find out the details on Council’s website or social pages for Council’s Traineeship info night on Thursday 10 October, the official opening of the Sculpture Down the Lachlan at Warroo on 12 October now the final sculpture has been installed and the ever popular Teddy Bears Picnic on 19 October.
There are several Community Recovery Events including Women’s Wellbeing Workshops and a Community Fishing Day on 26 October.
Hope to see many of you there.
Until next week
Phyllis Miller, OAM – Forbes Mayor