Susanna Freymark
There were four new faces at the first Kyogle Council meeting since the elections.
Councillors Olivia Taylor, Kieran Somerville, Robin Harley and Brett McNamara joined re-elected councillors from last term — Danielle Mulholland, John Burley, Tom Cooper, Rob Cullen and Janet Wilson.
For Mr McNamara it was a poignant and personal moment being sworn in as councillor.
Fifty years ago, his grandfather Martin McNamara had his photos taken on the steps of the Kyogle Council chambers as a councillor.
“As a fifth generation McNamara the significance of yesterday’s Kyogle Council meeting certainly wasn’t lost on me,” Mr McNamara said.
His grandfather was a dairy farmer from Iron Pot Creek who served on Kyogle Council for 18 years from 1956-1974, eight of those years was as deputy mayor.
“One of his many notable achievements was the Andrew Campbell Bridge linking the village of Ettrick to Kyogle. An essential piece of transport infrastructure for the dairy farmers of the area supplying Norco Kyogle back in the day,” he said.
Mr McNamara used the family bible, the same used by his grandfather, to be sworn in as a councillor.
“To walk in his and other great civic leader’s footsteps, was and will always remain a humbling experience,” he said.
Yesterday’s council meeting was brief.
About 25 people were in the public gallery, spilling into the entrance way, to see who would be mayor.
Elected unopposed was Ms Mulholland as mayor and John Burley as deputy mayor. More on that here.
Chris White stood down as acting general manager and Marcus Schintler will be acting general manager from October 20 while council appoints a permanent GM.
In the meeting, Mr Cooper asked acting infrastructure and assets manger John Carter if council staff could focus their efforts on helping clean up Bonalbo after the hailstorm on Saturday, October 12.
Mr Carter said they’d be onto it today to help with rubbish removal and tidying up.
Read about the sudden storm here.
All Kyogle Council stories are in one place here.
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