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- CALL TO SHARE SERVICES (June 2015)
- AMALGAMATION STILL POSSIBLE (May 2015)
- NARROMINE SHIRE RATE RISE APPROVED (May 2015)
- COUNCILLORS DIVIDED OVER FUTURE (May 2015)
- NARROMINE SHIRE COUNCIL STANDS ALONE (April 2015)
Time is up for the Narromine Council to prove it's Fit for the Future as its proposal is submitted next week.
Councillors gathered for an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday night where they put their finishing touches on the 36-page proposal collated by council staff.
The proposal aims to prove Narromine has what it takes to be a stand-alone council and it does not need to amalgamate with Dubbo as was suggested.
Of the eight criteria the State Government has set out for council to reach, presently Narromine has met five and aims to fulfil all eight by 2019/2020.
The council fell short in "Scale and Capacity as per the ILGRP Recommendation", "Operating Performance Ratio," and "infrastructure backlog."
The council moved into open meeting so councillors and the staff could speak about the proposal candidly.
Cr George Mack expressed his concern the proposal was not strong enough.
"Mr Chairman we don't have anything really concrete to prove stand alone is best,"
- Cr George Mack.
"Mr Chairman we don't have anything really concrete to prove stand alone is best," he said.
"Really, we can't prove it at this stage, most of what we're doing is opinion except we've met most of their milestones, we don't have anything."
Chief Financial Officer, Yvonne Clarke said most councils were in the same position.
"Most councils' defence is that they haven't given us enough time to do a proper analysis of the three councils, that's a year's work in itself, not to mention the amount of money to get someone to put all three books together, it would be an astronomical amount of work," she said.
Both Wellington and Dubbo have also concluded they want to be stand-alone councils and will send through their own proposals.
The proposal highlights why the shire is Fit for the Future by summarising the shire, describing the scale and capacity, key characteristics, performance, future plans, infrastructure and service management, efficiency and how to put the plan into action.
The councillors have had to list the hard decisions the council has made.
These have included the Special Rate Variation, the $3 million loan for the roads infrastructure backlog, relocating the Cenotaph, investigating the feasibility of augmenting the Narromine levee and the introduction of storm water levy charges.
Council will submit its proposal on Tuesday to the State Government.
We want to know what you think, is Narromine Shire fit for the future? Let us know in a letter to the editor email grace.ryan@fairfaxmedia.com.au or mail it to NARROMINE NEWS, 29 DANDALOO STREET, NARROMINE 2831.