Narromine Shire mayor Craig Davies has been elected as the new Chair of the Orana Joint Organisation (JO).
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Councillor Davies is supported by Warren Shire mayor Milton Quigley as Deputy Chair, and said he was pleased to step into the role and contribute on a regional basis.
"I look forward to working with my fellow mayors to ensure that our JO continues to flourish and to go ahead," Cr Davies said.
"I'll be doing what I can to try and attract other councils to our JO to increase out ability to keep functioning."
The Orana JO provides leadership to the region and its communities and we will continue to focus and be an advocate for the regions strategic regional priorities.
Members of the JO include the Gilgandra, Narromine, Warren, Bogan, Warrumbungle and the Mid-Western Regional Councils.
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Councillor Davies said that at the moment drought and water is the major focus of Orana JO's unified activities over the next year.
"Right now clearly we don't have much time to focus on anything other than water and drought, which is a situation for which all our councils are in a critical situation," he said.
"That will be our focus, but as time goes on and conditions improve that will give us the opportunity to look at the freight situation in our shire, be it the roads or through Inland rail and the opportunities that can create for the JO."
Councillor Davies said tourism will also be another focus, to attract more people into all shires.
"Clearly I'll be looking for direction from the other mayors because we all have somewhat disparate views on what are the priorities within their region, but certainly freight, tourism, water and drought are the key things at the moment," he said.
The new chair said the Orana JO has a unique ability to prepare and position itself to respond to the needs of the region as local government is closest to the community.
Councillor Davies expressed his gratitude to the Orana JO outgoing Chair, Gilgandra Shire Mayor Doug Batten for his work over the past 15 months.