SWAN Hill’s new mayor isn’t really new at all.
Councillor Les McPhee was voted in as mayor of Swan Hill Rural City Council for the third time in the last four years at a statutory council meeting on Tuesday afternoon at Swan Hill Town Hall.
Taking over from Cr Michael Adamson, who held the reigns this year for just the one term, it hardly seemed as if Cr McPhee left the role — his comfort level had barely waned.
“It makes it a lot easier coming into the job having done it previously, because it is a big learning curve the first time you do it,” he told The Guardian.
“So I can hit the ground running this time and know exactly what is expected in relation to the role of mayor.”
Spelling out the vision for his third mayoral term, Cr McPhee said council needed to place a stronger emphasis on community consultation.
“Moving into next year we’ve got to make sure that we keep the community planning side of things going, because we are representatives of the community,” he said.
“It’s not a case of what do we want for the future — yeah, we are the leaders, but we’ve got to take the community along for the ride too, so community consultation is a big thing, and it’s not an easy thing to get right at times. It’s something that we’ve got to work at and make sure that we do well.”
However, for the most part it’s business as usual, with Cr McPhee keen to see a lot of ongoing projects wrap up.
“We’ve got some big projects rolling out — we’ve got the Hearbeat of the Murray experience at the Pioneer Settlement, which is really exciting. It’s official opening is early December.
“We’ve also got the finalisation of the state-of-the-art drag strip at Chisholm Reserve, which will be handed over at the end of the year to be finalised… and there are other infrastructure projects, like on Beveridge Street, going on at the moment.
“It’s an exciting time, the next 12 months.”
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (November 13).
