Council Comment - 4 December 2021
04 December 2021
Council staff and organisations within the Warren Local Emergency Management Committee have been monitoring and taking action on the major level flood flow of the Macquarie River over the past week. At the time of writing, the Macquarie River at the Warren Town Gauge was 9.43m and steady.
For road closures, please go to Council’s website: https://www.warren.nsw.gov.au/residents/road-condition-report
Thank you to everyone who has supplied tractors, flood pumps and other equipment to allow the pumping out of the stormwater from inside the Warren in the event of rainfall.
It is expected that over the next 3-4 days, the Macquarie River will steadily drop to 8.5m at the Warren Town Gauge as Water NSW continues to release water from Burrendong Dam to provide airspace in the Flood Mitigation Zone of the dam. At this level, all the levee stormwater gates in Warren will have to remain closed with the tractors and pumps remaining in preparation for any rain event.
To keep yourself as up to date on river levels, you may wish to monitor the following websites:
http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/warnings/flood/macquarieriver.shtml
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDN60146.html
https://realtimedata.waternsw.com.au and select Daily River Reports
By Wednesday last week, Council contractors and staff had completed the contingent Emergency Plan where approximately 1,050 tonnes of minus 600mm sized rock from Mount Foster Quarry was stockpiled, transported to Warren and placed by excavator in the affected areas of the Macquarie River near Lions Park at the rear of Endeavour Hall in Dubbo Street to minimise the risk to the levee’s integrity at the location and to armour the area from further action of the water flow.
Council will continue to apply for funding to fully restore this location and to improve our levee floodgate systems. This full project has been estimated to cost up to $6 million.
This Council’s final Meeting was held on Thursday, 2nd December 2021. It was again a rather busy day with a full Council Agenda together with the opening of the construction of the new Community Room and refurbished Administration Centre. The Stafford Street Water Tower Mural was also officially unveiled. The mural now features prominently on the Silo Art Trail Website and this hopefully will be the start of attracting interested travellers to Warren Shire keen on viewing this type of art.
Don’t forget the Warren Youth Foundation Community Christmas Party on Friday, 17th December 2021 at the Warren Youth Centre and Community Hub in Burton Street, Warren commencing at 5.00 pm. All members of the community are invited to enjoy the festivities.
This will then be followed by the 2021 Carols by Candlelight which will take place in Macquarie Park on Saturday, 18th December 2021 from 6.00 pm with carol singing commencing at 7.00 pm. Time to come and have a relaxing and enjoyable night.
Please note that garbage collection over the Christmas and New Year Break will be as normal.
The first meeting of the new Council will be held on Tuesday, 11th January 2022 commencing at 8.30 am with many items of business including the election of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Council Committee Councillor Membership and the appointment of Council Delegates to the many organisations that Warren Shire Council is involved with.
Council has implemented a new Request for Quotation (RFQ) Platform in partnership with VendorPanel with the new system used to seek local suppliers and invite them to quote on the provision of goods and services for Council. VendorPanel Marketplace is free for suppliers and once registered your business profile will be visible to buyers searching for the products/services you provide. For more information on profile VendorPanel, please visit the Warren Shire Council Website at https://www.warren.nsw.gov.au/council/procurement/procurement-procedures
I hope you are all organising your Christmas decorations in preparation for the judging of Santa Street. Lets put some pressure on Deacon Drive this year. Judging will take place anytime from Friday, 17th December 2021 to Sunday, 19th December 2021.
Don’t forget that Australia Day nominations are now open. For nomination forms please visit Council’s website https://www.warren.nsw.gov.au/community/australia-day-awards
Gary Woodman
General Manager