WITH just over a month to go until nominations for September’s council election open, three Orange councillors remain undecided about their future on the council.
Mayor John Davis and councillors Fiona Rossiter and Jason Hamling said they had not made a decision when contacted by the Central Western Daily this week.
Cr Reg Kidd could not be reached for comment but previously said he also was undecided.
Cr Davis said it was not his policy to announce his intentions early in the election race.
“We’ve got a few months to go yet,” he said.
“I’ll make a decision in due course.”
Cr Hamling said he still needed to talk to his family about his future council career.
Cr Rossiter said she would wait to see who else was running for council before making a decision.
“I’ve got a couple of things going through my head,” she said.
“I’m not going to say yes or no until I’m really sure of what I’m doing.”
Cr Sam Romano is the latest councillor to throw his hat in the ring for another term on council joining Jeff Whitton, Chris Gryllis, Neil Jones, Glenn Taylor and Gavin Priestley.
“There are a lot of projects in the middle of being completed,” he said.
“Overall Orange City councillors have done a good job.”
He said he would welcome new faces to the council but hoped whoever was elected had the same attitude to the city’s sustainable growth as the current crop of councillors do.
“The one big issue before I was elected was water security,” he said.
“I’d like to see that resolved and hope we do proceed with the [Macquarie] pipeline.”
He said a recent push by council candidates for a back-to-basics approach had been “blown out of proportion”.
“It’s what we’ve been doing all along,” he said.
“I can’t see where we’ve neglected anything.”
Cr Peter Hetherington and Cr Jeremy Buckingham have ruled themselves out of another term of council.
So far community members Brian Wood, Ron Gander, Scott Munro, John Da Rin and Sarah Buckingham have announced they will run as candidates.
Candidate nominations for the September 8 election open on July 30 and close August 8.
clare.colley@ruralpress.com