Eventful year awaits as leaders list their hot items for 2018

Orange City Council Mayor Reg Kidd said starting work on a Southern feeder road was top of his wishlist.

Cr Kidd said that while final funding was still being sought, work on the first two stages, from Blowes Road to Forest Road and from Anson Street to Ploughmans Lane should “hopefully” start this year.

“All councillors see that as a priority,” he said.

“We’re now in the mix for other funding, state and federal government.”

Cr Kidd said maintenance of other Orange roads was also important.

And he said he hoped a palliative care facility would finally be established, preferably at the Orange Health Service at Bloomfield.

“We have great palliative care with great doctors and great nurses,” he said.

“[The hospice would be] the icing on the cake for complete palliative care options, for people who stay at home or who cannot stay at home.”

Member for Orange Phil Donato said he was also hopeful a palliative care facility could be established and would continue to push for funding.

“Just before Christmas we had some really productive talks,” he said.

“Hopefully that is something that will happen this year.”

Mr Donato said he would continue to push for improved train services for Orange, more car parking at the Orange hospital and for the cricket centre of excellence at Wade Park.

“We’ll continue to put pressure on the government and ask the questions,” he said.

“We’ll be holding them to account on all the promises they have made.”

Mr Donato said in the run-up to the early 2019 state election the government had indicated it had money to spend and he wanted to see some of it spent in regional areas.

Orange Residents and Ratepayers Association president Colin Young said the council needed to build roads properly after problems necessitated repair of  the Northern Distributor Road.

“When they build a road, they need to do it right the first time,” he said.

“They should talk to the RMS [Roads and Maritime Services] and almost have their engineers do the consultancy for it.

“They have stuffed up the Northern Distributor by having all the access roads coming off it. It was built to a country road standard, it wasn’t built to a highway standard.”

Mr Young said the ratepayers’ group also wanted to see more funding to improve sporting facilities, particularly at Jack Brabham Park.

He said junior carnivals were more regular financial boosts to the economy than what could be achieved by creating a rectangular sporting field in north Orange to attract NRL games.

Mr Young said they also wanted ratepayers freed from having to partly fund residential developments.

He said ratepayers were making up an $8000 shortfall for every block being developed in one subdivision in Orange.

“It shouldn’t be the ratepayers providing the services for the developers,” he said.

Orange Business Chamber president Ash Brown called for a new look for Summer Street.

He said it should be paid for by the Orange council and possibly the RMS.

“I think a priority should be a facelift for the main street,” he said.

“It should be a priority now to help the retailers out. I would say the footpaths need to be relaid, maybe some [new] lighting, garbage bins and seats and bus stops.

“A total facelift is on the agenda. I think it’s over 20 years since it was done. It is well and truly overdue.”

Mr Brown said the work should not disrupt trading or tourism activities while it was being done.

The Orange Region Tourism [ORT] body, covering Orange, Cabonne and Blayney council areas started operating this week.

ORT general manager Caddie Marshall said the new body would work to promote tourism and particularly food and produce tourism, across the region.

“We are off and racing,” she said.

Ms Marshall said the region had a range of produce that would be promoted over the next 12 months.

“It is the heart and soul of our region,” she said.

“It is about showcasing our produce. It is Food Week every week in our region.”

She said it was vital to promote that message to tourists.

“Come out here and see how we produce,” she said.

The Federal member for Calare Andrew Gee was also contacted for comment but a spokeswoman said he was unavailable.