Mayor’s Report

Mayors Report – July 2022

It’s been a big month, with a lot happening in the community and at Council.

I’d like to make a special mention of Billie Ridler, who was one of the recipients on the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List this year.   Billie is one of the Tasman’s special treasures, and has been recognised for her service and contribution to the community over many years by being awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the General Division.

This is a wonderful accomplishment for Billie and I’d like to congratulate her on behalf of all the entire community!

Earlier this month, the Council started work on setting the annual budget and rates for the new financial year.  At this stage, we are hoping that our rate rise won’t be as high as some we’ve seen in other municipalities.

As many of you may know, the Council’s systems were recently hacked.  We do not believe that any personal information was compromised.  However, it has led to the loss of some data.  This will see the delay of rates being issued, as Council Officers recreate the lost information.  There may also be a delay in some other services, while we work to get everything back on track.  At the time of writing this report we are still unsure of the full extent of loss or damage.

Thank you for being patient while we work through these issues.

A huge thank you to workers and volunteers that helped out during recent major storms.  While there was a lot of mess to clean up, we were very lucky to avoid a lot of major damage.  I didn’t see much sign of snow around as we need a few big frosts first to allow it to settle.

TasWater recently held a community consultation at Port Arthur looking at the viability of taking over the water scheme currently run there by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority.  It was great to see a good turnout of interested people!  If TasWater takes over the scheme, it is unlikely to extend very far, but may allow for further future development in and around the site.

I’m looking forward to hearing the results of the TasWater investigation.

Covid 19 Vaccinations are continuing to be available in the Tasman through the Tasman medical Centre or Chemist, Flu shots are also available and strongly recommended this year especially now with all boarders open and most restrictions being eased.

Kelly Spaulding

Mayor of Tasman