Annual Report

Cooma Unlimited

Chairmans Report to Annual General Meeting 29 March 2011

This Annual General Meeting is late this year, and I would like to thank Liz McMahon for the work she has done in taking up the reins of Secretary/Treasurer. I am one of those people who tend to put off the essential for the exciting.

Our major activity this year was the calling of a Public Meeting in the middle of the year on Development in Cooma and in the Cooma-Monaro Shire. We had nearly 60 people there, and out of the discussion came 20 issues, of which the Community Economic Development Committee which was formed at the meeting have actively pursued 15 and in turn we now have 11 papers to show on these issues.

  “Nothing is real until it is written down” someone has said.
In addition to these 15 issues, others have been discussed as they arise. A good example is the revival of the idea of a Very Fast train between Sydney and Melbourne. There has been very detailed community debate about the Cooma Visitors Centre.

For the fifteen years that Cooma Unlimited has been in existence we have faithfully made submissions to the Shire Management Plan. Very, very few of the suggestions we have made over the years have been taken up by the Shire. In a town the size of Cooma much of the development and improvements in every sphere of community life must find its way through the Shire.

 However this year we have seen some wonderful upgrading of the pavement around the trees in Vale Street. Wow! Geoff Bowland needs to be thanked for his work in and around Cooma in Cooma Mainstreets. However, Cooma is miles behind in this area if you look at what other towns are doing.
We have seen this year the Chairman Ken Prendergast and the Vice Chairman Monica Alcock of the RDASI come not only from Cooma but they are members of Cooma Unlimited. Unfortunately Ken and his wife have gone off to live in Adaminaby, but he is still near at hand. And it does seem to me that with the work that the RDASI is doing together with the change in Government we just might see some things happening

Steve Whan has been a good local member, however, funds that were swallowed up in the city areas may now move towards the regions. We need strong and logical submissions to get change. For instance we have been promised $1m. for a dialysis satellite unit in Cooma, and the first thing that the Dialysis Group should do is to go and have a look at the one in Forbes, for that is the model the new Minister will use. She said so.

It would appear that the great work that Bruce Hovey has done over the years in the Education area may about to be rewarded with the planning of a University campus in Cooma – of the University of Canberra. Thanks Bruce.

Nelson Wallace has been very active on getting Broadband into Cooma, and also in the Alternate Energy area. He has done an enormous amount of ground work in both areas.

The Mayor Dean Lynch, who has proved to be a doer, needs our support in what he is trying to achieve. He wants to get a single voice especially a business voice coming out of Cooma, and Cooma Unlimited is of course behind him with this concept.

For over a year now the BEC, the Chamber, and CU have been holding meetings to set up a community website, which could act as a Portal for all the websites in the Monaro. We have applied for funding, and still waiting for a reply.

Dugald Mitchell OAM
PH: (02) 6452 3424