THE TWEED Volume 3 #04 Thursday, September 23, 2010
page 11
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LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
New mayor puts environment on his agenda Luis Feliu
New Tweed mayor Kevin Skinner has flagged preservation of the shire’s ‘pristine’ environment as a major issue to be considered when assessing development in his term of office for the next year. Cr Skinner, 58, told reporters after his surprise defeat of his conservative ally and sitting mayor Warren Polglase on Tuesday afternoon that it was important for developers to be aware that ‘lots of people love the area and wanted its unique environment preserved’. ‘Certainly we have to have development but with consideration of the environment at the same time,’ he said after the vote by the seven councillors. ‘My main objective as mayor will be to preserve this lovely, pristine environment. I love the Tweed,’ said Cr Skinner, who has lived in the Tweed on and off for the past 40 years after moving from Inverell where he was a publican of a hotel. The Chinderah motel owner/operator, who was elected a first-time councillor in 2008 and was often seen as part of the former mayor’s prodevelopment faction, was backed into the $50,000-a-year job over the head of contender Cr Polglase by Crs Dot Holdom, Barry Longland and the Greens Cr Katie Milne. Only Crs van Lieshout and Phil Youngblutt backed Cr Polglase. Cr Holdom was the third contender for the top job and was eliminated after she only received her own vote, but with Cr Joan van Lieshout failing
to vote for any of the three, Crs Skinner and Polglase were tied at three votes each and another vote was taken, with Cr Holdom then deciding to join Crs Longland and Milne to vote in Cr Skinner. The deputy mayor’s job, which like the other councillors’, only attracts an annual salary of around $15,000, went to Cr Longland, who was backed by the new mayor and Crs Milne and Holdom. There were two other candidates for the position: former deputy Cr Youngblutt and Cr Holdom. The poll before council’s monthly meeting was conducted by an open show of hands. Cr Skinner said he was ‘very pleased’ the election had not been a ‘lucky dip’ one with the position drawn out of a hat as a show of hands was ‘more democratic’.
A ‘clear winner’ Cr Longland said he too was relieved the election had resulted in a ‘clear winner’ for the position of mayor and was not a draw from a cardboard box as it was last year when Cr van Lieshout refused to vote after learning she no longer had the support to continue as mayor in her first year of local government. Cr Longland said ‘We have a mayor that has a clear mandate unlike last year’s, which was no fault of Warren’s; the election was disappointing, it didn’t have that same sort of legitimacy last year, it was not as solid’. The Uki resident, who was also elected for the first time to local government two years ago, missed out
New mayor Cr Kevin Skinner, left, and his new deputy Cr Barry Longland shortly after the vote in the council chambers on Tuesday. Photo Luis Feliu
on the deputy’s position two years in a row. Cr Longland said he looked forward to working with Cr Skinner who ‘will be on a very steep learning curve’ but ‘has the potential to unite us as a group and we have to come together’. Cr Skinner said he would try to be
‘strict and fair at the same time and give everyone the chance to speak’ when he chaired meetings. Asked by The Echo if he would be supported by the National Party, Cr Skinner was adamant that he had ‘never been a member of political party’, had ‘never taken any dona-
tion from anyone’ and had funded his election campaign himself with ‘no funding attachment to any single person’. He also praised the outgoing mayor, saying Cr Polglase had done an ‘excellent’ job and he hoped he could ‘run the ship as well as he did’.
Husband jailed over wife’s bashing death Wealthy Tweed Heads builder Clayton Iskov has been sentenced to at least 13-and-a-half years’ jail after bashing and kidnapping his estranged wife Kylie and staging her death as a car accident. Iskov, who was originally charged with murder, negotiated a guilty plea to charges he maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm with intent; took and detained Mrs Iskov without her consent; and was responsible for her manslaughter in a road crash just south of Mooball on August 6, 2007.
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The court was earlier told Iskov feared he would have to hand over $1 million and other substantial assets if he and his wife divorced. In a Supreme Court sitting in Lismore on Monday, Iskov was sentenced to 12 years for manslaughter, with a non-parole period of sevenand-a-half years. He was also sentenced to eight years with a non-parole period of six years for causing his wife grievous bodily harm and received a non-parole period of seven-and-a-half years for the kidnapping offence.
Iskov originally maintained his wife had died accidently in a car crash, but blood splatter at the scene led police to doubt his claims. Justice Barr accepted Crown evidence the 33-year-old mother of three had been assaulted with a blunt instrument by Iskov at Tweed Heads and further attacked by Iskov while they drove around. Mrs Iskov’s three children now live with their grandparents Robert and Pamela Nay. Iskov will be eligible for release in October, 2021.