5th May 2015

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Mornington ™

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Tuesday 5 May 2015

5973 6424 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au Looking back: Mt Eliza Secondary College students are proud of their Anzac garden – and of those it commemorates. Picture: Yanni

Students pause to remember WHO are you remembering this Anzac day? That was the question set last week for whole-of-school homework at Mt Eliza Secondary College. “Students had some very interesting inter-generational, often emotional conversations with older relations as they set about discovering the names of family members - now passed away - who had signed up to serve their country,” teacher Narelle Debenham said. “The students, their families, school staff and the wider community remember with gratitude and respect our relations who made significant personal sacrifices for the freedom we all enjoy today.” In the role, Years 7 and 8 Real Time Learning students helped build a commemorative Anzac art installation to pay tribute to their loved ones. It is a landscape with crosses and red poppies on a field with a painted beach background. The project was inspired by Ms Debenham’s visit to Gallipoli last year to visit the grave of her great, great uncle George Wyse Smith. A cross in the garden bears his name.

Shire aims for 5.9% rate rise David Harrison david@mpnews.com.au SHIRE rates will rise 5.9 per cent for 2015-16, councillors have decided in the budget document now available at shire offices, libraries and online. Further budget submissions can be made on 11 June at a special meeting in the Rosebud shire office. The rate rise is the same as last year’s and, for the third successive year the municipal charge has been held at $180 a property. CEO Carl Cowie told a recent coun-

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cil meeting the charge would be reviewed for the next budget. Some took this to mean it might be reduced or even abolished entirely. The mayor Cr Bev Colomb said the budget focussed on speeding up debt repayment and preparing for rate capping by the state government, which will curb shire rates income from next year. Other priorities were: possible future loans to cover the defined benefits superannuation scheme; limits on funding from the federal and state government; and “long term community needs and aspirations”. “My councillor colleagues and I are

very aware of financial pressures that many in our community face and our rates will continue to be among the lowest in the state,” Cr Colomb said, urging people to read the budget “to understand council’s priorities over the next 12 months”. Mr Cowie, who started work at the shire on 1 December last year, pointed to “significant changes ahead where a prudent financial approach is imperative to ensure that the shire is on a solid footing for the decades to come”. He was hired by councillors to reorganise the shire finances and structure, a process he began with a preliminary

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trimming of staff – the first step to “unlock maximum value for the community” – and a declared interest in contracting out unspecified shire work. “All aspects of shire operations will continue to be reviewed, reducing costs wherever possible, whether this is through innovation, truly competitive tendering, process improvements, supply-chain enhancements, or enhanced technology solutions,” Mr Cowie said. “Sound financial control is an essential element of any business ... we are a large business, with a high level of responsibility to the community.”

Rates income of $146.1 million is up $8.4 million from last year, about $800,000 of this coming from new properties. A steady but modest rise in rates revenue is predicted through to 2018-19. Additional income comes from the optional green waste service ($2.95 million), bringing the “total rates and charges revenue” to just over $149 million. The $180 municipal charge raises $17.66 million of this. Similarly, the cost of services is budgeted to rise moderately from now until 2018-19. Continued Page 7


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