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SISTER’S ASHES GONE BACK ON TRACK Missing ring reignites the pain Casey Cherry’s new lease on life iffe PAGE 5 Wednesday, 12 July, 2017
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Seven plus four equals record feat Dubbed The Magnificent Seven, they are still the only players in the West Gippsland Football League history to play in four successive premiership sides. Pakenham created football history in 1990 when they won their fourth straight flag - and coach Neville Powles, Greg Atkins, Stuart Fraser, Derrick Brown, Michael Utber, Danny Monckton and Adam Ladbrook were the only players to front up in all four grand finals. On Saturday, they gathered for a reunion - not of that feat, but the beginning of it. Pakenham held a 30-year reunion of the famous 1987 defeat over a star-studded Lang Lang outfit, the first of that memorable four in a row.
West Gippsland football’s Magnificent Seven, from left, Neville Powles, Michael Utber, Adam Ladbrook, Derrick Brown (front), Danny Monckton, Stuart Fraser and Greg Atkins. PIcture: ROB CAREW
Seven into four in a row adds to a big celebration for this happy bunch in 1990.
■ Parents launch campaign to bring back childcare provider…
Kinder fightback Supporters of Kinders Together have launched a heated campaign calling for Cardinia Shire Council to reinstate its early years management tender to the local organisation after it missed out on renewing its contracts in controversial circumstances. The Gazette, other media and the council have been inundated with hundreds of calls, emails and messages of anger following the shire’s 3 July announcement that it had awarded West Australianbased childcare provider One Tree
and Glen Waverly organisation Best Chance with five-year licences to operate the shire’s kindergartens over Kinders Together. As of 2018, Best Chance will operate 15 local kindergartens, One Tree has been awarded the contract for three and a third provider, ECMS, will also operate one kindergarten which has yet to be built. The decision has angered some parents and staff members of the 19 centres currently operated by the Garfield-based Kinders Together (KT) who feel that the council failed to consult the community during
the process and believe KT should have retained its contracts. They say the local organisation was blindsided by the tender process and was not informed it would have to reapply for its contracts until early this year. However, the council said it met with KT’s CEO and staff in 2014 to discuss its future during which a three-year contract, which was due to expire in December 2017, was signed. “At the time of issuing the licences, it was agreed that an open expression of interest process would
take place in early to mid-2017 to issue licences beyond 2017,” the council said in an online statement. “This process was undertaken to ensure that children and families continue to have access to high quality, inclusive services that are responsive to their needs, both now and into the future. “It also ensured that the very best providers in Australia had an opportunity to express their interest in delivering high-quality services for families in Cardinia Shire.” But the signing of One Tree has left some parents sick to their stom-
Now Recruiting
OPEN MORNING
Continued page 4 BERWICK
Dr Mike Inskip Dr Ankur Bansal Dr Nisha James
www.sjog.org.au/berwickcareers
OFFICER
Early Learning and Junior School
SKIN CANCER CLINIC
DR SAHAR SHIRKHANLOO 48 Van der Haar Avenue, Berwick, Also at Arena Shopping Centre, 26/4 Cardinia Road Officer. 1300SUNPATROL For all appointments.
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ach after news surfaced that the organisation was last year subject to disciplinary action at the West Australia state tribunal following an incident in which a staff member at one of its centres was found not to have adequately cared for a child. “I genuinely feel so ill about this,” one parent said this week. “I feel sick to the core with worry about my children and other people’s children. If council knew about this then they have a lot of explaining to do because this is not acceptable.”
EARLY DETECTION AND TREATMENT OF SKIN CANCER IS THE KEY
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NO REFERRAL FROM GP IS NECESSARY WWW.SUNPATROLSCC.COM.AU
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By Bonny Burrows