The latest Orange City Council meeting (1 April) made decisions about assessing playground shade, seeking federal funding and the future of the former saleyards site.
Council to check if playgrounds have enough shade
Orange City Council will check its playgrounds and outdoor meetings places to discover if they have enough shade.
PLAYTIME: Newport Street Park in North Orange is one of the twenty playgrounds in Orange with 70% shade cover. A new audit will find out how many more playgrounds need shade.
The decision came after a motion from Mayor Tony Mileto and Cr Steven Peterson asking for a list of places that need more shade to be reviewed during Council budgets each year.
According to a report compiled for Tuesday night's meeting, around twenty of Council's playgrounds have shade cover of greater than 70% over the play equipment.
Cr Steven Peterson told the meeting Australia is a world leader in skin cancer incidents and melanoma deaths. Around 50% of Orange residents are expected to develop skin cancer in their lifetime. They are preventable, mostly curable if identified early, but can be a particularly lethal cancer in the late stages.
Last night's meeting decided that the shade-audit should ask for support from the NSW Shade Working Group (under the auspices of the NSW Skin Cancer Prevention Strategy) and partner with the School of Rural Health to conduct a research project.
Council to put list project priority list to federal candidates
A draft shortlist of Orange City Council's priority projects will be compiled to be put to local candidates before May's federal election.
Following a motion from Crs Frances Kinghorne and Steven Peterson, Tuesday night's meeting decided that the draft list would be approved by Council before being provided to local media and all candidates for the seat of Calare.
The meeting also decided that any responses from the candidates would be publicised by Council.
No change to recission motion deadline
Tuesday night's meeting decided not to change the current system for dealing with a recission motion.
Under current Council procedures, a motion to reverse a previous decision has to be lodged by noon on the day after the meeting. A proposal to consider a rescission motion that was lodged after the due time from Cr Tammy Greenhalgh was rejected.
Does Council needs a grants officer?
An investigation into how successful Orange City Council is at applying for grants prompted a report to Tuesday night's Council meeting. The report came following support for a motion from Cr Tammy Greenhalgh at the 18 February meeting, to seek analysis into the value of appointing a specialised grants officer.
The review of Council's grant applications found that during the last financial year Council applied for 45 financial grants. Of those applications 39 were successful, resulting in an 87% success rate.
A report to the meeting stated that while a "dedicated Grants Officer can focus on identifying suitable grants, ensuring applications meet funding criteria" this approach can also "create a bottleneck if that person leaves the organisation or becomes unavailable".
Orange City Council's current structure allows for at least one person in each division monitoring and sharing grant opportunities as they become available. This allows for regular communication and collaboration across areas when required.
According to the report, while there are some advantages to having a dedicated Grants Officer, Council's current structure and method of grant applications have proven to be very effective and efficient allowing Orange City Council to have a high number of grant applications submitted and a strong success rate.
Council supports local organisations
Tuesday night's meeting decided to accept applications under the Council's Small Grants Program for a donation from a number of local organisations.
The meeting decided to:
- donate $1,500 to Regional Development Australia Central West to contribute to the TEN4TEN program that connects youth leaders with community champions, offering mentoring experiences.
- donate $2,425 to Cantar Community Choir to contribute the ongoing costs of the honorarium paid to the Music Director.
- Apply a zero charge for the Orange North Rotary Club for the hire costs of the function centre for educating local children on science and education, for the next four annual events.
Under the Events Sponsorship program, last night's meeting decided to:
- provide a one-year sponsorship of $3,850 to the Lonely Mountain Ultra running race to hold the 2025 event in the Gaanha Bula (Mt Canobolas) precinct 27 September 2025.
Planning matters
The meeting decided to defer consideration of a new eleven lot industrial subdivision on the site of former Orange Saleyards in Edward Street, proposed by Orange City Council.
The Orange Saleyards closed around 2008, with the majority of infrastructure removed. The site has been used for stockpiling of soil from Council road construction projects in recent years.
One of the lots will be used for a detention basin.
Tuesday night's meeting decided to defer a decision on the new subdivision pending visit to the site and the nearby Glenroi neighbourhood by Councillors.
The meeting also acknowledged that a DA for a new neighbourhood supermarket in Forest Road worth $975,000 had been approved by the CEO under delegation.
