Community News

Kevin Hogan’s column

I held a morning tea for all Clarence Valley School leaders last month with cricketer Grace McDonald as the guest speaker. It was to congratulate and acknowledge the students for taking on leadership positions at school. It was wonderful for us to all hear Grace’s story as well. Grace has been playing cricket since the age of 10 and has represented our region on a number of occasions, including playing for NSW at the National Country Championships hosted by Cricket Australia There was great questions and fantastic networking between the students. Thank you to the teachers, mums, dads, carers and grandparents who joined in too. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – I had the Aged Minister Ken Wyatt here recently to inspect the site of Signature Care’s new 144-bed Aged Care Facility in Grafton which has received more than $9 million annually to support running costs. This will be a great facility for our community and will create 170 permanent new full time and part time operational positions, plus extra employment in Aged Care support services. These jobs are in addition to those that will be supported during the construction phase. It is important that older members of our community are not forced to move away from their family and friends in search of an Aged Care bed. Signature Care estimates the new facility will contribute almost $8 million a year to the local economy. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Congratulations to Rex Green and the Grafton Show committee who worked so tirelessly all year to make this year’s event such a great a success. Congratulations to the winners of all the various events and competitions, in particular Elly Shipman who was named Grafton Showgirl, as well as runner ups Katelin Hebbard and Tiffiny Durrington and Junior Showgirl Siobhan Hoy and runner up Ashleigh Tibbett.