Abb McAlister has been elected unopposed to CGRC for what would normally be the next two years, but will hopefully only be for the next 9 months if the Gundagai local gets his way in the demerger process approved by the state government.
He told the Times, “I was voted in unopposed. Hopefully we’ve only got 9 months to go, and then we’ll go our separate ways and have our own Mayors for each Council area. It was good that I got the support from all the councillors to take it on again and, as I said last time, what the main thing is, we have just got to keep working as a team and the main thing is being focussed on now and then the demerger. We have just got to work as a team to get it done and also over the next nine months keep doing the CGRC business.”
McAlister has been a shining light for CGRC and has not wavered in his opposition to the forced mergers.
“You’ve got to keep that entity going and then all of a sudden split it, but it’s what the people want and that’s what we’ve got to do and that’s how it’s got to happen. We have got to go that way.”
“Ros has stood down and Ethan Ryan has stood up and I think it’s great. I want to hank her. We need young people in Council. The young ones have great ideas. I know the young ones we have got are excellent. They do a good job and, I think Ethan will be very good in the position and, I think he’d be a good leader for Cootamundra.”
McAlister is a veteran of local council and politics and a man of his word, which is why he is respected so highly locally.
“This year would be 24 years. I started in 2002. David Graham started at the same time. My message is Keep supporting us and we’ve still got a lot of work to do with the demerger and at the end of the day, the demerger hasn’t worked and you can see the benefits in being apart.”
“I think it will save the ratepayers a lot of money. Firstly we will have SRVs, but down the track in the long run we have got to look to the future and look to our future generations and by having a demerger and going our own ways, it will make a lot of difference I feel.
Gundagai and Coota both stand out as two very independent towns historically and have communities with different interests.
“They are different and there’s not a lot of community, just because a lot of Coota people don’t need to come here for doctor’s appointments or shopping or whatever, it’s the same as Gundagai, they don’t need to go there. They either go to Tumut or to Wagga if they need anything major. Gundagai town hasn’t got specialist services.”
“We will get there.”
Congratulations Abb and Ethan.
The South West Slopes Times covers an area approximately the size of Fiji in country NSW. We look after a population of more than 50,000 people with our staff servicing 7 major towns and dozens of villages with our story telling footprint.
We offer weekly print editions at $3 a copy and we also offer digital subscriptions across 3 months $30, 6 months $60 and 12 months $120.
We are one of the last truly local independent family run newspaper businesses in the state.
Contact us today to find out how we can promote your business or organisation across our huge network by emailing ads@thetimes.net.au or by calling 0413 763 216.
If you have a news tip, lead or scoop for us please make contact as we love celebrating our communities. You can contribute articles via our South West Slopes Times website.