As we discussed in The Apple, Mayor Brown sat in on our submission (Oratia Draft Annual Plan Submission) to the Local Board.
WE requested investment in the Oratia LAP objectives, the Oratia Masterplan, Sewerage, and Rates relief for farmers.
Well he must have thought it was pretty interesting, so on Friday 4 April, he popped out West to check out our lovely little valley and the Oratia Village Halls and Domain.
We (Jane Binsley, Gary Henderson, Penny Sparks) talked with the Mayor about the Domain, A Coffee Shop (which he described as like a Marae of a community), Funding, Sewerage, Rural Communities and Ratepayers groups.
We discussed the possibility of differential farm rates as per shire of Yarra Ranges. (We didn’t get too many nibbles on that hook but worth a crack.) And he explained the current rating process to us.