As the bushfire rebuilding process slowly gets underway, Glen Innes has today joined other disaster-affected councils at a Business Council of Australia round table.
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The BCA announced plans in early January to establish a five-year community rebuilding program to help drive employment for bushfire victims, and to help provide financial relief and reconstruction support in the aftermath of a bushfire.
Program head Peter Cosgrove was keen to first hear from mayors of affected communities. Mayor Carol Sparks said yesterday that she will be telling him about the experience of being in a bushfire affected community.
"I'll be telling him about our experience; I'll keep it at that level," she said in an interview on Monday.
"From what I've seen down at Wytaliba and at Torrington, people are still being very affected by what has happened. Some are still in shock and some are still suffering health issues; mental health and physical issues. So it's quite sad."
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One of the biggest complaints, she said, was the slowlness of cleanup efforts. But with Wytaliba's destroyed set to be replaced by a temporary Bailey bridge, she said the last hurdle was soon to be overcome.
"It has been very slow but I'd just advise people to be patient," she said.
Mayor Sparks will also be attending the National Climate Emergency Summit in Melbourne next month as a panelist. Glen Innes Severn council last year declared a climate emergency and became one of the smallest and most rural councils in the country to do so.
The event runs from February 14-15, which means the mayor will miss show weekend.
Billed as an opportunity to "convene practitioners, advocates, governments, youth leaders and industry innovators to unpack what a climate emergency response could look like at local, national, and global levels" Mayor Sparks said she was looking forward to hearing from the most up-to-date information available at the summit.
"The main thing that I want to say is that government must listen to the scientists and they must listen to the Indigenous environmentalists and they must listen to the young people that are going to have to tackle these problems in the future," she said.
Bushfire-affected locals can look forward to the help of the Salvation Army, who will arrive in town next week to offer additional support bushfire-affected locals. They will set up behind the Town Hall and be available during business hours Tuesday to Friday.