NEWS DESK
Sixth grader wins election
Victory Road park works underway
WHILE votes are still being counted across the country for the federal election, one result is certain. The final count is in, and grade six student Jack O’Connor has been voted the new junior mayor of Kingston Council. O’Connor, who goes to Patterson Lakes Primary School, was elected on 16 May. The junior mayor elections have been running in Kingston for over five decades in partnership with Chelsea Rotary. O’Connor won over a crowd of 250 people with his answer to the questions “if you were given a magic wand what would you change for your generation?” He read a poem which secured the votes for him to win: “Hey let’s talk, play a game, catch a ball, just say my name. Put down the machines, come play with us, or maybe even catch a bus. Talk to someone in your class maybe who you haven’t asked, what they like to eat or if they like to skate down the street.” He summed up his message of encouraging people to put down their phones by saying “let’s not wait, it’s time to communicate.” O’Connor takes over the junior mayor role from Alice Roberts. He will be sworn in at the 24 June Kingston Council meeting.
WORKS have begun to turn the Victory Road landfill into a community park. The landfill has now closed, with works set to take place in stages. The site will first be capped with top soil before grass will be planted. Kingston mayor Georgina Oxley said “the Victory Road park will cover 31 hectares and will be connected to the city’s sandbelt Chain of Parks project, which will provide a pathway linking parks through the Green Wedge from Karkarook Park through to Braeside Park, and include a number of open spaces.” “The east and west sides of Victory Road have been rehabilitated and works can now begin to transform the rest of the site into usable parkland space.” Kingston Council splashed out $2.6 million on two Victory Road properties earlier in the year to accommodate future works. “These properties which total 3.02 hectares are in a key location neighbouring the future Victory Road park. The site next door is being transformed from a waste site into a fantastic new public park, so it made sense to buy these properties to give us options for the future,” Cr Oxley said. “There is a major transformation underway in the Green Wedge with Kingston finally seeing the end of the waste industry in our community, with former landfills now being turned into parklands and open space. “The area was once home to over 30 active landfill sites, which are thankfully almost all gone. In recent years we’re proud to have opened more than 30 hectares to the community at Spring Road Reserve and are undertaking rehabilitation works at the former Elder Street landfill site, which will create a new four hectare open space for the community to enjoy.”
Junior mayor takes the reins: New junior mayor Jack O’Connor with Kingston mayor Georgina Oxley Picture: Supplied
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Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News
22 May 2019