TODAY
25o Heavy rain
22o 25o 27o 28o SAT
SUN
MON
TUE
www.wangarattachronicle.com.au
Phone (03) 5723 0100
FRIDAY, October 18, 2024
Weekend Edition $2.00 INC. GST
WITH ALL COUNCIL ELECTION CANDIDATES Page 4
Vale John Elward Page 19
READ ALL ABOUT IT THE Wangaratta Historical Society and Museum in Ford Street will reopen to the public for the 34th Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues. Volunteers including Julie Allen, Paddy Milne, Marg Pullen and Rhonda Diffey, look forward to welcoming everyone in on Thursday, October 31 to Tuesday, November 5. Story page 6. PHOTO: Kurt Hickling
Richards traded to Port Adelaide Sport
No quick fix here WANGARATTA won’t be included as part of the State Government’s major road maintenance projects in its regional Victorian blitz announced earlier in the week. The State Government launched the $964 million road maintenance repairs program on Monday, with 70 per cent ($675 million) of the investment put into crumbling regional roads. Under a list of the program’s most substantial
accomplished with ‘massive Rurall city R i y roads d overlooked l k d iin major j road d maintenance i p projects j road maintenance blitz BY BAILEY ZIMMERMANN bzimmermann@ nemedia.com.au
works obtained by North East Media, no regional roads within the Rural City of Wangaratta local government area were included in the 54-repair works slated for the state. Included in the project’s most substantial works
The Railyard Wangaratta
was the Murray Valley Highway between Jacks Road and Federation Way in Rutherglen, part of the Great Alpine Road near Cobungra and Barooga Road near Cobram. The nine-month road blitz will also target the state’s busiest travel and trade routes, with works set to be delivered on the Hume Freeway. The State Government
noted many other roads will undergo other maintenance such as patching and resurfacing that are also part of the program. “Roads are the lifeblood of our community, and this blitz will mean smoother journeys for northern Victorian families and farmers,” Labor Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes said. Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy said if the
Coffee x Woodfire x Wine
Opening Launch Party Friday 1st November 2024
/PSUPO 4U 8BOHBSBUUB
Mark Fitzgibbon Trio with Special Guests | 5pm Glenn Skuthorpe | 8pm
State Government had committed to what they have said in recent years, local roads wouldn’t be falling apart. “When will the Labor government stop the spin blitz and actually fix our roads,” he said. “In 2019 a government media release announced, ‘massive maintenance blitz for Victorian roads’; in 2020 it was mission
complete’; in 2021 it was mission accomplished again: ‘major road maintenance blitz wraps up’. “In 2022 the announcement became ‘road maintenance blitz rolls out across regional Victoria’; in 2023 ‘road maintenance blitz kicks off across regional Victoria’; and in 2024, finally, ‘road maintenance blitz revs up across regional Victoria’. ■ Continued page 2