Celebrating 120 Years
TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2011
$1.20
Worthy winner: Fay Sinclair is South Gippsland Citizen of the Year. The Stony Creek woman - pictured with husband Daryl and sons Hayden and Kurt – was honoured for her service to sport, craft and service groups, which she has juggled with milking cows and raising a family. Eliza Attenborough of Poowong is Young Citizen of the Year, and the Meeniyan Carnivale is South Gippsland’s Community Event of the Year.
Sign up for safer streets By Jane Ross THE State Government will be called on to fund a heavy vehicle route in Leongatha and make the town’s central business district safer. A petition, circulated throughout shops and businesses yesterday (Monday), will be presented to Deputy Premier Peter Ryan in March. Mr Ryan is the Member for Gippsland South. He’s also the Minister for Regional and Rural Development. The petition was his idea. Leongatha Chamber of Commerce president Darryl McGannon, told The Star yesterday afternoon, that the chamber discussed the long await-
ed bypass issue with Mr Ryan in the lead up to the state election. Some means of taking heavy traffic away from Leongatha’s CBD has been talked about for decades. Now, the Chamber of Commerce in concert with the Leongatha Progress Association, is hoping for concrete action. Progress association president Terry Aeschlimann, took copies of the petition to shops and businesses yesterday morning. “It’s a nice feeling that something is happening,” he sighed, “this has been going on for 40 years!” Darryl McGannon described the petition as “a good move”. He said the lack of an alternative route for
trucks was holding back Leongatha’s progress and needed to be resolved. “All we have is that the (South Gippsland) shire has a preferred route in its structure plan. We hope the petition starts the ball rolling,” he said. “To me, the first thing we need is to get a bypass route determined, so everything else can fall into place. “If we have a designated route, we can plan around it.” Mr McGannon said he had seen a shire plan to redevelop Bair Street, which he thinks would be “fantastic”. But, until a heavy traffic alternative route is determined, such redevelopment cannot go ahead. Continued on page 7.
Sign here: Leongatha Progress Association president Terry Aeschlimann, urges residents to sign the bypass petition.