* 69 McLachlan St transfer is awaiting settlement even though the contract was signed in July by Colac Otway Shire (COS) and the Apollo Bay Community Charitable Trust. There have been some tax issues that hopefully will be sorted out by the end of the month.
*Apollo Bay News funds: We are most grateful to the News-sheet for providing the much needed emergency funds to assist in the settlement of 69 McLachlan Street. Many thanks to the Apollo Bay News committee.
* Bendigo Bank Community Funding and Tiny Towns Round 2 Grant Funding: are currently being sought by ABCV to refurbish the old Preschool at 69 McLachlan Street to accommodate its ongoing use by the community. Many thanks to Chris Straw who has created some conceptual design for the wet area (toilets etc.) as part of the revised submission.
* Before & After school childcare and holiday program: We have been working with Great Ocean Road Health and other bodies to write a survey which is now being distributed to the community. This is a first step to assess the exact level of need.
*Members’ Skills Register: We have received twenty-eight responses and would like to build this database so please go to https://forms.gle/48qEWAzFTLsorwyHA or go to the website and hover over the ‘Join Us’ tab at the top to be directed to this link.
* BSF Proposal: The 23rd July Supreme Court hearing did not allow BSF to join GORCAPA, as the new port manager to the case. And GORCAPA has requested an independent assessment of the harbour capacity for large vessels.
* Paradise Picnic Reserve Jarrod Woff (COS) is doing a great job of managing the project and much has been achieved to date. Check out the new works, soon to be completed.
* Affordable Housing: ABCV is working to become more informed about possible ways of creating affordable housing in rural and remote towns via online presentations.
* CitiPower, Powercor and United Energy roundtable series: to shape
strategy for the next 5 years was attended by Graham Hill on behalf of ABCV.
* Richard Riordan has been invited to an engagement session with ABCV later in the year.
* ABCV AGM report was sent to members immediately after the meeting.
* Next COS engagement meeting: Postponed until new council and mayor are elected.
* Marine Science Centre and Fossils Discovery, Apollo Bay: Thank you to Tim Godfrey for his knowledge and assistance to seek support from Deakin University and GORCAPA for this initiative.
* Great Ocean Road Communities Network (GORCN) AGM was held in Apollo Bay on Saturday 5 October. GORCN has membership from twenty community group representatives from along the Great Ocean Road from Torquay to Port Campbell. Meetings through the year are online but once a year they meet in person at an ‘AGM’. We hosted it this year to discuss issues shared by all communities alongside the challenges of increasing tourism and environmental changes.
* Council Candidates Forum – ABCV along with SOS hosted the Forum in Apollo Bay on Sunday 6th October. Eleven of the eighteen candidates attended and spoke. There were three apologies and four of the candidates failed to respond to our invitation. Thank you to all who attended and to Sally Cannon who did a sterling job as Moderator. Unfortunately, our attempt to record the session was unsuccessful. Remember voting is by postal vote only and must be submitted by last post on 25th Oct. We are fortunate to have four candidates standing from Apollo Bay: in Mick Fischer, Phil Howard, Peter Byrnes and Chrissy De Deugd.
* GORCAPA Community Reference Group (CRG) for the new Harbour Redevelopment Plan: Graham Hill is representing ABCV and the Golf Club on this newly formed committee.
* New Memberships Thank you to all those who have submitted membership applications. Currently, we have over 330 members and growing.
* Finally, Southern Otways Sustainable (SOS) is once again partnering with Geelong Sustainability to take the hard work out of going electric with the electric homes program. Head to https://electrichomes.com.au/ to find out more. Applications and expressions of interest are open now, closing October 30. Jane Gross
President
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