Cobar Shire Council staff, former staff, members of the community and visitors from Bourke Shire Council, gathered at the Empire Hotel on Friday afternoon to farewell Council’s long serving Director of Finance & Community Services, Kym Miller.
In his 11½ years with Council, Mr Miller was responsible for taking Council from a very precarious financial position to it now having a very healthy bank balance.
“That’s what I probably enjoy doing most is the turnaround stuff,” Mr Miller told The Cobar Weekly.
During his time in Cobar, Mr Miller has also overseen a long list of capital improvements including: the Cobar Memorial Swimming Pool refurbishment, the Great Cobar Museum refurbishment, the Cobar Youth & Community Centre refurbishment, the Cobar Library extension, the Lilliane Brady Village extension (and to having the facility now fully staffed), upgrades to Drummond Park and other Council parks, the construction of the Miners Memorial, upgrades to Dalton Park Horse Sports Complex, the construction of a new Water Treatment plant and the sewerage system upgrade.
He has also witnessed the commencement of upgrades to Ward Oval and the start of the construction of a new 88 place Early Learning Centre.
Mr Miller said while Council has been fortunate in securing a number of grants from the Federal and State governments for these projects, he said it’s a credit to councillors as to the way they have been spent.
“I reckon the councillors have done a great job the way they’ve allocated a portion and let the staff and the community get on with some pretty good projects.
“I would have loved to have been here for the completion of the long day care centre, because I think that’s going be an enormous challenge, but I think it’s going to be in very, very good hands,” he said.
Mr Miller said he would have liked to have also seen the Grand Precinct and main street beautification projects come to fruition.
“At some point you have to jump off because you’re always going to have projects starting,” he said.
Another project Mr Miller said he was pleased to see council involved in was the construction of the Cobar Sound Chapel.
“It was a pretty big project that made the New York Times and to have a composer and architect of world standing involved, in little old Cobar, it’s a pretty big deal,” he said.
Mr Miller was thrilled to receive two large framed photos of the Sound Chapel (taken by local photographer Samantha Smith) as a farewell gift from Council.
During his time in Cobar Mr Miller joined the Cobar Miners Race Club and Cobar Show Society committees to help manage their finances.
“I do have a racing background but also it really is an expectation of the job that if you’re the ‘Minister for Money’ as such you should be prepared to assist, as indeed should all the directors take some position or some profile, in community affairs. Whilst it is an obligation, it’s something that I enjoy,” he said.
Mr Miller said the thing that he was most proud of would be the quality of staff who now make up the Council team
“We’ve got a team here that is as good as anywhere West of the Divide,” he said.
Mr Miller and his wife Sue will be moving back to their home town of Adelaide and as he doesn’t fish, bowl or play golf, he plans to get involved in some charity work.
