Ready to ride – November 2019 in review

Who doesn’t love a freebee? – Thursday, 7 November edition

WITH the City of Ballarat getting ready to roll out its new parking plan, freshly minted mayor Cr Ben Taylor gave the gift of free parking across the city for two thirds of summer.

As all the old parking meters and other infrastructure needed to be removed to make way for updated technology and rather than do it incrementally, the municipality made the call to do it all in one go.

“People say council is the Grinch, but we’re not,” he said. “Christmas is coming early.”

“Something we hear about at Christmas time is parking. That awkwardness with the coins if you don’t have the coins.”

Free on street parking, as well as use of the new Creswick Road off street facility continues until 31 January.

100 years young – Thursday, 7 November edition

The city got a new centenarian as former member of the Women’s Air Force, Dorothy Donaldson, marked her one hundredth birthday in the company of the Air Force Association’s Ballarat Branch.

Ms Donaldson has been passionate about seeing the whole globe, but Pakistan was a standout.

“I loved all of my trips, especially camping in the Hindu Kush… Travelling on the Karakorum Highway from Pakistan into far western China,” she said.

Mrs Donaldson’s sons, Roger and Peter Donaldson travelled from California and Sydney respectively to celebrate their mum and held a party with 84 members of family, and friends, at the Swiss Mountain hotel.

Ready to ride – Thursday, 21 November edition

A sea of blue and yellow jerseys rolled around Marty Busch Reserve as Ballarat-Sebastopol Rush BMX Club’s christened their new all-weather Sic Surface track.

Funded by the State government, the $200,000 track upgrade received the most votes from the community in the Pick My Project initiative.

Reaping the rewards of a state-of-the-art facility, club president Rob Pompe said the whole process had been “sensational.

“I started about 10 years ago here, and it was just a dirt track. It’s been a long haul, but the track’s changed, it’s been redeveloped, we’ve got the containers… now we’re here today with Sic Surface,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of little kids coming through the ranks. I think we’ve more than doubled our membership since we started this, so it’s been a huge job and we’ve worked tirelessly to get this where it is.”

Sounds of change – Thursday, 28 November edition

Voice FM officially started broadcasting from their new digs at Barkly Square.

The move represented the culmination of months of work by volunteers at the community radio station and marked the start of a new era.

Voice FM chairperson, Ron Egeberg championed the relocation with the support of the Voice board and the station’s passionate volunteers.

He said the move would not have been possible without broad, generous community support like that of the Lillingston Charitable Trust and Wes McKnight at Widgery and Wilson.

“It’s also a credit to our tradespeople and our skilled volunteers who have provided technical and IT expertise,” he said.