DARYL Scherger is no stranger to Ararat Advocate readers.<\/p>\n
He reliably sends us a Letter to the Editor each week and covers a range of topics and issues.<\/p>\n
He told us this week he has decided to take the plunge by nominating for a spot of Ararat Rural City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve raised numerous concerns and suggestion for improving Ararat (through Letters to the Editor) but if I want to anything to change then I need to be part of that change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf elected, my priority will be a more balanced approach to development with an emphasis on a more liveable community that’s both climate and energy resilient.<\/p>\n
Mr Scherger said a recent case of a homeless mother and her child promped him to run.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that tipped me over the edge was a few months ago when I heard a story of a young woman with a young child sleeping in a car out at Green Hill Lake because she had no where else to go and I knew the nurses residence at Aradale was sitting vacant while people were living in their cars. That\u2019s just wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI contacted our local member Martha, not interested, I contacted Dan Tehan, not interested and the council didn\u2019t seem that interested and I though, someone has to do something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Scherger believes Ararat has done reasonably well over recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it (council) has certainly done its job, I\u2019ve had a quick look at the budget and it looks pretty healthy, they haven\u2019t done a bad job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile rate freezes are popular with ratepayers, the efficiency can only go so far and you get to a point where you think what has been cut, what services have been cut, what maintenance is being done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I am elected I think I have laid out (through Letters to the Editor) the things I am interested in.<\/p>\n
Mr Scherger said he supported sensible development but was concerned some building projects have seen over development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people are concerned by the amount of small lot subdivisions with multiple developments on the same block. I don\u2019t want Ararat to end up like Winter Valley or Lucas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want Ararat to be the sort of place where people come to visit and say, \u2018I wouldn\u2019t mind living here\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a town, Ararat is as good as any town in regional Victoria, it has a great health service, the train service is immaculate, highway access and some good industries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Scherger said he has been a long supporter of renewable energy and would like to see council become more proactive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a big advocate of bioenergy. We\u2019ve got a great cropping industry, huge amounts of straw grown and burnt each year, a massive waste of energy. Why not use that in a community owned\u00a0 energy facility like Hepburn where the benefits come back to the town,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, voters will agree with my goals and support me at the upcoming election,\u201d Mr Scherger said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DARYL Scherger is no stranger to Ararat Advocate readers.
\nHe reliably sends us a Letter to the Editor each week and covers a range of topics and issues.
\nHe told us this week he has decided to take the plunge by nominating for a spot of Ararat Rural City Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_6291-Copy-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-Eh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}