Cr Danita Potter - Community Portfolio Report - 11 October 2017

South Burnett Libraries

This year’s Children’s Book Week theme was “Escape to Everywhere”.  To celebrate this special week the Nanango Library invited local childcare and kindergarten groups to join the library for a BEAR HUNT.  The Nanango Kindergarten community arrived bright and early, dressed in costume and ready to enjoy the Bear Hunt story and activities.  After being engaged with stories, the first group of 28 children and 11 adults then retraced the steps of the hunt to find the bear lounging in the cave with his mates. They went through the long wavy grass, a deep cold river, thick oozy mud, a big dark forest, a swirling whirling snowstorm and the narrow gloomy cave - but they weren’t scared!

School Holiday Activities

During the recent school holidays children across the region once again took part in a number of fun and interactive activities, with the hit event being the DIY fidget spinners which attracted 40 children in Kingaroy alone.  Other popular activities included springtime mobiles and pet rocks.  Children busily cut, coloured, threaded and decorated their springtime mobiles whilst crafters fashioned pet rock penguins, elephants, fish and frogs.  Many unique items were created, with young participants proud to take home their handmade goodies.   

Fun Palace

On Saturday 7 October the Kingaroy Library hosted its “Second Annual Fun Palace”, a celebration of arts and sciences, learning, play and adventure. Fun Palace is a global community event, with Fun Palaces happening all over the world on the same weekend.  Some of the activities included a special story time session featuring myself as a guest story teller, Spanish lessons for kids, customized hero masks, Lego robot programing, and window decorating. The morning’s fun all cumulated in The Funolympics a group of several events held in the library foyer.

Rhyme time cake decorating workshop

The Proston Library was thrilled to have a local community member, who has won numerous local, state and national awards with her cake decorating skills, host another workshop with parents who regularly attend rhyme time.  This session proved very popular, with participants appreciating of the opportunity to learn a new skill whilst their children enjoyed a rhyme time session.

Customer Contact First Quarter Statistics

During the first quarter, being July to September, Customer Contact staff across the five (5) offices of Council have been processing a large number of enquiries and providing a range of services.  The following statistics provide a sample of the work being undertaken:

• Calls received to the 41899100 number – 7508
• Top three (3) customer requests logged for action (of the 42 categories) – Animals 450, Call Backs 293, Roads 278
• Top three (3) Applications logged for action (of the 34 categories)– Searches 387, Enforcement Impound 163, Enforcement Local Law 115
• Top three (3) Halls utilised through bookings – Kingaroy Town Common Hall 84, Kingaroy Town Hall 69, Nanango Cultural Centre 38.

Community Grants Program – Elite Youth Performance Grant.

The Elite Youth Performance Grant which is a component of Council’s Community Grants Program has had unprecedented interest since the commencement of this grant in July this year.  Previously Council did offer an elite performance grant however Council through the adoption of the Community Grants Program Policy earlier this year decided to narrow the scope of this grant to our local youth. 

Since July, Council has approved and funded the following applications: