Welcome to this week's Editors Choice The River of Art annual ten day festival has begun with 120 events throughout the Eurobodalla and beyond; from Sth Durras to Bermagui. After months of preparation by the organisers and toil by the artists it is now Showtime. To best advise of the arts, music and performance that have been assembled for your enjoyment we can only suggest that, if you don't have a program at hand then please visit the River of Art website and discover what is on. There are a wealth of shop space galleries with mini-exhibitions so as you pass by shopfront windows be sure to stop and look. Artists have also opened up their workspaces to show where and how they create. What is already evident is that the South East is the home to extraordinarily gifted artists. Elsewhere in the news this week we saw Council put out its media release saying it will now be lobbying for an Australia-wide ban on single-use plastic bags and is encouraging local businesses and the community to do the same. This went hand in hand with their news that they will be expanding Surf Beach landfill at a cost of $4.8 million which will extend the life of the landfill by seven years.
A review of the South East Regional Hospital was released this week and the report card isn't that rosy. There are still many questions left unanswered and the BVRRA have offered a good starting point to highlight the concerns the hospital has for the many Eurobodalla residents who access the facility. At next week's Council meeting councillors will consider allowing further redevelopment options to be explored for Batemans Bay’s Mackay Park precinct such as physically separating the proposed aquatic and recreation centre from the proposed performance space. They will also discuss substituting a 25 metre pool for the existing 50m pool along with expanding to a 1,000 seat multi-purpose event space instead of a 500-seat theatre.
Enjoy the River of Art Festival and don't forget the Million Paws walk for the RSPCA at Riverside Park, Moruya on Sunday morning. Until next week Lei
