IF the word from the street can be trusted the somewhat drab structures surrounding Lithgow's Cook Street Plaza could soon be seeing the start of a mural on at least the western shop wall.
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The paintwork on the two storey commercial buildings on each side of the plaza has long since seen better days but Tidy Towns has been leading negotiations for hopefully brighter days ahead. (Think the colourful Jenny Kee artwork on Blackheath's Victory Theatre).
We're told designs are currently awaiting approval and some paint could soon be splashed around. Perhaps the Post Office building on the eastern side will also eventually benefit.
Meantime brooding over the southern end of the plaza the old TAFE college remains a most distressing eyesore.
Our concerned community deserves some positive information on what the future holds - if anything - for his ever deteriorating relic.
..and another?
STILL on murals and perhaps Council (and Transport NSW) might revive an old proposal for murals on the George Coates Avenue railway underpass to coincide with this year''s anniversary of the arrival of the railway at Bowenfels in 1869.
The suggestion to brighten up the old brickwork came during Maree Statham's term as Mayor but was derailed and ignored after a change of council. It could be time - perhaps with government funding.
Another lost link
IT'S evident from the number of social media posts that there are many in our community who well remember - some for better reasons than others - one time local cop Barry Antill. Barry, who died last week on the North Coast in his 80th year, was a member of a team of detectives stationed in Lithgow in the 1960s and 70s. It was a less uptight time with a better class of crooks, no "Ice Age", and when the cops interacted both officially and socially with the general community where they worked and resided. Most became household names. Barry ended his police career as Detective Superintendent in charge of the Northern Rivers Command and set up home at Goonelebah. He is survived by one daughter.
What now?
How many in our readership tipped the weekend electoral boilover? Locally, as in the State poll, it confirmed our inclinations towards Coalition rule at both levels of government.. It would be nice to think the new term of government will lead to a kinder Australia with more emphasis on help for those who need it most (we know that was one of Labor's platforms but so what?).
We're aware of people in our own community who suffer on a long waiting list because they can't afford even dental care. And with Andrew Gee's position now more firmly entrenched we'll be holding the Nationals to account on the promise of an MRI scanner for Lithgow Hospital sooner rather than later. Now life goes on.
