THIS year’s Blessing of the Waters went swimmingly after high winds prevented participants diving for the cross the year before. Crowds gathered at Frankston Pier on Tuesday 6 January to watch a large group of young men scramble for the wooden cross tossed into the sea by Greek Orthodox Church Bishop Jacob Iakovos to mark Epiphany Day. The day celebrates the baby Jesus being visited by three kings in Bethlehem and later being baptised in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. The throwing of the cross blesses the waters. Adam Kaoullas of Sandringham was quickest to retrieve the cross…
Author: Neil Walker
AN audacious bid by the Alex Fraser Group to extend the licence for its Clarinda concrete crushing plant is shaping up as the first test of the newly elected Labor state government’s environmental policy towards Kingston’s Green Wedge. Councillors unanimously opposed the request at this month’s council meeting and have asked Planning Minister Richard Wynne to “call in” and refuse the extension since it does not align with council’s Green Wedge objectives. In 2008, the previous Labor government approved the Alex Fraser concrete crusher in Clarinda despite Kingston Council opposition to the plant. The Alex Fraser was granted a 15-year…
PERHAPS it’s a sign of tough economic times that some shops in Frankston seem to be ‘here today, gone tomorrow’. But unlike many optimistic business owners who hope to be around for a long time after opening their store, several new stores in central Frankston will only be open for just a few weeks or months. Thankfully, the shop proprietors have planned it that way. Some ‘creative pop-up businesses’ have moved into empty premises in a Frankston Council backed ‘Space Innovators’ program to fill some of the unsightly vacant shopfronts scattered around Frankston. More than 1 in ten shopfronts in…
AS families around Frankston prepare for Christmas celebrations and look forward to a new year, some residents at Seaford Beach Cabin Park still face an uncertain future heading into the festive season. Talks between Frankston Council and park owner Michael Hibbert over a land swap deal to enable 20 cabins to remain on council leased Crown land after March next year have apparently stalled again. Mr Hibbert said a planned meeting late last month with council and the Department of Environment and Primary Industries was cancelled without explanation. He said council had also returned his previous quarterly lease payment of…
FRANKSTON’S time in the political limelight may be over after last month’s state election delivered Labor a 6-seat majority to oust the Coalition government after just one term in power but council is determined to ensure political pre-election promises are not forgotten. Council has written to newly elected Premier Daniel Andrews asking for details about a taskforce to oversee the redevelopment of Frankston train station and its surrounds. Mr Andrews promised to establish a taskforce within 100 days of the 29 November election to plan a $50 million transformation of the station precinct into “a state-of-the-art transport hub” including a…