ONE of her final contributions while still a Bathurst Regional councillor might ultimately prove one of the most important in Monica Morse's 13 years in the council chamber.
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Just a few months out from retiring at the council elections in September, Cr Morse moved a notice of motion at the April meeting of council calling on her colleagues to commit to properly "investigating options for an additional crossing of the Macquarie River".
The notice of motion won the support of her colleagues and the community now waits to see what that future report might recommend - and whether those recommendations ultimately lead to action that might ease the daily congestion between Kelso and the CBD or be allowed to whither on the shelf like so many reports before.
Council's director of environmental, planning and building services, Neil Southorn, has confirmed an additional river crossing is a concept in the Local Strategic Planning Statement and that at least one suggested route would see the new crossing connect to Bradwardine Road.
He says the next step should be a more detailed route assessment, requiring modelling of the impacts of a new route on the local traffic network, geotechnical analysis, flood impact modelling and related planning activities.
That all sounds terribly time-consuming but the nature of local government - indeed, any government - is that very few things are able to happen quickly.
Even here in Bathurst we have seen important roads projects that seemingly carried majority support within the community take 20 years or more to come to fruition.
The extension of Bradwardine Road to the Mitchell Highway and a roundabout at the intersection of Lambert, Suttor and Mitre streets are two such projects that come to mind but the task of building a new Macquarie River crossing is a much bigger undertaking than either of those.
This is a proposal that will fundamentally change the way Bathurst lives and the way the region grows, and council must get it right. But if every long journey must start with a single step then maybe Cr Morse took that step at the last council meeting.
It would be a brave Bathurstian that put any sort of timeline on when we might see a new river crossing but at least now we might confidently say it will one day be a reality.
As the shampoo commercial said, it won't happen overnight but it will happen.
