The AGM of Rathcormac Community Council was held in the hall on Monday night, April 15. Frank Buckley, outgoing chairman welcomed the members and proceeded with the agenda.

SECRETARY’S REPORT

Elma Twomey gave the secretary’s report which detailed the activities of the past year. 2012/2013 was another year of excellent progress with good attendance at monthly meetings.

‘Welcome to the AGM of Rathcormac Community Council for 2012/2013. I am delighted to be reporting to you at the end of a very successful year for the council. As you know there are many different aspects to our community council and everyone is working in their own area of expertise to ensure the future of our council.

CORK COUNTY COUNCIL

We are fortunate to have a great relationship with Cork County Council. Firstly our 4 local Cllrs, Patrick O’Driscoll, Kevin O’Keeffe, Frank O’Flynn and Noel McCarthy, are very good to us and are always just a phone call away to help out with local issues. Brendan O’Gorman replaced Flan Groarke last year and officers have met him regularly throughout the year.

Also, Dan Shine, assistant engineer in Mallow and Michael Cremin have visited Rathcormac regularly throughout the year to help out with issues such as the playground, the Bride Walk, grass cutting, tree cutting and amenity grants.

GRASS CUTTING

Last year the contractor was somewhat better than the previous year, but with inclement weather the task was again difficult. However, the FAS workers and the Tus workers helped out as needed.

Playground: Cork Co. Co have continued to maintain the playground, fixing any repairs this year and it was power washed last summer. The FAS worker collected rubbish there and emptied the bin regularly. The local Gardai continue to patrol the area.

ROADS

Throughout the year many reports of potholes, rubbish etc have been sent to the Fermoy office. These have been dealt with according to their work schedules and budget in the area office.

COIS BHAILE

This estate was taken in charge by Cork Co Co this year.

EXERCISE AREA

We were looking forward to and confident that we would be granted an exercise area under the ‘Sports Capitation’ grant. However, disappointing news that we were unsuccessful was received in Jan 2013.

THE SCENIC RIVER BRIDE

Cork Co Council played a huge part in our Bride walk and indeed Bride road plans. June 15^th, 2012 was the closing date for objections to the design and plan for the footpath. When no objections were received a ‘Part 8’ was drawn up and work began shortly after.

Some disruption to traffic took place but it was worth it in the end when the project was completed. Ducting for lights has been put in and hopefully in the near future we will get to this stage of the project, as it is clearly being used by lots of people. We have applied for a C.I.S. (Community Involvement Scheme) for the Bride road this year. We have not yet heard if we have been successful.

I would like to thank Cork Co Co for their amenity grants this year. €841 was received to part fund a lawnmower, strimmer and a budget sprayer. €10,000 has also been granted for the kitchen under a community fund.

Finally, I would like to commend Brendan O’Gorman for his dedication to Rathcormac.

Hall Works

Once again the hall has been a hub of activity this year. Flood damage to the floors caused a bit of chaos, but compensation was received for this and things got back to normal pretty quickly. The project of the refurbishment of the kitchen kept officers busy. Quotes for works were received from 3 builders. They were Gowen Construction, Ballyhooly; O’Doherty Builders, Fermoy and O’Keeffe Builders, Bartlemy. After much deliberation and assessment of the costs with Avondhu Blackwater, Kevin O’Keeffe was offered the contract.

Much paperwork was needed for Avondhu Blackwater to secure the grant of €20,000, but thankfully we were successful. €1,000 was also granted from the H.S.E. (Health Board) and €10,000 from a community grant from Cork Co. Co. These cannot be drawn down until all works are complete and receipts are sent in.

Sincere thanks to Catherine McCarthy and Gerry Walsh (FAS), Kathleen Gowen, Rita Kelleher and the Tus workers for their continued work at the hall.

COMMUNICATIONS

Communications within a community council is of huge importance. Thanks to our PRO Frank Buckley who has submitted notes to the papers every month. Lee Long also does a fantastic job at updating the website regularly.

PRIDE OF PLACE

Last summer we were asked to take part in Pride of Place 2012. It was a great honour for us and everyone in the parish must be thanked for coming on board and making it a momentous occasion for the parish. The judges visited the hall and toured the village on August 17th. It was a great day. Frank and I attended the gala dinner in Limerick in November, but unfortunately we were unsuccessful. A presentation was made to RCC at a reception in County Hall in Jan 2013 for their efforts.

AVONDHU/BLACKWATER

As previously mentioned, Valerie and her team at Avondhu Blackwater are always working with the RCC. Many meetings were held with them throughout the year. They were a fantastic help to us for Pride of Place and we especially pay tribute to Cathal O’Meara, Niall Walsh and Dave Foley for their work with us.

FAS TEAM & TUS TEAM

We were so fortunate to have Gerry and Catherine under the FAS scheme all year. They work tirelessly to keep the hall and local areas tasty and clean. Unfortunately, we have recently lost Gerry but we are trying our best to secure a replacement. We are very sorry to see Gerry finish. He was a great worker and his lightheartedness and humour rubbed off on everyone he met in Rathcormac.

Sincere thanks to Pat O’Connell who has co-ordinated the FAS scheme down through the years. He always ensured that the workers had a schedule every week. Richie organizes the Tus workers. This scheme was also very beneficial to us last year. We had 5 workers who did great work. This year we only have one worker. Many thanks to Richie and Vincent O’Flynn (area supervisor) for their efforts last year.

SCHOOL

After years of planning and waiting work finally began on the school last April. There was great excitement in the village as we watched it progress block by block under the expertise of Midlands Construction. The community council have worked closely with the Co. Council to build a footpath to the school. This was drained and piped by Dave Quirke and the footpath was poured.

The Tus workers helped out with the manhole. We are also working on the ‘taking in charge’ of the road at the school with Cork Co Co at the moment. This will take time. I would like to thank Margaret Howard, principal and Fr O’Donnell for keeping us updated on school progress at meetings throughout the year.

CARDS

The Tuesday night Progressive 45 Card Drive continues to be a huge source of revenue for the community of Rathcormac. People travel from far and wide to play cards here on Tuesday nights. Frank Buckley, Sean O’Riordan and Richie Regan from the community council are to be praised for their organisation and work to ensure that this continues to be a pleasant social gathering for the older members of our community. Thanks also to Mai Browne and Rita Kelleher, who help out on the Tuesday nights.

PRIESTS

Fr O’Donnell has now given 17 years of service to this parish and at community council meetings throughout the year he was praised for being a “good basic friend to everyone”. He is a fantastic supporter of everything in the parish. Fr Danny Murphy was welcomed to the parish last year.

SHANOWEN PLAYERS

After much deliberation it was decided to produce ‘The Playboy of the Western World’ by J.M Synge this year. Thanks to the wonderful cast and to Kathleen O’Regan, Assumpta Mangan, Sally and Valerie O’Leary for their work in producing a fantastic play.

OTHER BUSINESS

Car park at the Church: Officers met with Deputy Tom Barry and efforts are continuing to secure a positive outcome on this project.

Social Initiative Group: This group organized many trips away for parishioners throughout the year. They travelled to Belfast, Stormont and Curraheen Park this year and plans are under way for a trip in Summer 2013.

Senior Citizens: The senior citizens party was a wonderful success again in 2012. Thanks to Kathy Kearney and Batt O’Connell and their team for organising a great day for the elderly members of our community.

Hall Bookings: Some problems arose this year again with bookings for the hall. The hall is so busy now with many groups needing it. Bookings are made through Rita Kelleher. This is not an easy job and I commend Rita for her patience and understanding in ensuring that everyone is fitted in. She has many people calling to her door and she is always polite and welcoming.

Eirgrid: Officers travelled to The Midleton Park Hotel in April 2012 to see the exhibition on the possible routes for the Eirgrid project.

Alarms For the Elderly: Peter Quirke co-ordinates this scheme for the community council. Many more alarms have been fitted this year and I would like to thank Peter for this.

Buses: Concerns were expressed this year about the bus service for the village. Representations were made to The National Transport Authority on the matter and the service seems to have improved.

Garda car: The garda car for Rathcormac was grounded this year and as yet a replacement car has not been put in place.

MY VISION FOR 2013

For the year ahead I would like to see the church car park project progress and I am looking forward to the completion of the kitchen. Projects like these, give us an improved window of opportunity to continue to encourage everyone in the parish to participate in this active community of Rathcormac. We have seen a dramatic growth in our village population and I believe we are now an example of good practice.

Rathcormac Community Council continues to work hard to put in place facilities and make improvements for our people. As this is my final term as secretary, I would like to thank you all for your support over the last 3 years. It was challenging but very rewarding and I hope that I represented you well as secretary for R.C.C.

THANKS

Many thanks to Marie O’Riordan, assistant secretary who filled in for me on occasion throughout the year.

To those who suffered bereavements during the year I would like to express my sympathy to them.

Congratulations to all those who have had reason to celebrate in 2012.

Finally, I would like to extend a huge thank you to my fellow officers Frank Buckley, Eimer O’Leary, Marie O’Riordan, Batt O’Connell, Sean O’Riordan, Richie Regan and Pat O’Connell. For their support, their patience and their hard work when ever it was needed throughout the year. Thanks to everyone who contributed at meetings during the year for the benefit of our community council.’

Emer O’Leary then gave a very detailed financial report. This showed every transaction for the past 12 months. Copies of this can be had from any of the officers for anyone who missed the meeting.

Again the highlight of our income for the year was the continued success of the cards on Tuesday nights. The income from the hall activities was also significantly up this year. Emer thanked all, especially Richie, Elma, Frank, Sean and Rita for their help all year.

CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS

Frank then gave his Chairman’s address:

‘As you will have heard from Elma’s secretary’s report, we had another busy and interesting year. You will also see from Eimer’s treasurer’s report that we spent a lot of money on excellent projects. Importantly the money we spent on the major projects was other organisation’s money such as Cork Co Council and Avondhu/Blackwater, from whom we got grants for the Bride Walk and the hall refurbishments and the new school path.

We thank most sincerely those bodies for their help and co-operation during the year. At this stage it is appropriate to thank also Rita Kelleher and Kathleen Gowen our key holder’s for their patience and hard work during the year. Also, thanks to our 2 FAS Worker’s Ger and Catherine who were kept busy preparing the Hall for everybody. Good luck to Ger who has now finished his term with us.

As Elma gave such a comprehensive report, I will just mention our main activities of the past year.

Hall Works continued to keep us busy with the upgrading and refurbishment of the Toilets, the extension of the Kitchen, and the new floor covering in the side rooms. These are a great success.

We were delighted that Rathcormac was nominated to represent the county in The Pride of Place competition in August in recognition of the developments in the parish.

The enhancement of the Bride Walk was our biggest project and we thank Dan Shine and the Co Council for their work with us there. The new footpath to the new school was done for us by the Co Council later in the year after we had tidied up that area. Thanks to Brendan O’Gorman and Dave Quirke for the great work done there.

The highlight of the year occurred on last Tuesday when the Mgt Howard, the teachers and the Rathcormac school kids walked across the road into the fabulous 12 classroom new school. It was what the teachers, Fr O’Donnell and all organisations in the parish had worked and fought for over 12 long years. We wish them every success and happiness for many long years to come.

A development in  March of 2012 saw us allocated 5 Tus workers. This greatly increased our ability to attack other projects such as those that were needed to tidy up the area. The improvements in the  Village surround is evident for all to see. Our thanks to the Supervisors Vincint and Ann Marie and of course to Tom, Pat, Con Robert and Les our Tus group.

The Shanowen Players put on The Playboy of the Western World and this was a great success. We thank them for their hard work and dedication.

Finally, I would like to thank my fellow officers, Elma and Eimer, for their exceptional work during the year and also Richie, Sean, Marie, Batt and Pat for their continued support. Thanks also to  Fr O’Donnell for his great support. Indeed all of you are to be thanked for your great work over the year. As I have now completed 2 years as chair, I will not be eligible to continue in this role but I must say it has been a pleasure to work with you all over the past 2 years again.’

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Fr O’Donnell then took the chair for the election of officers, with the following elected for the coming year: Chair Elma Twomey, vice-chair Batt O Connell, hon. sec. Marie O’Riordan, asst. sec. Kieran Delaney, treas. Richie O’Regan, asst treas. Eimer O’Leary, PRO Frank Buckley, FAS liason Pat O’Connell, Tus liason Richie Regan.

Elma then took the chair for A.O.B. She thanked everybody for putting their confidence in her and also the outgoing officers for their Trojan work during a very busy year.

NEW SCHOOL

Margaret Howard reported on the move into the new school. She thanked the RCC for their support over the years in securing the new school. She still has some worries about the traffic though this went smoother than expected. Some path widening is needed at the end of the tennis court between the old and new schools.

The bus and long vehicles seem to have problems at the round-about and at the exit to the village. We will talk again to the Co Co engineer about these problems.

FAS

We still have only one FAS worker. This is a problem as some work may be too heavy for the one person to cope with.

BUS SERVICE

Kieran Delaney reported on improvements in the Bus service to the village.

SQUAD CAR

It now appears we have got back our squad car which is very important in such a spread out parish.

CONDOLENCES

These were recorded to recently bereaved in the parish.

NEXT MEETING

Monday, 3rd May (20th) at 8.30pm in the hall.