WATTLE Range Council elected member Rob Thornett has resigned from council.
He was first elected to council as a representative for the Penola-based Riddoch ward at a supplementary election following the 2010 general election.
Mr Thornett was subsequently re-elected unopposed at the 2014 general election.
His resignation took effect on June 29 and no supplementary election will be held as the next general election is only a few months away.
Mr Thornett left his job as a Penola High School teacher and the Penola Community Library librarian at the end of last year and moved with his family to the Adelaide Hills.
He has frequently submitted apologies for non-attendance at council meetings held this year.
Originally from New South Wales, Mr Thornett spent his formative years in Sydney.
A number of teaching appointments followed in Australia and overseas and family connections prompted his move to the region in 1993.
Among his other community involvement has been acting with the Penola Players and the Comaum Brigade of the Country Fire Service.
Mr Thornett credits Penola Players director Annie Kilsby for encouraging his return to the stage in a Penola Primary School production almost 20 years ago.
“Our kids were at the school at the time and Annie put on a co-production with the Penola Players,” Mr Thornett said.
“I had been in one play in my primary school days and I ended up having a ball.
“I also enjoyed my time with the CFS as I got to know the local farmers.
“I found the reading really challenging when I was elected to council.
“I would read the agenda papers, look for the executive summaries and get the gist.
“I would travel to council meetings with fellow Riddoch ward councillor Dean Burrow.
“We had an informal arrangement whereby I would second his motions and he would second mine and this would generate discussion in the meetings,
“This degree of solidarity worked well and was respected by the other councillors.
“Dean and I would have some amicable disagreements but we always treated each other in a cordial manner.”
Mr Thornett recalled the early months of his time on council.
“There was a fairly frosty initiation for us and we from Penola felt on the outer,” he said.
“There was that old enmity between the eastern and western areas of Wattle Range Council bubbling over.
“By the end of my first term on council, all of the councillors were on the same page and supported community projects wherever they may be.”
He described council’s involvement in the Beachport recreational boat ramp as a “blunder”.
Mr Thornett said the boat ramp was built with good intentions, but will always be expensive to maintain.
“The bypass remains a huge issue in Penola,” he said.
“It is only half-built and hopefully it will be completed before the end of the term of the new State Government in 2022.
“I just want to get the bloody thing done.
“When it happens, there will still be some disgruntled locals in Penola.”
Looking to the future, the 65-year-old intends to take on a full-time teaching load.
“In the words of my mother, if I am ‘spared’ I intend to teach until I am 70,” he said.
The resignation of Mr Thornett means no complete council has run its full term since the inception of Wattle Range in 1997.
There have been numerous resignations of serving councillors and one death.
