Merv Wild, motoring club president, said seniors boss Leanne Fullard was hoping the seniors would be back in their building this week.
Rochester Historical Society Kay Speers is seeking information from people whose homes have been demolished, for historic records.
She said there had been about 10 homes being demolished as a result of the floods and the High St headquarters of the historical society was hoping to keep records of the homes.
Rotary’s Rochester praise
Ron Payne, who will soon become District Governor for Rotary District 9800 was glowing in his praise of the Rochester community at the breakfast meeting.
“The broader community support provided to Rochester people is a lesson to anyone of the values that communities and people should have,” Mr Payne said.
“Our district starts at Echuca and goes all the way to Brighton (Melbourne). This is an example of how a community supported by a Rotary Club, albeit only six or seven members, can move forward
Rochester Rotary’s next president Bryan Griffiths said the next men’s day out event was planned for June 27, following two successful events, which had seen some people leaving the town for the first time since the flood event.
Road repairs
Councillor Paul Jarman said Campaspe Shire was trying to get Rochester’s roads back together and repair programs would be ongoing.
That work was running alongside a key document for the shire, being the Rochester Place-Based Plan, which had seen the highest level of response in recent times.
Cr Jarman said there had been 550 people make submissions and the first step was to collate that information.
“From that we will be able to see what a post-flood Rochester will look like,” he said.
Cr Jarman said another key process was the Economic Development plan update for Rochester, which had not been done for seven years.
That process kicked off on Friday with a pop-up session and topics ranged from retail to agriculture and tourism.
Waste program extended
Campaspe Shire is extending the Rochester flood waste program until October, having become aware of the need for this program to continue.
The announcement came after representatives from the parliamentary inquiry were in Rochester the night before, Rochester representing half of the state’s flood inquiry’s 750 submissions.
Cosgrove Bizbuild visit
Rochester Business Network will host former governor-general, Sir Peter Cosgrove and the Business Council reconstruction program called BizRebuild later this month.
The former Australian army chief is coming to town on June 29 to continue the Bizbuild program.
The RBN has also launched a new Facebook page named Rochester & Surrounds for people looking to find a job and employers to post job offerings.
RBN president Glenda Nichol said she had recently had a big win, thanks to Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell.
“I asked Sam to bring up the fact that insurance companies, in particular, Commonwealth Bank and and Hollards, were being very slow in their assessments,” she said.
“He went back into parliament and mentioned Hollards, then suddenly they were here.
“If you poke the bear the right way you can get a response.”
Christmas in July
Rochester Probus Club will be bringing some early Christmas cheer to the town when hosts a Christmas in July at its next meeting.
Homework at ‘house’
Breakfast participants celebrated the new homework room at the community house and Campaspe Shire emergency management director Shannon Maynard was recognised for his preparedness to gain an insight into the living conditions of Rochester people.
He was given a tour of the town and shown houses that had been flood inundated.
The suggestion was also made to him that a community information session, to share information about what services were available to people, was necessary.
Anglican funding
Anglicare will continue to have a presence in Rochester for the next 12 months, after receiving funding for the next financial year. The organisation is busy closing down the temporary village at Elmore and will then be based in Rochester until July next year.