By Damien Ahern

It is great to see the return of our hanging baskets and window boxes to the village bringing some much needed colour and cheer to the street. We are hopeful of some warm and sunny conditions to allow the flowers to flourish.

Many thanks to the FÁS workers and Jim Carmody who are busy each day tending to the village ensuring the village is maintained to a high standard. We would encourage everyone to support the Community Council Draw upon its return to support the provision of the local CE scheme.

Unfortunately dumping has become a major issue at the Bottle Banks in Athea. Each week a large amount of rubbish is removed from bags that are being left at the side of the bottle bank. We are currently investigating ways to redesign the bottle bank to prevent dumping at this site. Our group has also invested in a CCTV camera for the site, hoping to identify the culprit/culprits. A reminder that leaving a bag of cans/bottles/clothes at the bottle bank when the banks are full is also classed as dumping. A reminder also to local Public Houses that is it an offence to use the bottle banks for commercial purposes. All establishments are required to have their own bins to dispose of class bottles/cans.

Many thanks to our local councillors John Sheahan, Liam Galvin and Francis Foley who have committed funding from their GMA allocation towards the repainting of our footbridge. This is a huge undertaking with the project costing over €50,000 for a complete repaint. We are very grateful to Limerick City & County Council for all their help and support.

We have just a few jobs remaining at our River Walk in advance of an official opening to take place later in the year. With the help of the Hen Harrier Project, we have commissioned a large Hen Harrier Wood Carving which will be placed on the Glin Road.