NAAS, 31 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. The Omaha twinning delegation to Naas have a very full weekend of activities organised for them by Naas town councillors.

KILCULLEN, 31 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. The prospect of a ‘local distribution road’ in Kilcullen to allow traffic from the Newbridge Road to acces the Athy Road and the Motorway without going into Kilcullen itself has moved closer.

NAAS, 30 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Three motions passed unanimously at Naas Town Council’s July meeting included one from Cllr Charlie Byrne asking that all children should have free medical treatment up to the age of seven.

LEIXLIP, 29 July 2002: by Bill Trapman. A number of music rooms and musical instrument availability will feature as part of the new library in Leixlip which has commenced construction.

OMAHA, 28 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. While Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey and a number of the Nebraskan city’s councillors are enjoying the hospitality of Naas next weekend, they will also be considering in whatever spare time they have a recommended budget for next year of some 230m euros for the city (in comparison, the Naas Town Council budget for 2001 was 4.7m euros).

NAAS & MOLDOVA, 27 July 2002: by Trish Whelan. Naas teacher Orla O’Connell has this week swapped Naas for Moldova where she will do voluntary work in an orphanage looking after children from the age of 4 up to their late teens. She is pictured above with details of Outreach Moldova's 'Hold her Hand' programme.

MONASTEREVIN, 27 July 2002: by Bill Trapman. With the bad weather of the summer so far, there hasn't been much happening on the canal that runs through the town. So locals were delighted to spot this activity.

NEWBRIDGE, 27 July 2002: by Bill Trapman. Europe's foremost exponent of the art of Taiko (Japanese drumming), Mugenkyo, will be performing at the Riverbank next Friday, August 2.

NEWBRIDGE, 27 July 2002: by Bill Trapman. The County Kildare Library and Arts Committee is to investigate the possibility of providing improved public library facilities in Newbridge.

KILDARE GENERAL, 26 July 2002: by Cllr Catherine Murphy. This week several County Councils officially got poorer - the ones with the highest population growth, like Kildare.

OMAHA & NAAS, 25 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. When Omaha’s Sister City Association establishes a relationship with another town or city around the world, it takes its work seriously.

NEWBRIDGE, 24 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. A Newbridge town councillor has expressed his concerns that the new traffic management plans for the town will ‘not badly affect trade’. The final draft plans are currently under consideration by Kildare County Council.

NAAS, 22 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Mayor Mike Fahey and three of Omaha’s seven councilmen who are coming to Naas for the return twinning charter signing will be travelling without any funding from the city’s council, according to the Omaha World Herald, the city's newspaper.

NAAS, 21 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. A deal with developers to sell the Naas Town Council car park at Corban's Lane now lies under a threat of the council exiting from the deal unless a planning application is made for the property by September.

ATHY, 21 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. It started small yesterday afternoon, with just Tony O'Brien on guitar and Lurgan banjo man Mel Corry picking between themselves in a corner of Athy GAA Club's bar. It seemed for a time that not much was going to happen, which perhaps was not surprising as many of the Bluegrass Festival participants had been up until four yesterday morning after the opening concert of the weekend on Friday night.

NAAS, 18 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Kildare County Council 'would need the United Nations' to police developers in the county, the council's assistant manager told Naas town councillors on Tuesday night. Tommy Skehan was defending his planning and compliance departments in a debate on a Naas development plagued with drainage and sewerage problems since it was built 15 years ago.

NEWBRIDGE & NAAS, 18 July 2002: by Trish Whelan. County Kildare was represented in two operas running on alternate nights in the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in recent weeks.

NAAS, 18 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. A lifelong trade unionist who is now a Naas town councillor has demanded that construction workers on a Naas council housing project be told to work longer than they do.

NEWBRIDGE, 17 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Ray O’Brien Motors of Newbridge has been given the franchise for Mitsubishi Trucks in Co Kildare, following his group’s recent acquisition of the local dealership for Mitsubishi cars.

NAAS, 17 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Residents of Kingsfurze in Naas say they are ‘disappointed’ at the forced deferral of a motion at last night’s Town Council meeting which, if passed, would have resulted in a ‘Public Private Partnership’ arrangement to run the estate’s playground.

NAAS, 16 July 2002: by Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan. The Naas Special Olympics Committee are ‘nearly there’ in terms of accommodation for the 75 people from New Zealand coming to Kildare’s County town next year, according to committee chairman Denis Curry. But a number of host homes are still required, he noted.

MAYNOOTH, 12 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Maynooth-based councillor John McGinley has called on Kildare County Council to revise General Development Levies in order to cater for the provision of children’s and teenager playgrounds in towns where there is a demand for such facilities. He has submitted a motion for the council to consider the matter.

NAAS AREA, 11 July 2002: by Trish Whelan. A blight on the countryside could soon be in for a facelift thanks to a 38,000 euro allocation under the ‘Parks’ fund available to the Naas Area Committee of Kildare County Council.

ATHY, 11 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. The Athy International Bluegrass Festival on the weekend of July 19-21 will include artists from as far afield as the USA and Holland as well as noted exponents of the music from Ireland.

Donnelly employees given merger details

Jim Reilly is new Mayor of County Kildare

KILDARE GENERAL, 8 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Cllr Jim Reilly has been elected as Mayor of County Kildare. He is pictured above with members of his family and outgoing Mayor Cllr John O’Neill.

NEWBRIDGE, 6 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. New all-weather pitches and a free public playground were officially opened this afternoon in Newbridge by the Mayor of County Kildare, Cllr John O'Neill. The opening of the 501,000 euros project was Mayor O'Neill's last public function before the mayorship transfers at Monday's AGM of Kildare County Council. (Picture Gallery and Audio interview in Full Story.)

KILCULLEN, 5 July 2002: by Trish Whelan. Kildare County Council has no funds from development levies for an all-weather pitch at the site provided by Kilcullen Community Centre.

BROWNSTOWN, 6 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Gardai are questioning a man following the seizure of cannabis at Brownstown, The Curragh, last night.

OSBERSTOWN, 4 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. Kildare County Council has announced the prequalification procedure for the design, construction and operation of a sewage sludge treatment facility and sludge beneficial re-use in Osberstown, Co Kildare.

KILDARE TOWN, 3 July 2002: by Grace Halford. Monday saw the finale of the twenty fourth Derby Festival in Kildare Town and according to all accounts the festival was a huge success for everyone involved.

ATHY & KILDARE GENERAL, 2 July 2002: by Brian Byrne. A weekend festival planned for October in Athy around the story of explorer Ernest Shackleton is aimed at being a sustainable event with the ability to attract an international market.

KILCULLEN & NEWBRIDGE, 1 July 2002: by Bill Trapman. A 60s-style pop group formed by five mid-Kildare people a number of years ago (well, MANY years ago!), have just released their first CD. And because it took them more than six years to complete it, they’ve called it ‘Better Late than Never’.