While people may be tightening their belts with the cost of living rising, and local businesses are still facing some downturn pressures, it's not all bad news for Harden-Murrumburrah with several new businesses opening. Recently a coffee van business has opened its doors every weekend near the Bill the Bastard statue, and a bit of rejuvenation in Harden's town centre, The Harden-Murrumburrah Regional Development Corporation (HRDC)'s Melissa Pinney said there is a development application in for the old Lyceum building and the four shops next it as well as works having started on replacing the awning on those shops. In other local business news, lots of work is being undertaken by the new owners of the Carrington Hotel, and Ms Pinney said the Light Horse is expected to reopen soon. "We do have rejuvenation occurring on some buildings that have been closed for some considerable time," she said. Currently, Ms Pinney said, the HRDC are looking at what they can do with their signage to draw people in to town. "HRDC as an organisation is looking at what can we do that will make a difference to our entire community, but very much support local businesses by getting people to stop," she said. Ms Pinney said the general information coming from local businesses is that they still haven't fully bounced back from the drop of people passing through when the fuel prices surged earlier in the year. "There was a definite downturn at that stage that was noticeable in passing traffic... And many of our businesses are reliant on some of that traffic," she said. While they have bounced back a little, businesses across the board are still facing the increased costs of freight and insurance. Ms Pinney said they understand everyone is having to tighten their belts, but is encouraging people to buy local when they can and support that local option. "We need our local shops because we want people to stop and wander as that is going to help the local economy." Ms Pinney said everyone has got to work hard to support each other locally to maintain the businesses we have, and not be afraid of new businesses coming in as that encourages more people to come over to shop.
