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Tag Archives: Council
Next BODC meeting
The Say
by Cagerattler
Isn’t it great to see the Recreation Ground Camping area getting used how we hoped it would. It has to be good for the local businesses too.
The other night I was over there walking my dogs and got talking to one of the campers. He reckoned that he’d been travelling for many years and we were one of the most accommodating, friendly and best places he’d come across. The best part for me though was that most of our secret is word of mouth because campers talk to other campers. Isn’t that fantastic?
That’s the good news. Now, Council… What about looking at establishing areas designated for backpacking campers too? Some do this anyway but the original idea was to have a sheltered area set aside to let the ‘tenters’ have a nice spot to pitch the ol’ tepee or wigwam… That’d be awesome and continue the good work already done, first by the original steering group and later by Council. Establishing something that we can be really proud of. This leads me to an associated issue…
The Streetscape – has it been thrown into the too-hard basket, deferred, cancelled or something in between? What’s the problem? If it’s good enough to find the money for a proposed new hospital site for St Helens (which I do think is needed but could be several years away) why not start work in St Marys, Fingal and other places? Funds were supposed to be set aside when the Council initially agreed to improve infrastructure, quite a few years ago now. Quite frankly, Mayor and Council, it’s about time that at the very least a bit of good forward action or plan could be made known to us all.
I wonder if the sticking point is the parking issue? MAKE A DECISION EITHER WAY ON THAT…and the rest of us will get used to the end result and accept it. It’s that simple.
It’s about time for someone to say or do something, otherwise five years down the track we’ll still be talking about it…It can be done. Look at the Recreation Ground utilisation as a great example…IT DOES WORK.
What do you think? Rod McGiveron
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor,
I have lived in St Marys for the past 14 years and have always walked up Richardsons Road past the recently drained dam. I understand the dam was drained because of one complaint to TasWater that the water was gushing down the creek. I have never seen the creek gushing! I rang TasWater, then the Council, and was told that a platypus put a hole in the structure. It’s concrete! Maybe I am wrong but I find this ridiculous. The Council told me they won’t reconsider refilling the dam till they know the structure is sound.
So are we indefinitely left with this dangerous smelly eyesore? And of course no one considered the poor animals and birdlife that drink and live at the dam.
Kate Almond, St Marys
46.19 February 27th, 2014
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The Say
By Cagerattler.
Last week I was walking around town and was disturbed to see how overgrown the parks and general public areas were, and wondered what any visitors would have thought as they passed through or stopped for a spell. At one time I was a greenkeeper and know that this is the peak growth period of the year, but it’s also leading into the busy season and our Council has to be ready for this.
In contrast it seemed that the coastal areas were not to any great extent as overgrown in the public areas, as evident earlier in the week.
On a slightly similar theme we talked at work about who is responsible for nature strips. Two or three different opinions came forth, all with valid points, but after issues recently dealing with workplace safety and occupational health and safety matters a whole can of worms appears i.e. legally, if whilst in the process of mowing your (Council owned) nature strip you injure person/s, property of even yourself. As one of my workmates said, he found it difficult to understand why you wouldn’t want your strip to look its best and this was one of the few places that council maintains these areas…fair point indeed and as a couple of others said that if an indemnity existed to protect the householder, ratepayer or renter they’d have no issues mowing sometimes largish areas adjacent to their house. Is this the case though?…Is there an indemnity for such work and if not can our council seek to address that? For the record I generally run the mower over the small bit outside my property but given recent pedantic rules and regulations (bordering on insanely ridiculousl over the top rules on less serious risks) it made me wonder more about mowing and the real risks involved with that in a public area.
On the main point though, regarding the parks, Town Hall area and roadside verges not associated with properties, I hope the BODC will try to be a lot more vigilant than of late with this very basic and fundamental service that our rates must surely partially finance. Thankfully in the past few days some of this work is being addressed prior to Christmas…that’s good.
Finally, as this is the last Valley Voice for the year, I’d like to thank Wendy Dawson, our hard working editor, in her first year in the job for being so amazing to deal with. She’s been great.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas/New Year break, not least Wendy and her fabulous crew, and all things being equal, see you in 2014…
What do you think? Rod McGiveron.
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor
I was very pleased to see nearly 40 people come to St Marys Town hall on 10th November for the screening of “Mary Meets Mohammad”. It was a great opportunity for people to become more educated on the asylum seeker issue occurring in Australia at the moment. Did you know Australia is the only western nation that has mandatory indefinite detention for asylum seekers arriving by boat? Did you know Australia receives only 0.3% of the world’s refugees? Did you know that it costs $450,000 a year to detain someone on Nauru or Manus Island, but only about $30,000 a year if they were allowed to live in the community while being processed?
Many thanks to Melanie Norton and her wonderful team from the Salvation Army (Don and Stuart) for providing the electronic equipment for the screening, and thanks to the lovely ladies (I believe it was Michelle, Brittany and Wendy) who helped set up the chairs. Also, thanks to the Break O’Day Council for providing a fee waiver for the hire of the hall. Several people have suggested a local group should be formed that could find ways to encourage asylum seekers to come to our area – anyone interested?
Remember, it is not illegal to seek asylum, even if arriving by boat.
Hannah Rubenach, St Marys.
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor
I reply to Councillor Johns’ answer to Frank Giles in the Valley Voice 11/9/2013.
I find that your broad consensus of the community was of little value as you did not consult the farming community as seen at the Council meeting farmers attended.
You stated that you wanted the farming sector to pay the same as the commercial sector (9¢ in the rateable dollar), too bad this is an untruth as the commercial rate was dropped from 7.5¢ in the dollar to 6.8¢ in the dollar.
The commercial rateable value is less than the farming rateable value by about $605,535.00 (amounts quoted from freedom of information request). By dropping the commercial rate to 6.8¢ in the dollar the Council dropped its revenue by nearly $38,000.00; by raising the farming rate to 12.6¢ in the dollar Council would have gained $309,699.00 extra revenue.
You seem to think that the commercial and residential ratepayers pay 85% of the bill towards Council spending, why don’t you quote the amounts that Council gets from grants and assistance throughout the year – people may like to know that. There are farming sectors still paying 12.5¢ in the dollar today – why is this so?
You should also know that DIER is not responsible for lighting, Council pays the bill for street lighting.
You have been in Council long enough to know that very seldom or never does a rate increase ever get reduced in following years.
The last paragraph in your letter is nothing more than pie in the sky, nothing to do with the matter being referred to and a slur on people’s intelligence.
Remember one thing, there is a limit to what people of all walks in life can pay. I was under the impression that the Council was trying to get people to come to this Municipality not drive them away.
Robert Legge St Marys
Letter to the Editor
Open letter to the residents and Councillors of Break O’Day Region
It was with great interest on returning home recently from overseas that I read the letter from our Mayor Sarah Schmerl to various politicians openly advocating for a better deal for the Break O’Day area. At last I thought someone is prepared to openly advocate for our municipality. Continue reading