ENTER the new era of local government here, when it’s to be no longer “Roads, Rates & Rubbish” and council engineers go the way of steamrollers.
At its latest (and it was very late) ‘fest councillors decided against the traditional automatic renewal of DIS Michael Brearley’s five-year contract.
Instead, GM Jason Gordon said yesterday, restructuring initiated by him will see two new Deputy General Managers appointed to direct operations and administration.
Present Directors, Planning Scott Lee and Corporate Services Barry Paull have been reappointed for five years and Council’s failure to make a similar appointment with Mike Brearley on Wednesday night will be very concerning to most staff and a lot of appreciative ratepayers.
The GM said advertising for the new positions will take place early in 2012, with appointment by late February.
Not only that but the Halsteadies have gone back to the despised last council’s major plan and will sell Council-owned land behind the Big W for an estimated $8 million, just the cost of a Moss Vale heated pool!
SAVINGS begin at home, particularly water savings, a joyful (aren’t they all) WSC press release breathlessly informed us yesterday, extolling the virtues of our vigilant Council in presiding over water savings of 15 million litres in a year.
Well, at $112,000 it’s probably recouped some of what another big drip has cost us in a constant dribble of ego-issues, nothing major, of course.
But we digress, as is often the case these days and the point I’d like to make is that the development of water flow meters, leak detectors and leak repairs went a long way toward winning a water conservation award.
It all started a long time ago, though when present Mayor, Ye Ken Halstead in his shire engineering days discovered that as much as 25 per cent of water which was pumped from our dams was lost in transit.
We had “pay for use” water as a major state initiative but it was “pay for Council waste” for 25 per cent of it and Ye Ken (who knows!) set about getting it fixed, his investigations revealing a lot of unmetered properties, slow leaks that old meters couldn’t record and asbestos mains that looked more like colanders.
In any event, it’s good that WSC won a water award but not to forget the good water work that went on way back when.
WATER savings may not lead to savings in water activities if the ruling Halsteadies continue their relentless political path under the lash of Larry “words are weapons” Whipper, the main political driver behind the $8 million plus-plus Moss Vale Aquatic Centre which lurches another step during the “no major activity” January time zone.
This step, according an even-more joyful hand-out this week under the ghost-pen of DIS Michael Brearley, follows “lengthy community consultation and the engagement of an architect” for the lodgement of a Land Use Application .
My mate, The Ringer aka Nick Campbell-Jones has taken to disdainfully calling The Centre (my caps) a “covered wading pool” but he does have the runs on the board regarding swimming centres and he has the trust of the proponents of the Wongabri Alternative, due to be submitted in February.
I well recall that old rollicking Empire song “they may build the ships my boys... but they can’t build the lads of the blah blah blah..” and I rather think that whilst the Halsteadies have the political will to build this ship, it may well prove to be a “ship of fools” in more ways than one.
WORDS ARE WEAPONS but, like the nuclear sort, they can be very expensive and may do more damage to the shooter than the shootee.
Lazza let the word “lying” drift across the table this sennight while debunking the Wongabri Alternative but quickly amended it to say it was not a genuine alternative and had been previously rejected.
Also on the subject of “insensitive works” (read “tree butchering”) being inflicted on us by Integral et al as they happily hack at trees near power lines, again Duncan “use good words” Gair admonished Lazza to take care in his florid defence of our arboreal legacy.
Actually, more telling during the debate was the argument adduced by Graham “the arbiter” McLaughlin that while going political to stop the arboreal slaughter was a good publicity stunt, a practical solution would be to insist the power distribution mob used insulated or bundled cabling in areas of high visual significance.
In a sense, like water savings, it would be stepping back into the future, because that’s exactly what the former Berrima County Council used to do (along with much reduced tariffs) to help us here before the politicians decided to help even more by imposing “super councils” for more efficiency and reduced costs. HA!
POWER-PLAY of another sort was going on behind the scenes or maybe under the table with new appointees to the economic development and tourism advisory committee.
Council decided in September to invite expressions of interest from suitably qualified individuals in the various tourism and business fields “to optimise stakeholder engagement” and got 15 strong applications.
Most were from existing committee members, a number of whom weren’t listed for reappointment and Paul “time traveller” Tuddenham sought to alleviate their disappointment by moving the existing committee be invited to remain until the 2012 elections, when the new Class of ‘12- ‘16 could make their own appointments.
The Halsteadies fell into line behind hatchet-man Whipper and we now have four worthies, Rubie (tourism) Clowes (industry) White (TAFE) and Street (business).
Given the DCM (don’t come monday) will be Uni rep Smith, small businessman “Smith with a Why”, well, Smyth and constant council-watcher Terry “two-trees” Oakes-Ash.
It was interesting that Lazza, a recent convert to sport through heated pool promises and in the past an anti-development gadfly, memorably the Big W (except for giving us the Mittagong Central colossus) has taken the leading role in appointing the new committee, right now.
How many more coats can Lazza turn to?
WITH that, I’m off now until twenty-twelve and wish everybody a wonderful Christmas and the happiest New Year. Salut!
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