Arts

Please send us a good bunch of councillors!

Make the Bay Pav work! There are hopes that a er the elec ons in December, the next batch of councillors will be far more communica ve with the community, seeking advice and opinions, giving explana ons and being transparent about many aspects of their decision making. The number of claims of “confiden ality” over the past five years has done nothing to enhance the community’s trust in councillors or some of council’s management. Opening up mee ngs, having fewer restric ons to public forums and access sessions, and live-streaming them, will go a long way to keeping the community well informed and dissuade some of the cri cs and conspiracy theorists from jumping to conclusions. Other levels of government aren’t shining examples of how it should be done but it’s up to us to make sure we elect sensible and responsible councillors with enough intes nal for tude to be truly representa ves of the community, showing that they care about, and will welcome hearing what the community thinks, even knowing that it doesn’t have to illegal to be wrong. Be er communica on with the community will hopefully dispel any misinforma on before it gets a chance to go viral on the public media and in blogs some members of the hierarchy claim not to even read let alone care enough to correct. It must be kept in mind that mostly we are lucky to have those parts of our council where the vast majority of opera ons are conducted effec vely by dedicated people with pride in their jobs and the shire’s best interests at heart. These “opera onal ma ers” are mostly beyond reason for concern unlike many of the higher level decisions made in the present council term. The effects of the la er will be in place for the new group to come to terms with and to tackle - some won’t be able to be changed in the short term, if at all, but some other less than desirable legacies can be quickly turned around. The wheels of government notoriously turn slowly but when prudence is needed this may not be a bad thing as long as the right decision is ul mately made and of course, the reasons for delay explained and progress reports given. Incoming councillors should be aware of and learn from the example of the current group’s biggest and most poorly handled project, at least in the eyes of many cri cs, and a poten al mill-stone for future councils - the “Bay Pavilion” project. This $70 million development due to open early 2022, is unlike other major infrastructure projects that will be funded both ini ally and on an on-going basis by state or federal sources, like bridges, new hospitals, the southern dam, highway by-passes, etc. A er opening though, the Bay Pavilion’s on-going funding, management, opera onal and maintenance will be en rely at the cost of the shire. The opinion expressed by some is that it was “free” because most of the capital cost funding came through grants from state and federal governments but we have yet to see – or pay – the far-from-free real costs of making such a development work. Meanwhile, strangely okayed by our current councillors, there has been a scramble to sell off community

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owned proper es and ameni es ostensibly to help make up the $19+ million capital cost shor all that council must find on top of the grants from government to complete the Pav. The proceeds of such “fire sales” are of a one- me nature and will do nothing to help pay the opera ng expenses. The community, s ll at this late stage, has not been supplied with a detailed business case which could, if surviving analysis, explain some decisions. Lack of this informa on does nothing to dispel any assump ons and fears that its costs will be such a burden on the shire’s financial posi on that a rate increase will be required to offset their impact. During the progress of this project, there have been token instances of involving sec ons of the community’s stakeholders but the ra onale behind the development of the Bay Pavilion project has been largely kept under a “confiden ality” cloud, even as far as withholding details from the Office of Local Government and even council’s own audit commi ee. As examples in the absence of factual informa on, here are some of the apparently silly milestone things about the BB Pav project. Back in 2016/17, it was decided that all aspects of the development had to be done at the one me with it all on one half of the space available i.e. all on the old pool site with no room le for expansion or addi ons, thus leaving the newly purchased old bowling club site to languish (while its loan is being paid off!).

Back before the current project's detailed planning commenced, sugges ons were made that the more sensible approach would be to use the old pool site for the aqua c/sports/leisure ac vi es and use the old bowlo site for arts/cultural/community purposes. Part of this ra onale was that each of the two areas could be designed to ini ally accommodate the more urgently needed features and to add the other components, or expand the early ones, when the demand and funding would be available - bearing in mind that the spaces would be available for such a flexible and staged approach having been designed that way from the start.

Nevertheless the single site concept was adopted and it was announced shortly a er that, that there wouldn't be room for an auditorium large enough to accommodate top-line a rac ons so the plans were chopped from the ini al 1000 to 800 to 500 and now 350 seats.

Similarly, among other compromises dele ng some features and reducing the size of others, and despite the need for decent aqua cs facili es being the seed of the whole idea of developing the site, it was decided there wouldn't be room/funding for an Olympic size pool to replace the old one leaving the most populous part of the shire with a 25 metre indoor only pool for serious swimmers, including perhaps any budding Olympians. Some current Councillors are s ll saying "We had to do it!" without, it seems, knowing all the facts about what is the largest single capital project for a community facility yet commenced by the shire. Go figure! Let’s hope we can choose smarter representa ves in December!

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reading How good is adver sing

The Beagle Editor,

Vol 16 September 15th 2017 Vol 28 December 7th, 2017 Vol 48 April 27th 2018 How good is adver sing :) !!! Comedian Dan Ilic organised the Times Square billboard labelling Sco Morrison as "Coal-o -phile Dundee". (Source: YouTube). The Morrison government’s lacklustre climate policies have been adver sed to the world, in perhaps the most prominent loca on in the world, with billboards labelling Sco Morrison “Coal-o-phile Dundee” playing in New York City’s Times Square. Maybe we could organise a similar advert emblazoned across the face of the Council building that reminds us that Innes and her mates say that Climate is only "Variable and Changing" and there is no need to recognise it as an emergency. That came back to bite Innes and her numptynoo's on the backside when the bushfires and all hell kicked in soon a er.

Let's not forget the role that Innes and her councillors didn't play when all hell broke loose.

Making sandwiches at an underresourced, ill prepared evacua on centre doesn't count. Where was the mayor, the general manager and the flunkies during that me? Were they off somewhere with their heads in the sand?

Does Innes s ll believe that there isn't any need for a Climate Emergency because the climate is only 'variable and changing'? Maybe Our Lizzie should go to Glasgow and explain that there is nothing to worry about because the weather is variable and changing. Sam Perkins Malua Bay

sports Len Rogers Returns To Form Vol 16 September 15th 2017 At Tuross Vets Vol 28 December 7th, 2017 Vol 48 April 27th 2018 Golf

Under the threat of drizzle throughout the morning a strong field of 57 intrepid golfers registered for the Tuross Head Veterans Golf Stableford event on Wednesday 13 October 2021. Fortunately the early drizzle cleared, paving the way for some big scores for the later players. Winner on the day was long term Tuross vet Len Rogers with a fine Stableford score of 25 points for the 9 holes played. Runner up was Trevor Innes on 24 with count backs required to split the final two places in Greg Bush and John Cox, each with 22 points. Minor prizes were awarded to Enid Besant-Ryan on 21, Herb Muriwai and Kevin Reilly on 20, Steve Gardner, Tony Crook and Jenny Reilly on 19, Paul Green, David Williams, Neil Mather and Ken Hush on 18, and then finally Ian Wra en and Frank Pomfret with 17. Robert McKirdy took out the Bradman award.

sports Broulee Runners October 13th 2021

This evening could be the last of Vol 16 September 15th 2017 Vol 28 December 7th, 2017 Vol 48 April 27th 2018 virtual only run as the 80% vaccina on level may bring redemp on. We will be excited to announce when the coming together will happen. It is worth reflec ng on some sta s cs of the event from the beginning on 7 February 2007 when 7 people lined up for the first event. Since that me there has been 527 events and many thousand of people of various abili es have par cipated (too many to count). It is worth no ng that 235 people have accumulated 20 or more runs. The list runs go from Eva Barker with 20 runs to Dave Connaughton (pictured) with a massive 561 runs. David should be a poster boy for a brand of running shoes. The event is for all levels of talent from the very young in mum’s arms to elderly with some level of disability. However, it is worth men oning the local athletes, who have achieved excellence. The outstanding female is Jaylah Hancock-Cameron, who holds all female records over the three distances and has a me of 17.46 in the 5-kilometres. Ma Johnsen holds the record of 15.51 in the 5-kilometres. Both have featured in Na onal events with dis nc on and at peak fitness would lower these mes

The running legend of Broulee Dave Connaughton