The Express Newspaper 9th April 2014

Page 1

EXPRESS The

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Locally owned and proudly independent

Inspiration

Craig Reedman (left) and Michael Lyddiard (right) at the ANZAC Ball in Mareeba on Saturday night. Michael was injured while serving in Afghanistan and spoke at the fundraiser about the Soldier On charity. FULL STORY ON PAGE 5.

Why should we pay? – EXPRESS exclusive –

By Ryan Groube

A Tablelands Regional Council (TRC) plan to get Mareeba Shire ratepayers to pay for a $1.3 million office block in Atherton has backfired. On April 3, Local Government Minister David Crisafulli ruled that the cost of the TRC purchasing the building at 51 Mabel Street, Atherton did not qualify as a de-amalgamation expense. Mareeba Shire ratepayers will however be forced to pay $267,837 to cover a portion of the

cost of the TRC acquiring and refurbishing the building. Mr Crisafulli said he did not feel the TRC had to purchase the new building and could have found other options to house staff transferring post de-amalgamation. “I am convinced there were other options that could have been used without purchasing another building,” he said. TRC Mayor Rosa Lee Long has slammed the Minister’s decision as “extremely unfair” and that Mareeba Shire ratepayers should have been made

to cover at least half the cost of the building. “During the first TRC so much was centralised in Mareeba at a great cost to the ratepayer. We were aware that Mareeba Shire was to pay all costs related to de-amalgamation,” she said. “This is a huge blow to us as we enter our budget deliberation timeframe. We are now in a position where we have to find more than $1 million for a building that if we had stayed amalgamated we probably wouldn’t have purchased. “He [Mr Crisafulli] has left us holding the can

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which is extremely unfair.” Mareeba Shire Council Mayor Tom Gilmore welcomed the decision. “It is gratifying that the Minister has clearly recognised the [TRC’s] decision to purchase the building, without consultation with either the Mareeba Shire or the transfer committee, was completely out of order,” he said. “The Minister’s recognition of this fact relieves the ratepayers of the Mareeba Shire what had been proposed as having to pay half the cost of the building.”

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