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Western Port
NOW PUBLISHED WEEKLY TO SERVE THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
WELCOME TO SOMERVILLE
PAGES 40–44 SUMMER HOME & GARDEN
PAGE 46 FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT
PAGES 47–52
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31 January – 6 February 2012
MPNEWS (1300 676 397) or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Where’s Wally? On his ‘throne’ WHEN two teenagers hanging out in Somers on Australia Day heard that Australia’s music man of the moment, Wally De Backer, lived nearby, they headed off into the early evening to track down the man who won seven ARIA awards late last year and had just had his hit single Somebody That I Used to Know, elevated to be the No 1 song on Triple J’s hottest 100 songs of 2011. Would Wally, also known as Gotye, slam the door in their faces? Or would he be nice and ask them in for a cola? Turn to page 4 to find out what happened. Music Man: Wally De Backer, left, and Brock Woolley. Picture: Jesse Aldenhoven
Pantry faces hard times By Keith Platt MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is scrambling to find an operator for the Pelican Pantry, the training cafe at its multi-million dollar recreation and aquatic centre in Hastings. The search follows years of losses at what was held as a shining example of public money being used to provide hospitality industry training for young people. The award-winning Pelican Park recreation centre opened in December 2003, but has annual losses of more than $700,000.
Pelican Pantry cafe lost $250,000 last financial year. Pelican Pantry has regularly been losing 50 per cent a year more than what was predicted in successive council budgets. The Pantry was dealt a massive blow in December when Chisholm Institute of TAFE formally withdrew from its training agreement with the shire. Senior council officers had known months earlier that the agreement with Chisholm was failing and had been actively looking for an alternative. On Monday night, councillors were
asked to sanction a further report to explore “a commercial project proposal/ framework for the Pantry; transfer of business implications for a commercial lease; and that further consideration is given to expanding existing ‘core’ training program”. Several ratepayer groups have been seeking information about the financial viability of Pelican Pantry, fearing it has been losing too much money. Freedom of Information requests finally revealed losses of nearly $1.57 million since 2005. Budgets presented to councillors and
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ratepayers had underestimated these losses by about $1 million. The failure of the Pantry to maintain momentum is being blamed on severe cutbacks in state government grants, a lack of interest by young people, record levels of low unemployment, and jobs being offered at the new Bunnings store in Hastings. A report to council this week by recreation and leisure manager Peter Gore admits “absenteeism has also had an impact on Pantry operations over a range of programs that have been provided to support disadvantaged youth”.
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The report contains no profit or loss figures. With the failure of the Pantry the shire is looking to see if it can use lessons learnt from its other training and mentoring programs, which “target the same cohort as those at Pelican Pantry”. The programs include trainees in local government (5), tourism (8), conservation and land management (10), civil engineering (4), planning and business administration (4), local laws (8), aged and disability services (10) and 100 work experience students. Continued Page 6
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