HERE we go again! An entrance way statement? Really?
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Why does the eastern entrance need a statement? What about the western, northern or southern approach?
Good quality internal roads, well-kept, litter-free verges, tidy business fronts, quality development and uncluttered advertising on arterial road accesses: wouldn’t that be the best entrance statement to our city?
Is spending $1 million to create an “entrance way statement” (that may include the biggest fountain in NSW or the ACT, as trumpeted by former mayor Gary Rush, a big banana or similar tacky structure and barbecue areas for tourists who are unlikely to stop) worth the money?
I suggest council should spend the money on road repair and reconstruction. When that’s done, council can look to waste money on these types of warm, fuzzy proposals.
Mount’s cracking up
I RAISED concerns last September about the significant number of cracks that were appearing along the join lines of the recently completed resurfacing of Mount Panorama - which, from memory, cost more than $2.5m.
Water, I’m told, is the worst enemy of a bitumen road when it seeps through cracks or surface failures.
My spies tell me a road repair unit has been working for the past two weeks on filling cracks with hot bitumen along these join cracks and verge joins around most parts of the track.
But the job appears unfinished if the five to seven millimetre wide cracks still evident near Murray Corner or along Pit Straight (pictured) are any indication. It’s astounding that resurface works valued at more than $2.5m would fail within six months and then more cracks would be evident within three years on joint lines of hot mix.
If my memory serves me well, resurfacing is meant to last eight to 10 years, but the latest resurfacing won’t last five years.
I doubt the Federal Government is going to cough up $2.5m every five years or so.
Whittling them down
THE editor of this fine newspaper once told me that I can’t throw tomatoes from the cheap seats forever, suggesting that I should get a team together to run for council.
While I’ve always said I would consider it if I could convince a platoon of Special Air Service Commandos to run on a ticket (yes, a ticket) with me, I honestly believe I can serve democracy better by watching closely from the sideline and asking a curly question from time to time to ensure those brave souls who are elected are not led blindly down the garden path by the bureaucrats.
For some reason (it must be the water at council) what candidates say during an election campaign and what they do once elected are often poles apart.
While it looks like democracy is alive and well with 40 candidates seeking election on September 9, fewer than 15 of them have any chance of being elected. Of those candidates, there are four that I could never vote for, so that leaves me a choice of one through to nine from 10 candidates. So the 40 is quantity, not quality, for mine.
Thumbs up
A LARGE number of voters saying they’ll vote one to nine below the line at the local government election.
Thumbs down
REPAIR crews on Mount Panorama filling all the join cracks with hot bitumen.