A short blog about other issues beyond the Old Rail Lands and All-Weather Pool, etc.
Oh...and a big shout out and thankyou again to those certain fine, upstanding citizens of Mt Gambier and surrounds whom continue to mouth off about how I conduct myself and denigrate me as "crazy"; you know I'm a pacifist and I'm certainly not going to thump anyone (no matter how much they deserve it-haha) so why not tell me to my face?
Because then I'd have a chance to defend myself.
Commercial St and The Main
Commercial St is a vital link from literally one end of Mt Gambier to the other (West to East), and for that sole reason there cannot be a 'mall' style development that blocks that egress, thus forcing traffic onto side streets and Jubilee Highway.
This would cause greatly increased travel times, traffic and parking chaos, delivery issues, etc, and have a detrimental effect over-all for those businesses that customers find difficult to access; I note Council plans on the Interweb show all parking removed along Commercial St between Penola Rd and Ferris St for 'footpath cafes' or something similar.
Council simply doesn't have the money, and should be looking to do the long overdue maintenance of other areas of Mt Gambier; work on something more than 10ft from the Main Corner for a change...please.
The speed limit through 'The Main' section (effectively the retail area) of Commercial St should be only 30kphs, not 50kph, for the safety of pedestrians and people getting out of cars, etc, and those ludicrous and potentially deadly 'carpark cafes' must go.
There are enough cafes in Mt Gambier and Councillor Richardson raised the issue in Council that she had witnessed and/or was aware of several accidents where cars turning right off Commercial St into Gray St had ended up colliding with vehicles parked in what are now a 'carpark cafe'; Council is on notice about the inevitability of another accident.
Unfortunately, a decade of inappropriate and selfish decisions by both Mt Gambier City and Grant District Councillors, where re-zoning and development issues have been repeatedly, relentlessly focussed on the benefits for Councillors with a complete disregard for the communities affected, have done damage that cannot be reversed, eg, you cannot put Bunnings back on Penola Rd where BIG W/Masters is now.
However, I don't have any problem with the 'Main Corner Annex' thingy being pulled down so that the Kings Theatre can be appropriately renovated (outside); and those clowns who were paid millions for the shoddy 'C' grade disaster, can pay to pull it down; might even have to sell one of their shiny new cars.
The Old Hospital
This issue remains mired in conflicting reports about the state of the building, etc, but I believe that renovating the site as a palliative care, nursing care, and training facility, with on site accomodation for patients and trainees, would provide terrific employment opportunities for local tradespersons whom would require numerous apprentices, etc, in the construction stage, and then generate further income and employment catering to our increasingly ageing population.
I believe that this would qualify the project for Federal and state (good luck) funding, but that is unlikely to happen given the apparent agenda to dismantle and 'de-populate' South Eastern South Australia.*
Demolishing the hospital is an engineering nonsense that Mt Gambier City Council cannot afford, and has no commercial outcome to justify the huge expense...oh wait....that makes it the perfect City Council project; bazinga!
The harder I look at how to negotiate around the disasterous, selfish development decisions that both Councils have made, the more pessimistic I become that the damage is done; but there are still some ways forward like immediate plantings on the Old Rail Lands, sealing the bike track, etc.
These selfish decisions have directed Council boundary re-alignments and placed residential development where it should have been Industrial (eg, Millicent Rd) and therefore 'forced' Industrial re-zoning near established residents (eg, near the Airport).
As I say, it is hard to see a way around the damage that has been done to the entire area by the corruption of a few people, when those decisions have completely compromised co-ordinated development into the future.
If I come up with any bright ideas, you'll be the first to know, and there remains those few things that could be done to try and move forward; please feel free to comment or offer suggestions.
One reality is undeniable; Mt Gambier City Council must not be allowed to spend any more ratepayers and/or grants money before they are held to account for the current raft of disasters...AUDIT.
Tomorrow: IGAP III - Tourism
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