Pools, Mills, and Automobiles

Hello Pakistan, South Korea, Romania, and the UK...greetings and salutations...and other welcomings to this here blog, and a fairly revisionary post that is moving forward whilst going nowhere...but first, a joke.

What did the Homo Sapien say to the Cro Magnon?...I have nothing to declare but my Genus...(I know that's not strictly accurate 'nomenclature wise', but at least I'm trying)...

City Council has again been using It's newsletter The Border Watch to spew It's rank hypocrisy into the Universe about It's abject failure re the Covered Pool Issue, Parking Tickets, Pavers, etc...and I know I've been through all this before, but this is what's happening...again...

TBW Thursday 29th August 2013 has Sandra Morello writing: Indoor aquatic centre on hold - Council puts potential Mount Gambier development on budget backburner (copy attached)...where Councillors Merv White and Andrew Lee trot out the same old lies and reverse justifications as to why Council has yet again refused to address and resolve the pool issue, and has dumped even talking about it for at least 5 years...

And Cr White goes within a hair's breadth of admitting that the Main Corner was a cockup, stating that Council decided to proceed with the project and to then figure out how to pay for it.
   
It is irrefutable that;
1) successive Councils have repeatedly ignored the Pool Issue across decades, and;
2) that this specific Council has burned multiple millions on pointless, grossly expensive projects like paying a fortune to buy the Old Hospital, the Main Corner, the Lady Nelson Bus Shelter, the Bloody Paving, etc, and;
3) Council repeatedly uses the 'it won't pay for it's own running costs' justification, which is an extraordinary hypocrisy that is massively amplified by the concurrent excuse that 'Council is already forking out nearly $2.5million per year to run the Library and Main Corner'...

'We can't afford to build the Pool and/or run it because we spent all the money on the Main Corner/Library, without any business plan, which therefore cost a fortune to run with no foreseeable return...but the Pool has to justify itself'...absolute bollocks...(I note that you have somewhat tidied up your language and general sense of fury and seething personal loathing, name calling, etc-Ed)...don't count on it lasting...(I won't-Ed)...

Council trots out the exact same issues to justify not doing the Pool that they completely ignored with the Main Corner and Library...and then say the massive and escalating 'running costs' that they have burdened Mt Gambier with is yet further reason that the Pool cannot proceed...did I mention bollocks?

Then in TBW Friday 30th August 2013 Graham Greenwood brings it all home with his latest pro-Council classic 'Running costs are crucial in deciding fate of any new facility' where he engages in the exact hypocrisy that Council does in excusing Council's failures re the pool by carefully explaining just how badly Council has handled the Main Corner and Library projects and the debt this has placed on Mt Gambier.

All nicely rounded out with trying to shift the blame onto ratepayers and yet more and repeated threats about rate rises..."next time...the first question ratepayers should ask councillors is "how much extra will I permanently have to pay on my rates?"...just how deep they need to dig into their pockets..."

Council listens to no-one other than it's constituent members, their families, and their mates...and if you speak out about Council's actions you are either ignored or viciously attacked...and often both...ignored at first then attacked if you persist...

And the questions continue 'who is getting payed for all those pavers'...which appear to be already badly stained in places and are being laid broken and chipped...(are these 'seconds' that have been damaged in storage/production?-Ed)....possibly...the entire project is an inane, insane waste of money that does  look like an excuse to pay someone for their damaged, unsaleable stock of ugly pavers.

Is Council planning to rip up all of the new pavers in front of the Old Town Hall? And what happened to their very expensive 'fly through' animation that showed the entire section from Bay Rd to Ferrers St as footpath with no parking at all?

Also, while we're on the Pavers, a sadly hilarious topical anecdote...which senior executive of a national company was taken to lunch down the Main Street this week and commented to their hosts that it was 'great to see Council replacing those ugly grey pavers with the red ones'...oops...a brief explanation and a moments observation had the exec enlightened and duly dumbfounded...'they're ugly and because they're so big they'll move', etc...that's over $1million worth of ugliness...(and movement-Ed)...

Because there are the two attached articles and this is getting too long, I'll do...

Tomorrow: PMandA Part II

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...avagoodweekend...laters...