South Burnett Council Newsbriefs

Sharon Frank and Russell Hood — Outgoing SBRC Governance Manager Sharon Frank, who is moving to a new position at Maranoa Regional Council, and new Infrastructure General Manager Russell Hood

November 20, 2013

Mr Russell Hood has been appointed as the South Burnett Regional Council’s new General Manager Infrastructure.

Mr Hood was formerly the SBRC’s Water and Sewerage Manager, and has been acting in the role since the departure of former Infrastructure General Manager John Kersnovski in September this year.

Today the Council also farewelled Governance Manager Sharon Frank, who will be leaving the South Burnett in December to take up a new position with the Maranoa Regional Council.

Mayor Wayne Kratzmann congratulated Ms Frank on her new job, which will be the “next step up” in her career, and said she would be sorely missed after her long service to the region at both the former Nanango Shire Council and five years with the South Burnett Regional Council.

Mr Hood’s appointment and Ms Franks’ resignation were both confirmed today.

* * *Applications for the first round of grants from the Mayor’s Community Fund should become available next week.

The Fund – which was established in August this year with $31,000 raised at the Mayor’s Charity Ball – now has $40,000 in it.

Today South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann told fellow councillors at this month’s South Burnett Regional Council general meeting that he expected that application forms and conditions for a $10,000 round of grants should be available next week.

The grants round would have a focus on junior sport and sport for people with a disability, he said.

Grants would only be available to individuals or organisations who lived within the South Burnett Regional Council’s boundaries.

The next Mayor’s Charity Breakfast will be held in December with a special guest speaker. Details about this would also be announced shortly, he said.

Related article: Former Councillor To Head Grants Body

* * *Flying foxes were a major topic of discussion at this year’s annual Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) conference, Mayor Wayne Kratzmann told councillors today.

The Mayor said while flying foxes weren’t a major problem in the South Burnett, several other Shires – including the neighbouring North Burnett – had “enormous problems” with the creatures.

The Mayor had attended the conference late last month with Deputy Mayor Keith Campbell and Council CEO Ken McLoughlin.

He said most discussion focused on how “flying fox plagues” could be controlled in an environmentally responsible way.

* * *The Mayor also reported that a motion he and Cr Campbell had moved at the LGAQ Conference to have the Federal Government fund a “Bridges To Recovery” program had received support from other conference delegates after a bit of “argy-bargy” between urban and rural councils.

It’s envisaged the program would operate in a similar way to the successful “Roads To Recovery” program if the Government takes up the idea, and provide grants to councils to upgrade or replace ageing bridges.

The Mayor said the South Burnett’s motion had originally called for timber bridge replacements to be funded by the new program, but dissent erupted when some urban councils wanted the word “timber” removed so the program could apply to their Shires as well.

But eventually – after some discussion – the motion was passed.

The Mayor said that Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss had already flagged support for the idea, but had indicated that the amount that might be available could be as little as $300 million per annum.

“If that was spread nationally that would be a drop in the bucket,” he said.

Related article: Conference Backs Mayor’s Call For Bridge Funding

* * *Council will refund an $1129 Building Assessment Fee and a $712 Plumbing Application Fee to the Nanango Men’s Shed project.

Mr Donald Niebling, the Nanango Community Baptist Church’s project manager, had requested the refund because the Men’s Shed is a not-for-profit community organisation.

The Men’s Shed is currently being built on church land at 37 Mt Stanley Road in Nanango with a $56,500 grant the Church secured from this year’s Heritage Community Branch Nanango Community Grants program.

Councillors agreed, but the SBRC will keep the $378 document lodgement fees the Church had also paid, in accordance with usual practice.

Related article: Heritage Donates $500,000 To Community

* * *The South Burnett Regional Council will erect signs on the boundary of Boondooma Homestead to inform visitors that adjoining properties are private property as part of plans to construct 20-site caravan park and three overnight cabins in the complex.

Today the Council approved a development application for the Homestead’s project, subject to normal conditions.

Councillors were told that only one neighbour had objected to the proposal to develop a caravan park at the complex, and the essence of their objection was that some visitors might think that they could park caravans outside the property, too.

It was hoped signage would prevent this occurring.

Cr Keith Campbell told the meeting that one other potential problem with the project was that the Department Of Main Roads wanted the property’s northern entrance closed.

This entrance, he said, was only used a couple of times a year when the Homestead staged big events, and the SBRC had asked the Department to reconsider the matter.

However a response had yet to be received and in order to avoid delaying the project further, he recommended the rest of the development proceed while the northern gate issue was resolved.

Councillors agreed.

Related article: Caravan Park Planned For Boondooma

* * *A new Pest Advisory Committee set up by the South Burnett Regional Council has drawn landholder representatives from most parts of the region, Cr Kathy Duff told fellow councillors today.

The committee will look at feral animal control and pest management issues.

“We’ve had a great response to this,” Cr Duff said.

In addition, one interesting bit of information that had come out of work to form the new committee was the discovery that many landholders were unaware of the facilities Council had available to help them, Cr Duff said.

She hoped that publicising these through the committee would lead to greater use in future.

Related article: Pest Advisory Committee Seeks Members

* * *Cherbourg Youth Justice Service workers will take over the maintenance of a park in Moffatdale.

Parks Portfolio chairperson Cr Kathy Duff said the group had approached Council recently to undertake a community service project, and the Moffatdale park – which is located near the wineries in the area, and is also close to Cherbourg – seemed an ideal location.

The group’s members will undertake planting, mowing and general beautification works in the park.

Meanwhile, members of Murgon Rotary Club’s Earlyact program will undertake maintenance activities at the Murgon Skate Park in Gore Street in the near future.

The students will seed the Skate Park, and also paint the park’s climbing wall.

* * *The SBRC’s recent Health and Lifestyle Expo was a success, councillors heard today.

The Expo – which was put together by the SBRC’s Healthy Communities Management Advisory Committee – attracted 350 visitors, and stallholders were interested in taking part in another Expo in future.

Many stallholders not only sold products at the Expo but also gained clients.

Spring seemed a good time to hold the event but the next one may be held on a Sunday rather than a Saturday.

Related article: Spotlight On A Healthy Lifestyle

* * *The SBRC’s Arts, Culture and Heritage Management Advisory Committee has three new members.

At today’s monthly meeting, councillors were told that Dot Rowland, Sue Beyer and Terry Jacobsen had applied to join the Committee to replace outgoing members Ted Wall and Liz Schneidewin.

The Committee also confirmed that it will be staging the Big Screen Film Festival in conjunction with the National Film and Sound Archive on the third weekend in May 2014; and also bringing a stage production of Calendar Girls to the region on March 10, 2014.

However the Committee rejected a request from the Nanango Race Club to move next year’s Big Screen Film Festival a week later to the weekend of May 30-31 (when the Race Club will be holding its May race meeting) because of logistical difficulties.

Councillors reluctantly agreed with the decision.

“It’s a pity,” Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said. “For the last few years Nanango Race Club has been heavily involved with Big Screen and it’s worked very well for everyone. But their May race date in 2014 doesn’t coincide.”

He said the National Film and Sound Archive had their own schedule and it seemed unlikely they would be able to change it to accommodate the Race Club.

Related article: Big Screen To Return In 2014

* * *An unnamed park located at the corner of Tessmanns Road and the Kingaroy-Barkers Creek Road will be renamed “Carew Park” in honour of the pioneering Carew family, but only if the public agree.

Council heard today that a request had been received to rename the park in honour of the Carew brothers, who selected property near Kingaroy in 1898 and had worked on the construction of many facilities in Kingaroy when the town formed soon afterwards. The brothers also supported many local organisations, including Kingaroy Shire Council.

Councillors heard that the Shire already has a “Carews Road” off the Memerambi-Gordonbrook Road. To avoid confusion, officers recommended Council shouldn’t give a similar name to another road or street.

But they said naming the park would be acceptable, since it was located very close to the original family property.

Councillors decided to agree to the proposal after a public consultation process was undertaken.

Mayor Wayne Kratzmann suggested the best way to do this might be to advertise a public meeting at the park’s location where anyone who had thoughts on the matter would be welcome to express their views.

* * *The South Burnett Regional Council today accepted tenders for $19.5 million worth of roadworks from two companies.

Three tenders for repairing unsealed roads, culverts and floodways under the 2013 Flood Restoration Program worth $6.9 million were awarded to FK Gardner and Sons Pty Ltd.

A parallel tender for repairing sealed roads under the same program worth $12.6 million was awarded to Civil Mining and Construction Pty Ltd.

A spokesperson for the council said the tenders were accepted partly because they were significantly lower than other offers received, and partly because both companies would make use of local labour to carry out the work.

The council also accepted a tender from JJ Richards and Sons Pty Ltd to carry out waste collection services in the Shire, but decided not to award a contract for recycling services at the present time.

* * *The Road Levy may not be popular with some ratepayers, but it is enabling Council the pursue an aggressive roadworks program to repair the region’s road network.

Roads portfolio chairperson Cr Damien Tessmann told fellow councillors at today’s meeting that the following projects will either be started, further progressed or fully completed in November:

Nanango