November 26, 2014
The South Burnett Regional Council will call for Expressions Of Interest from people willing to build a supermarket on land currently occupied by the Blackbutt Community Hall after passing an amended motion today to do so.
At last month’s meeting, Council passed a motion to call for EOIs on the project but inserted a last-minute amendment which added leasing as an alternative to outright sale of the block.
Council officers advised that under the Local Government Regulation 2012, Council was obliged to outline its reasons for considering leasehold title as well as freehold title of Council-owned land in any such motion.
Because of this, Councillors rescinded the original October resolution and adopted an updated one at today’s monthly general meeting which complied with the regulations.
Expressions of interest in the project will now be called.
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South Burnett school children as well as the general public will have the opportunity to see the theatrical production “Gallipoli – A Manual Of Trench Warfare” next year thanks to a $12,000 grant from the State Government.
The production was written by Clem Gorman and will be performed by Jally Entertainment.
It takes the audience back to the trenches of Gallipoli in 1915, a place where many diggers experienced severe psychological and physical trauma, and where life was a daily struggle to stay safe and sane.
The Council will offer a free daytime performance for school students, and an evening performance for the general public, Communities Portfolio Cr Ros Heit told today’s monthly meeting.
Jally Entertainment performed “Calendar Girls” in the South Burnett in March this year.
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The operators of Boondooma Homestead’s new caravan park hope to have five road signs erected next year to promote the facility.
Council was advised today the design of the signs was being undertaken by Buddy Thomson, and once this was done the Homestead’s Management Committee would seek permission from Council and Main Roads to have them installed.
In the meantime, the Committee has asked Council to investigate the recent disappearance of two signs which were located on Manar Road and the Durong-Mundubbera Road.
The Committee also raised concerns that the western end of the region appears to have been overlooked in the latest edition of the South Burnett Touring Guide, which has omitted Boondooma Homestead’s events and also appears to have overlooked Manar Park’s existence.
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Council’s Arts, Heritage and Culture Committee received four applications for Round 2 of the 2014-15 RADF Fund grants and approved two of them.
The successful applicants were:
- Wondai Regional Art Gallery – $1495 to run a three-day visual arts workshop
- Akshay Wadegaonkar – $1000 to attend a watercolour workshop at the McGregor Summer School
The committee has also farewelled Julia Shaw as a committee member, and welcomed Val McGrath and Wayne Brown as new members of the Arts, Heritage and Culture Committee and the RADF Committee.
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Council has waived a $1920 Planning and Development Assessment Fee levied on the Kingaroy-Memerambi RSL Sub-Branch for adding four extra dwelling units to the eight it already owns at 81 Markwell Street, Kingaroy.
Councillors were told the RSL had originally applied to build 12 units on its Markwell Street property in October 2003.
But when the approval lapsed four years later, only eight of the 12 units had been constructed.
The units are used by RSL members and their dependents, and there are currently 14 applicants on a waiting list seeking accommodation.
Because of this, the RSL now intend to add the final four units to the project.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said Council was happy to help the RSL’s community welfare efforts, and councillors unanimously agreed to the fee waiver.
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Council will allow a Cushnie property owner who has been given permission to sub-divide a block to avoid building a 40 metre vegetation buffer along two boundaries to separate agricultural from residential land.
Councillors were told the block – at 46 Cants Road – already has existing vegetation which will provide an adequate barrier between the two land types.
Council waived the 40m buffer requirement, providing the owner agrees to maintain the block’s existing mature vegetation.
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Deputy Mayor Keith Campbell today praised the work of the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES).
Cr Campbell said that during his recent period as Acting Mayor, the QFES deployed ground and air assets into the region in preparation for emerging severe fire weather conditions.
Cr Campbell said the QFES had kept Council’s Disaster Manager Stan Taylor well briefed on the state of local fires in the region, and progress on their management.
Council had also been visited by QFES Assistant Commissioner John Bolger and Rural Fire Service Queensland North Coast Regional Manager Peter Hollier on Friday, November 14, and had received a complete briefing at the Kingaroy Emergency Services headquarters the following Monday.
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About 300 trees have been planted alongside the Murgon Waste Facility to reduce the visual impact of a Colorbond fence on neighbours at the Barambah Bush Caravan Park.
Waste portfolio chair Cr Kathy Duff told this month’s meeting that Council had planted sheoaks to blend in with the natural environment.
Cr Duff also advised that Cherbourg Council is trying to obtain a Royalties For The Regions grant from the State Government to purchase a large-scale compactor for its waste recycling plant.
At present, the plant operates two days a week, but it can increase its throughput with more machinery.
The plant processes waste cardboard, paper, hard and soft plastics, aluminium tins and steel cans.
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Council has received funding to run a large-scale wild dog trapping campaign, Cr Duff told fellow councillors.
The new program will follow a similar format to one run earlier this year, which saw professional trappers brought to the area to train landholders in wild dog and feral animal control techniques.
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Council is “very close” to reaching an agreement with the Wondai Sports Association, Sports portfolio chair Cr Barry Green told today’s monthly Council meeting.
The association is made up of several groups which use the Wondai Sportsgrounds.
In recent years, the grounds have fallen into a state of disrepair because none of the groups who used it were certain who was responsible for the maintenance of its facilities.
Cr Green has been working for several months to work out a better system, and told fellow councillors he feels a solution is close at hand.
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Council will object to a proposal from the Department Of Natural Resources and Mines to permanently close a section of Trentham Lane between Walshs Road and the Boyne River at Brigooda.
Council officers said that Council does not maintain this section of the road but it’s been used in the past for emergency access purposes because it is currently open to the public.
They recommended that Council object to the closure for this reason.
Councillors agreed.
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Council will help the Wondai Country Club repair their irrigation system sprinklers after a failure at Wondai’s Wastewater Treatment Plant led to them becoming clogged with sand.
Infrastructure General Manager Russell Hood said that a filter failure at the plant had caused the problem.
This had now been fixed and he felt confident the situation would not recur.
The cost to replace damaged parts of the system was estimated to be $10,000.
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The Radio Controlled Car Club, which operates from beside Angelfield at Murgon, had a $946 water connection fee waived by Council today.
Councillors were told the club, which is connected to the Murgon PCYC, would like to have water available at its track and a water connection already existed there, but it had been disconnected.
Restoring it would require the installation of a new water meter and some minor additional work.
Councillors agreed to the club’s request, and will take the money from the existing Murgon water operations budget.
