September 21, 2018
Work on Kingaroy’s new $1.87 million roundabout at Rogers Drive is proceeding to plan, and should be completed before Christmas.
Roads portfolio holder Cr Gavin Jones told Wednesday’s Council meeting earthworks for the roundabout were now largely complete.
A temporary entrance has been built from the D’Aguilar Highway into the Rogers Drive business estate, and the roundabout is now open for through traffic travelling at 40km/h.
Work is proceeding on laying pipes around the eastern side of the roundabout.
The western side, connecting to Industrial Avenue, is expected to be ready within a few months.
The roundabout is still on schedule for completion in late November or early December, at which time the 40km/h speed limit will be lifted.
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The South Burnett Regional Council has begun to record its monthly meetings.
At Wednesday’s meeting, CEO Mark Pitt announced the Council would keep voice recordings of its general meetings from now on.
The recordings would not be publicly released at present, but that might change in future.
Mr Pitt told southburnett.com.au he was interested in broadening Council’s communications channels.
These could also include videos in the future.
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Council will co-operate in the establishment of PCYC Emergency Services Cadets (ECS) units throughout Queensland, including a local branch at Nanango.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Councillors agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to establish and run an ECS unit at Nanango SES’s building.
The Memorandum is supplementary to a Service Level Agreement yet to be negotiated between Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and Police Citizens Youth Clubs Queensland.
The task of negotiating the terms of the Memorandum has been delegated to Council’s CEO.
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South Burnett Directions is building “cross-border relationships”.
Wednesday’s meeting was told Council’s Senior Economic Development Office Craig Tunley and North Burnett Economic Development Manager Melanie Lavelle-Maloney met twice in August.
This included a joint tourism promotion at Kingaroy’s Baconfest, where the South Burnett Directions office was used to promote upcoming events in both the South and North Burnett.
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The Council will celebrate Right To Information Day on September 28 in conjunction with the Office Of The Information Commissioner to help build greater trust in the community.
“A significant part of the focus is to remind the community that Council makes publicly available a large range of documents through Council’s website such as plans, strategies, budgets, reports and schedules,” Mayor Keith Campbell said.
“I encourage the community to take the time to access these documents to gain a batter understanding of Council, the decisions made and the services we provide.”
This theme of this year’s RTI Day is “Trust and Transparency”.
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Council has given approval for the development of a soil-conditioning facility at 956 Brooklands-Pimpimbudgee Road at Maidenwell.
Wednesday’s meeting heard the business was expected to crush, grind, mill or screen more than 5000 tonnes of material per year.
It would also manufacture more than 200 tonnes of compost or soil conditioners a year, using organic material or organic waste.
However, total throughput is not expected to exceed a maximum of 10,000 tonnes per year.
The plant will operate from 6:00am to 6:00pm Mondays to Saturdays, in line with its existing diatomite mining activities.
Officers recommended Councillors approve a material change of use to the site to allow the development to proceed, subject to a range of standard conditions.
Councillors agreed.
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The SBRC will dispose of $875,000 worth of assets by transferring ownership of two Murgon community housing units to the Department of Housing and Public Works.
The units, at 3 Jefferies Street and 3 Wright Way, were inherited from Murgon Shire Council in the 2008 council mergers.
Properties portfolio chair Cr Terry Fleischfresser told the meeting the arrangement to operate the units was made by the former Murgon Shire Council in 1993.
However, operating public housing was not really part of Council’s core business.
As well, Council staff didn’t have the required skills to operate in this area and he believed there were a number of other organisations who could do a better job.
The meeting also heard the Council had been in discussions with the Department for four years about new national registration requirements for local governments operating community housing,
Recently, these discussions had focussed on transferring the units back to the Department.
Officers noted that Council and the Department intended the process to cause minimal disturbance to current tenants, and special care would be taken to ensure the transition was “smooth, confidential and non-threatening” for them.
Councillors voted to accept the recommendation, and the $875,000 would be removed from the Council’s Asset Register when the transfer was complete.
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New CCTV systems to monitor some of the Council’s community buildings will be installed if the Federal Government is willing to pay for them.
At the September meeting, Councillors voted to apply for a grant under Round 3 of the Safer Communities Program to install new cameras and upgrade some existing ones.
CEO Mark Pitt said the Council had also lent its support to an application by the Kingaroy Chamber Of Commerce and Industry to get a CCTV system installed in Kingaroy’s CBD.
The KCCI would also be applying to the same grant round.
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Council will loan the Wondai Regional Art Gallery $15,000 over five years to undertake $60,000 worth of improvements to the gallery’s building.
The loan has been issued as community organisation loan, which attracts no interest.
The gallery will give the Council $3000 up front, and repay the balance at $2400 per year over the next five years.
It will use the money, along with $14,000 of its own funds and a $31,000 grant the gallery recently received from the Building Better Regions Fund, to upgrade the building’s storage facilities and kitchen, and add a rear deck to provide a second entrance to the building from the South Burnett Rail Trail and Coronation Park.
The gallery building is owned by the Council, but is managed by a not-for-profit community group.
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Council has voted to vary its Schedule of Fees and Charges to allow the Lake Boondooma and Yallakool Tourist Parks more flexibility in attracting tourists.
The dams currently offer a 10 per cent discount to campers who stay more than two nights at either dam, but formerly only offered this to approved fishing clubs.
This has now been extended to cover all not-for-profit clubs, providing they ask for the discount, and members of Caravanning Australia.
The Council has also set the peak period dates for 2018-19 when it levies a 10 per cent increase in cabin and villa style accommodation at the dams.
This year’s peak periods are the Christmas/New Year holidays (December 15 to January 27) and Easter (April 6-21).
