Water, water, water and other stuff.

Sue Brooks May 18th, 2009

This week Council will decide the model it prefers to take our water entities into the future. The report to Council is available online via the Council web site and includes a recommendation to adopt the Corporate model. There is comment also on the submissions that Council received during the Public Benefit Assessment process. I expect that once the decision is made on Wednesday, that the hard work will really begin as no matter the outcome, there will still be a period of upheaval and adjustment for hard working staff. I personally hope that we can move forward quickly and with as least ‘pain’ as possible.

Last week I attended the Coastal Conference on the Gold Coast. I heard many good presentations but not many solutions I’m afraid. It does seem that  expected sea level rise is a problem that is sitting in the ‘too hard’ basket still. I think we need to take the stand that our treed and green foreshore and our public beaches are as important asset to our community as is the Esplanade etc. It seems to me that the State Government is presently more inclined to protect a hard concrete asset than a green, growing one!

Then on Saturday morning we snorkelled off Round Island from the Krystal Klear boat. We all were glad we had our wetsuits but the sea was clear, skies blue and it was quiet and calm. I swam with a big ‘toad fish’ and took quite a few pics. These can be viewed on my Facebook site. This was our ‘hands on’ lesson to ready us for our actual monitoring of our coral which we will commence shortly. Thanks to Carol, Murray, Amanda and Maria for their help. (I recommend a Krystal Klear trip to all of you).

A happy 'toadfish' I'm told

Intrepid snorkelling buddy Billsoft and hard coral

On Sunday I was lucky to attend a full day ‘Native Stingless Bee’ workshop at Aldershot. This was facilitated by the Healthy Habitats programme and we were all shown hives being split and how honey is extracted. Our able presenter was Tim Heard from sugarbag honey. He was very knowledgeable and informative. I got to take home a hive which I had ordered several months prior. This morning I was worried that no bees were venturing out so was relieved when I got home to find them busily to-ing and fro-ing! Graham and I are now proud parents of our own stingless native bee hive.

Our native beehivelots of honey in there

3 Responses to “Water, water, water and other stuff.”

  1. # sueon 20 May 2009 at 7:04 am

    Councillors adopted the Corporate model as they way forward for our water entities today. I was the sole vote against the motion as I would have preferred the Commercialised Business model. Minutes should be available online soon.

  2. # Sadmanon 20 May 2009 at 9:58 pm

    Sue,
    Following this decision there will be some lose of
    revenue to council e.g. water rates?
    If so how will this lose be made up?
    Under the corporate model will WBW now handle billing
    and customer calls it’s self?
    Now WBW has a larger customer base, will the agreement
    between council and WBW be altered so the financial
    return to council is increased?

    Sadman

  3. # sueon 21 May 2009 at 7:43 am

    All these details are yet to be worked out. I moved an amendment and Cr Harris seconded it ,to investigate the financial impacts going forward, but the motion was defeated. The process to merge the entities will address the issues that you raise as the merger will take quite some time to become final.
    I’m confident that Council is very aware of its responsibilities as the ‘owner’ of the Corporation and that it will take very seriously its commitment to building a close and trusting partnership with the Board of the Corporation to ensure that the community is well serviced. I am committed to working hard to ensure that we all benefit from this decision into the future. Thanks, Sue

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