Egos set to explode at library launch

As completion of the Council's new $4 million 'state-of-the-art' library in Steere St draws near, I prepare to cringe at the spectacle of President Brian Moore, CEO Tim Clynch and other 'prominent' councillors puffing and preening at what will no doubt be a gala opening.

For Mr Moore - who has given no direction or leadership to the Shire in five years as President, just endless pious platitudes about volunteers - it will be something to hang his hat on. "I built that library," he will tell his admirers.

The truth is he and fellow councillors did nothing more than nod their heads and agree with every single suggestion spoon-fed to them by Mr Clynch, accepting without question the  "need" for a new library which is six or seven times the size of the current one.

 At one point, while I was a councillor, I managed to convince them to put a limit on its size (and cost) at four times the existing library space (surely enough to do the job, I argued), but this resolution was later revoked on the CEO's advice. An adequate library appropriate to the size of our community was not going to be spectacular enough to satisfy the need for an attention-grabbing monument.

When the new library is unveiled, it might make us all swell with civic pride and will no doubt provide a valuable community resource.

But ask yourselves why the rates keep going up every year, well in excess of the rate of inflation, while $2 million of ratepayers funds is spent on this vanity project.  And don't forget an extra hundred thousand a year will have to be spent on running and maintaining it.

 

Tough job, but someone has to do it...

Councillors and senior staff should be thanking the so-called 'noisy minority' of Bridgetown for giving them an issue (Zinnecker's House) to deal with.

Otherwise, they would have trouble justifying their existence.

October's Council meeting ran for a full half-hour, including questions from the public and dealt mainly with renaming some roads and a meaningless submission on the State's new draft forest management plan.  They simply dismissed a petition signed by hundreds of local  residents, which urged them to retain Zinnecker's, without even discussing it.

If you consider the councillors are paid roughly $350 for each meeting they attend, that is a good hourly rate! And you can't tell me there is a lot of preparation involved in simply accepting all but one of the officer recommendations without debate.

After half an hour of raising their hands to vote in unison, the councillors (and staff) must have been famished. Just as well there was a lavish ratepayer-funded meal and alcoholic drinks awaiting them when it was finally over.