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.