NEWS DESK
Take a bow: Shire Meals on Wheels volunteers celebrate at The Victoriana, Hastings.
Festive thanks to meals volunteers ABOUT 90 volunteers from Mornington Peninsula Shire’s meals on wheels service found themselves on the other side of the table when they were recognised with a celebratory Christmas lunch at The Victoriana, Hastings, on Tuesday. The service delivers more than 1400 meals a week all year through the efforts of its 130 volunteers. “Without the support and dedication of the Meals on Wheels volunteers the service couldn’t operate as it does,” the mayor Cr Graham Pittock said. “The daily contact and monitoring of clients is integral to the volunteer role. By delivering nourishing meals the service and its volunteers allow clients to remain living independently in their own homes for as long as possible. To volunteer to help with the meals service call 5950 1600.
Paving, the way for protest PLANS to build footpaths with costs being part-charged to property owners are a sure fire way of attracting submissions and petitions addressed to Mornington Peninsula Shire. In the latest round of footpath special charge schemes approved by the shire objectors were mostly losers, although one case has proved costly to the shire. A “typographical error” has seen a 42 per cent blowout in the cost of a footpath in South Rd, Rosebud. Under the council’s own rules, any cost variation above five per cent has to be paid by the shire and cannot be passed on to contributors to the special charge scheme. However, such increases are ultimately charged to all ratepayers, council’s main source of revenue. The South Rd footpath was a 25-75 per cent
split between council and property owners and the $56,715 mistake will be picked up by the shire. Councillors were wrongly told that the cost would be $135,000 when the final bill was $191,715. “The higher actual cost is primarily due to a typographical error in earlier reports to council,” infrastructure strategy project manager Jeremy Grieve said in a report to council’s 14 December meeting. At McCrae, Mr Grieve said a 140-signature petition opposing a footpath being built in Coburn Av was received nearly four months after the closing date was based on a point of law that did not apply to the scheme. Council decided to go ahead with the $410,820 scheme, with $271,141 being levied
among 149 properties judged to benefit from its completion. Other footpath schemes given the go ahead by council include Coppin Rd, Sorrento, for $371,130 with property owners to pay $185,565. In Dromana ratepayers in Beach and Gibson streets will pay $118,117 of the $56,210 cost and in Wandella Rd, Mornington they will pay $85,200 of $125,000. In Keogh St, Rosebud and Elizabeth St, Mornington ratepayers are being charged extra because the thickness of concrete was increased from 75 millimetres “to 125 millimetres due to an amendment to the footpath construction standards to better reflect current strength requirements”, Mr Grieve said in his report. Keith Platt
Traders lose to seige Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au RYE traders are counting their losses in the wake of a siege on Saturday 5 December when a man held two women hostage for almost eight hours. Police closed Point Nepean Rd between Weeroona and Weir streets and evacuated shops, including those at the Safeway shopping complex, when a 69-year-old man armed with lowcalibre weapons was seen entering the Little Beach Cafe, Point Nepean Rd, at 7.45am. While no one was injured, the same can’t be said for traders’ cash registers: Not only did they lose a day’s takings, ruined stock and wasted staff wages, but many are finding they cannot claim the losses on their insurance. Their policies honour claims only after 48 hours’ loss of trade – not eight hours – making the losses even more galling because that Saturday was tipped to be one of the busiest in the lead-up to Christmas. Anton Vigenser, of Freaky Tiki cafe, said he lost “a couple of thousand” on
the day, as well as the cost of ruined stock. “We were 15 minutes into being open with all the food out of the fridge and serving customers when we got the call to leave,” Mr Vigenser said. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a serious situation and the police were there doing their job – but it was frustrating for traders.” He said he had to “press a police woman to speak with her supervisor” so that he could return to his shop to turn off the oven. “It would not have been ideal to leave all that food burning and possibly causing a fire in that situation.” Mr Vigenser said 13 shops were affected by the siege shutdown, including Woolworths, whose management said the store was closed for 10 hours. A spokeswoman for the insurance company (which did not want to be identified) where many of the traders have policies, said the wording of the policy was crucial. “To be successful, a claim for business interruption insurance has to be the result of an actual or physical threat to the property, such as a storm, fire or bomb threat,” she said.
The policies contain a 48-hour excess period. “Traders need to prove that the threat is to their property, and that it covers prevention of action over that time,” she said. She admitted the clauses contained “grey areas” and said some traders had discussed claiming compensation from the gunman, but predicted this would be unlikely to succeed. Meanwhile, Mr Vigenser is lamenting his lost day’s trade. “We hung about,” he said. “We went to the indoor market hoping it would all blow over in a couple of hours, but then I was again told I wasn’t allowed in, so I went home. “Later I called a staff member after it was all over and we went down and closed up. It was a totally wasted day.” Police commander Inspector Karen Nyholm, described the siege as a “volatile situation” on the day. She later issued an open letter thanking the public for “their understanding and support of our need to keep the area shut down at what should have been a busy Saturday morning for local traders, residents and visitors.”
Keys to success: Eview Mornington director Jarrod Carman, sales consultant Jarod Joseph, car competition winner Margaret Hudson and Brad Nugent of Mornington Mazda. Picture: Jarryd Bravo
House sale has added bonus EVIEW Real Estate Group Mornington has made one vendor especially happy, with the successful completion of the Win A Mazda promotion, which was drawn on Sunday 6 December. The competition had been running since July and was open to any homeowner who listed and sold their property through Eview Mornington. About 96 properties were listed and
sold during the five month promotion. Margaret Hudson, who sold her Harrap Rd, Mt Martha, property in July, won the Mazda CX3 Neo. Eview sales consultant Jarod Joseph was the listing agent for Mrs Hudson’s property which was among the first entries received. Mrs Hudson had chosen Jarod after he had sold her son’s house earlier in the year.
Beach works ready WORKS at Mills Beach, Mornington, have been completed as part of stage one of the foreshore landscape master plan. They include paving, outdoor seating, blue stone retaining wall, pedestrian access ramp, re-vegetation of foreshore garden areas and link from the car park to the Mornington Lifesaving Club. The coloured concrete pavers bring a fresh look to the area. Stage two works, now in the design phase, will include resealing and reconstruction of the car park and relocation of barbecue facilities. They are expected to start after summer. Mornington News 22 December 2015
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