27 AUGUST 2021
ISSUE 307
News
First glimpse of the path to freedom
One Wamberal resident suspects that large trees which fell onto his driveway and smashed his fence overnight might have had a little help. See page 3
Out&About
The Australian Reptile Park is looking for help to name its two newest arrivals – twin Tasmanian devil joeys being hand-raised at the Park by keeper Hewin Hochkins. See page 17
Business Central Coast residents who have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine will be allowed to gather outdoors in groups of five (including children) from September 13, within the Local Government area or within 5km of home outside the LGA. See page 4 What can $700,000 buy you on the Central Coast? Not much it seems
Council turnaround reduces debt Central Coast Council reached the end of July this year $110M better off than expected. Coast News calculates the total Council debt is about $455M as of July 30. This is better by $110M than the figure of $565M interim administrator Dick Persson forecast in his 30-day report issued on December 2, 2020. That forecast included an expected budget deficit at the end of the 2020-2021 financial year of $115M. The figures released this week show the actual figure
came in at $60M and Council has made other savings as it spent this year cutting staff, cutting costs and securing a rate rise. A summary of the draft financial statement for last financial year was presented at the Council meeting on August 24. The figures showed that Council spent $30M on redundancies, significantly less than a budgeted $45M. It is believed Council budgeted for older staff to take many of the redundancies on offer but on average younger people did
and so it didn’t cost as much. There were two other reasons the numbers improved beyond the forecast. The Council had a better trading result than anticipated, meaning its costs were less than expected, saving $42.8M. Also, since the crisis in October last year, it has begun receiving and using grants from the State and Federal governments on renewal projects rather than using money from its capital funds on new infrastructure projects. At the same August meeting, the July investment and the
new monthly financial reports were also tabled. They showed that: “Through external funding and rationalisation of internal restricted fund balances, the unrestricted fund balance has improved from ($206.5M) at 31 July 1920 to ($27M) at 31 July 1921”. The cash balance at July 31 was $465M, a reduction of $19.4M from June 30 due to a combination of year-end supplier payments and the cyclical reduction in rates and charges receipts. Continued page 4
That’s the theme of the Herron Todd White July Month in Review See page 25
Sport
The Central Coast Mariners have signed 24- year-old Cy Goddard on a two-year deal. See page 39
Puzzles page 22
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