d"lCapricarn Coast LicivELE
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ISSUE 306 FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1989 — THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1989
PHONE (079) 39 4244 (Two Lines)
6400 FREE COPIES WEEKLY
Council offering rebate for dogs LIVINGSTONE Shire Council's health committee chairman Cr Maurie Webb said notices are now being received by dog owners for registration. The format has been changed to make better use of the time. spent by the dog control officer. Previously his time was spent going from house to house collecting licence fees. "The council accepts that most people will respond to the present method, especially with a rebate available for prompt payment," Cr Webb said. The rebate was a genuine attempt by council to combat fee rises increases. Cr Webb said the officer's time would now be better used picking up stray dogs and chasing up fees for unlicensed animals. "For too long the general ratepayer body has been subsidising dog owners who endeavour to beat the system and not pay registrations," he said. "With reference to the by-law component about fencing being a pre-requisite of owning a dog, this law will only be used to bring constant offenders into line," Cr Webb said. "The genuine dog owner who cares for his or her pet need have no fear." Cr Webb said dog problems were State and even Australia-wide.
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• ABOVE: Yeppoon Lioness members Colleen Wassail, Bev Gilligan, Eunice Coombs, incoming president Joy Walsh, out-goingpresident Joan Byatt and Yvonne Brown are pictured after a meeting last week.
GROUPSSports WARY OF AGREEMENT clubs asked to surrender • By John and Suzy Watson WHAT appears to be a lack of communication has made certain groups wary of a Livingstone Shire Council proposal to formalise priority of use on Yeppoon sporting grounds. Council has been dealing with Yeppoon Australian Football Club, Little Athletics Association, Yeppoon Soccer Club and St Ursula's College over use of sports fields off Arthur Street. The proposals put to the various groups have been almost identical but there's a wariness from some group representatives. It's an unusual situation. The council appears to be offering a good deal to the various groups: • Guaranteed use of their home ground for 10 years on the days and during the hours which the group specifies. • Annual rental of $20 for the first five years and to be negotiated for the following five years. • Council accepts responsibility for upkeep of the grounds. • No charge to groups for garbage collection provided rubbish from any function is removed from the grounds at the end of the day. • No charges for water until an irrigation system is installed. • Council to mow the grounds four times a year at no charge but additional mowing to be at the groups' expense. But people negotiating for the groups are uneasy about the proposal. In return for these conditions the clubs have to agree to surrender to council their rights and interest in improvements.
The little athletics group has to surrender a toilet block at Apex Park, their present grounds. The toilet block includes room for equipment storage. They also have to surrender the improvements they have carried out at Apex Park ... establishment of a 400m. athletics track, grassing, countless emu patrols removing broken glass, and repairs over the years after hoodlums have driven cars and motor-bikes over the grounds. The soccer club, which also uses Apex Park, has to surrender lighting ... but after it surrenders the lighting to the council, the club still has to pay the power bills. Both of the groups have to specify the days, and the hours on those days, which they will require use of Apex Park. They can't specify every hour, 365 days. They must be quite specific. Apparently council will set those days and hours aside for those clubs and then any other free time can be rented out by council. The money council receives in rental will go into a "kitty" to be established for Apex Park and the Aussie Rules ground. This renting out of the ground is one of the bones of contention ... the little athletics group and the soccer club have been asked to pay $500 each toward additional mowing yet the money earned in ground rental goes to the council. The clubs have to part with their hard-
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earned cash so other groups can use, and possibly damage, their ground for only a daily rental. The clubs apparently have no say in who can rent the grounds. There is a fear that expensively-prepared athletics fields could be rented out to a visiting circus. The fears are not groundless ... the Aussie Rules club has had the experience of finding the showground being used for a circus during the football season. Club officials exploded when they found welding rods, manure and broken glass littering the ground after the circus left town. Still, if the clubs agree to surrender their rights, the council has offered to "use its best endeavours to secure a section 343 sub-lease under the Land Act in favour of the clubs" should they wish to establish structural improvements on the ground. Shire clerk Jim Brown said this week that meant the clubs would be helped to gain a specific lease of an area for a building such as a clubhouse. He said the lease would allow the clubs to negotiate a loan with a bank. St Ursula's is in a different position. The college needs grounds for sporting purposes. In recent years it seemed the college was going to be able to use the Aussie Rules ground when completed. This project has dragged and appears to be still two seasons away from staging its first
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game. Meanwhile the college, through a committee comprising administration and parents and friends' association members, has negotiated using the top area of Apex Park. This is the former tip site and the college obtained a rough council estimate that establishing a ground there would cost about $11,000. If the college decides to spend this money, it will be given an almost identical lease being offered to the two other clubs. However it has been asked to pay $1000 for mowing each year. The council has asked the college, in consideration of the prior right of use of the area, "to level, drain and topsoil the ground to create a functional recreation field within the first 12 months of the agreement". Should the college ask council to do the work it will have to repay the cost within two years, with half the cost being paid within six months. In return, the college will have "prior right" ... but not absolute right. Again, council will have the right to set aside days and hours the college specifies then rent out the ground at other times. Times that have already been excluded for use by the school are "every Saturday and school holidays". Obviously the college needs playing fields ... but it also needs typewriters and computers and the many other facilities that make up a Catholic college. It is understood some P and F members are not fully in agreement with the idea of paying • CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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