THE BYRON SHIRE ECHO Advertising & news enquiries: Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au Available early Tuesday at: http://www.echo.net.au VOLUME 22 #13 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2007 22,300 copies every week
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Council revisits Helen St bridge Michael McDonald
Byron Shire Council last week voted 8-0, Crs Tucker and Tardif absent, to receive a staff report on an amended Helen Street footbridge design by structural engineer Tony Baggio ‘as a basis for new construction tender specifications’. Mr Baggio put up the revised plan, which is considerably cheaper than previous tenders, on behalf of local residents. During public access, resident Maggie Brown told Councillors, ‘The bridge has been designed by a highly qualified structural engineer
and reviewed by two separate structural engineers, one of whom is a consultant to Council. We ask that you consider what the community has achieved in the last month – cost free – and let us continue to work with Council on getting a result. ‘We are confident that the design before you is realistic and correct in scale and concept… Council has already spent good public money on reports, studies and consultancies. If we let this go now all that work, money and time will have been wasted effort. ‘Today’s motion gives
Council an opportunity to honour its commitment and salvage the project, plus Council’s reputation for getting things done. ‘Obviously, building a bridge is more challenging than painting road markings to create bike lanes and traffic islands for Ocean Shores, but those measures will not stop our residents from driving themselves and their children the 5km round trip to and from the beach – but a 600 metre walk or ride over the footbridge will. ‘We are well aware that you have continuing concerns about the costings and
Kurt runs with the champs
that if it were to go out to tender again the end result might be another very expensive bridge. When we get to that stage, we, the community, would do our utmost to see that an affordable design and tender is submitted and responded to, in accordance with tender regulations. ‘There are plenty of local builders and construction companies who would be happy for the work and it is not a complex design to build. By doing this bridge properly we may end up with a template for the other continued on page 2
Hairy legs engross Science Week fans
Kurt Mulcahy in training in Mullum. Photo Lou Beaumont
Imogen, Miah, Olivia and Georgia make friends with a large Tarantula who was part of a Bugs’n’Slugs display at Bangalow Community Children’s Centre open day on August 29.
The open day celebrated National Science Week and water experiments, erupting volcanoes, rocket science, socks with hair, a Van de Graaf generator (static electricity), archaeological digs
and sensory tables were all part of the fun. Kids tried their hands at and learnt about microclimate models, string telephones, parts of the body, lighting, bread making, growing sprouts,
dinosaur measuring, straw painting, candle batiks and sinking and floating – objects, not the kids. See more at www.bugsnslugs. com.au. Photo Lou Beaumont
Mullumbimby High School athlete Kurt Mulcahy, 18, raced against the world’s best on the weekend at Osaka, Japan, when he ran with Australia’s 4 x 400m sprint team at the world championships. The team missed out on a finals berth by a tenth of a second. Kurt’s inclusion in the team is a result of his silver medal in the 400m at the Australian nationals in March this year. He has also excelled at the 100m and the 200m. Kurt sent a text message to his father Kevin and mother Roslyn straight after the race and they spoke to him the next morning. He was very excited, racing in front of a capacity crowd and was really happy with his run. The whole experience went really quickly but
he was delighted. Roslyn thinks he may have run a personal best (PB) and Kurt is hoping to qualify for the Beijing Olymoics in his own right, that is as a 400m individual runner as well as in the relay. Roslyn hopes Kurt will have a bit of a rest when he gets home on Tuesday this week but he has the Combined High Schools state athletics championships in Sydney next week. ‘In general, he handles pressure really well,’ says Roslyn. ‘Being in Mullum helps as he can get away from the hype and just “be normal”.’ Kevin and Roslyn hope to get the whole family over to watch Kurt at the world juniors in Poland and then to the Olympics in China. Q Comment, page 10