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Edition 11, Wednesday 27 March, 2024

Page 1

1909

VOL. 116

NO. 11

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WEDNESDAY MARCH 27, 2024

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PRICE $1.50 INC GST

Rice grass warriors

Revved up for fun

PAGES 3 AND 5

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Counting the cost • Branxholm businesses are among the dozens across the North-East impacted by the TasNetworks outage on Tuesday, with CMTP General Manager Tasmania Dale Jessup and Branxholm IGA owners Allen and Noemie Ha (inset) frustrated by the costly situation. BY RACHEL WILLIAMS BUSINESSES ACROSS the region say they are bearing the brunt of Tuesday’s power outage to fix damage caused by vandals, with some operators losing out on thousands of dollars and many casual workers left without a day’s pay. While Scottsdale’s business district was spared, others in more remote areas lost power for as long as 10 hours on Tuesday from 7am. The work had been planned for Monday,

but high winds thwarted attempts, further frustrating business owners struggling to plan for the outage. CMTP General Manager Tasmania Dale Jessup and Branxholm IGA owners Allen and Noemie Ha represented just two businesses impacted by the repair works, necessary after a vandal attack on a TasNetworks tower earlier this month. Mr Jessup said its Ling Siding and Branxholm timber operations were impacted, costing the business significantly. “We planned for it on Monday and

delayed all our staff coming in until 8am so staff weren’t driving in from all across the North-East only to be told to go home again and then the power stayed on, so we lost an hour of production on Monday and then a full day closure on Tuesday with permanent employees stood down with pay and casuals losing a day’s pay,” Mr Jessup said. “It’s going to be an extensive cost and obviously we have customers relying on that production, so we will need to make that time up and that might mean overtime

on top of things. “Trying to plan for one of three days is totally impractical for business and there is no way you can manage it… it is totally ridiculous.” That sentiment was shared by the local supermarket, with Mr Ha saying the disruption was costly. “We have two power banks to power one ice cream freezer and another cool room system for milk and meat,” Mr Ha said. “The frozen products have a limit of four T CONTINUES ON PAGE 2.


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Edition 11, Wednesday 27 March, 2024 by NorthEasternAdvertiser - Issuu