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Town & Country Journal, Week #122 - May 11, 2023

Page 1

Town &

Y! L K E E W E F RE

11th May 2023

CountryJournal smallnewspaper.com.au/country-journal/

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TV Guide inside! p.17 Footy Tipping Comp. p.12 Weather outlook p.6 p.5 p.10 p.16

Cycleway plan moving in Warwick

David McMahon on the family meeting the ladies.

War Widows celebrate Mother's Day.

Rate rise pain incoming “There will be winners and losers,” Mayor. Jonathan O’Neill oneill.jonathan1@outlook.com

R

atepayers in the Southern Downs will feel the pinch on their household budgets with rates set to climb in the next financial year. Southern Downs Regional Council Mayor, Vic Pennisi say there will be winners and losers in the upcoming budget deliberations. “We have input costs are going up seven percent at the moment, but our population growth is

only one percent,” Cr Pennisi said. “It is what we have to live with, and unfortunately the only place we [Council] get our money is through ratepayers.” A ratepayer present at the Connecting with Council session in Dalveen last week, voiced their frustration with rates calling on Council to either lower them, or begin to give the Dalveen community their fair share. “Our land valuations have gone through the roof. It’s just ridiculous what the rates are going to be on our land,” They said.

“It’s getting to the stage where we just want something for our money. “Look at how we’re feeling at the moment. We’re paying a lot of rates, and it’s easy money for you [Council]. “You’re not doing much to help with our land or anything, at least in a larger town you get kerbs and streetlights. There’s a lot of unhappy people out here about certain things, because Council aren’t speaking to them. Mayor Pennisi agreed with the rate rise sentiments, but stressed that land valuations share no correlation with rates.

“I’ve been in local government for almost 20 years, and there hasn’t been one year where there’s been 0% rate rises, for the simple fact it’s the only place we [Council} get money,” Cr Pennisi

said. “The rate rise will be somewhere in line with CPI (consumer price index), but if you’ve got a 300% increase, which some people did in their valuation, there won’t be 300% rate rise. “What our officers have done, is use the valuation and using last year’s rates bill, work out what the rate rise will be. “They’ve got it to under 1%. It’s actually around 0.4% of what it was last year, and from there they’ll work out what the rate rise will be on this lot of valuations, based on the pie that was collected from the last rates.

Funding offer for Leslie Dam toilets Jonathan O’Neill oneill.jonathan1@outlook.com

S

outhern Downs Regional Council have for mally received an offer to build a new toilet block at Leslie Dam to the tune of $250,000.

Councillor Andrew Gale told the Town & Country Journal Council had received an offer from the state government owned dam operator, Sunwater, which submitted the formal offer following a meeting with Council CEO Dave Burges in March. “This is personally a big achievement as it’s some-

thing I’ve been trying to achieve for fifteen years, in fact it’s probably what led me to being a Councillor, I’m excited,” Cr Gale said. The letter addressed to Council from Sunwater’s General Manager of Operations south, Craig Cahill, indicated the water storage operator will provide

the $250,000 in funding to supply and install the ablution block at the popular Leslie Dam. “Funding is provided for the purposes of the supply and installation of an ablution block only, with any unspent funds to be returned to Sunwater,” Mr Cahill said. Continued on page 9...

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