The majority of Cobar Shire councillors have voted in favour of undertaking $100,000 worth of remedial works on Council’s old water filtration plant.
The matter of what to do with Council’s old water filtration plant (which was constructed on Fort Bourke Hill in 1964), was discussed at last week’s Ordinary Council Meeting with councillors given five options of what to do with the now obsolete plant.
The options were: 1 Do nothing; 2 Keep the building and do minor remedial work; 3 Demolish it; 4 and 5 Reuse it for treating mine wastewater or as a business venture such as café or museum.
Most councillors were in favour of Option 2, which was the recommendation of Council’s Water & Sewer Manager Victor Papierniak to keep the building and undertake remedial works (based on a report from NSW Public Works on what to do with the building).
Cr Jarrod Marsden however voted against the motion saying he felt it would be “wasted money”.
“I don’t think it’s wise for us to go and throw $100,000 at this building until we actually know what we are going to do with it,” Cr Marsden said.
“We might come up with a use for this building in the next two years and whereby the $100,000 we are about to spend becomes wasted money.
“I’d like to see this deferred until we get some real options on the table and make a decision on what we are going to do with the building and then commit funds to it.
“Committing funds to just do some basic upkeep, I just don’t agree with that,” he said.
Acting Director of Engineering Services Heinz Kausche said the $100,000 would be used only to address safety and operational issues with the building.
“It’s not about improving it, it’s just about making it safe,” Mr Kausche told the meeting.
Council’s General Manager Peter Vlatko advised the meeting the money to be spent on the old building was part of the funding Council had received to build the new water filtration plant.
He said “finishing the job was part of the contract” with the funding also allowing for remedial or demolition work.
Cr Julie Payne said she had noted in the report that the old building had a number of cracks and deterioration due to nearby mine blasting.
“Is there anyway we could approach the mine to assist us in financing what needs to be done to it?
“Have we considered it?” Cr Payne asked.
Mr Vlatko said as Council had been allocated funding as part of the grant for the new filtration plant, that hadn’t been considered.
Option 3 of demolishing the building was discussed and was eventually dismissed as unviable due to the building having asbestos in it.
Demolishing it would also mean the telecommunications network would need to be re-located at an additional cost.
Cr Peter Maxwell said he supported Cr Marsden’s suggestion to not go ahead and spend $100,000.
Cr Maxwell suggested more information was also needed on the ‘Do nothing’ option before councillors were to make a decision.
“Do nothing doesn’t make much sense unless you know what the risk is.
“I think that the risk that they are talking about is very open ended,” Cr Maxwell said.
When the matter was put to the vote, the majority of councillors were in favour of Option 2 to keep the building and do minor remedial work and the motion was carried.
As part of his recommendation on the matter, Mr Papierniak called for council to also include an additional $5,000 per annum in their budget for ongoing monitoring and maintenance for the site.
