YASS POOL
When a good idea comes up, the first plaintive cry is about who will pay for it. Apparently there was a report about heating the Yass Pool and the author found people wanted a heated pool but no one wanted to pay for it. This is a pretty normal reaction.
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The people always pay in the end. Whenever a project of any size is proposed, there is money involved; even traffic lights cost money. For the heated pool, the answer is straightforward. The community has a lot of assets and they are administered through the council. Heating the pool would be so helpful to the many in the community who have problems with their joints. It is not only our footballers who need hydrotherapy.
To fund the heated pool, we can sell some of the community land — like the old sale yards or some of the other land the council holds on behalf of the community. Let us grasp the nettle and do good.
Dr Ray Burn, Yass
ASBESTOS DUMPING
Last Wednesday there was a story in your paper telling us how disappointed the council is in some ratepayers dumping asbestos among other garbage. The council story was all about the council from a council perspective.
The real story is of how Yass Valley Council has decided that Yass Valley ratepayer’s asbestos, within their LGA, is not their problem. Yass Valley Council has decided that telling ratepayers to take a drive to the ACT or to an adjacent shire admonishes them of all responsibility.
Rather than bag out council maybe it’s time to say what should be done rather than wait to see the council response goes anywhere near a solution. Maybe it’s time to provide council with what ratepayers need and a way to provide it. Maybe, like training a child, positive reinforcement will work? IDEA:
- Council buy a skip, just like the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre.
- Council place the skip at a waste transfer station.
- Council require that the asbestos be double wrapped in plastic and no bigger than 800mm x 800mm and weighing no more than 250kg, just like the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre.
- Council makes the appropriate charge to the Yass community for disposal of asbestos to the skip, just like the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre.
- Rather that the 50 to 100 small vehicle trips by individuals, council send one truck.
- Council empty the skip and bring it back.
- Council repeats the process.
In reading the article in last Wednesday’s paper, all I saw were negatives and an attempt to blame shift to the community for what is a Yass Valley Council responsibility. What is needed is ways to provide the necessary services to those who choose to live in our LGA and not another reason to become a satellite of the ACT or burden the council areas around us with our problems.
I ask that councillors take my suggestion forward and provide a solution that ensures those who need to dispose of asbestos have a lawful and viable alternative rather than hiding it in their refuge and the many other disposal methods that pollute our environment.
Touie Smith Snr, Yass
Harmony Day
On Tuesday, March 21 Australia celebrated Harmony Day, and the diversity and inclusive culture our country has sewn.
Australia is built on multiculturalism. When I think of multiculturalism, I look to my kids. Some of them come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds imaginable, but despite their race, religion, beliefs and upbringing, they manage to find common ground.
My kids treat each other with the utmost respect and are the shining example of discrimination having no place in Australia.
