December 7th, 2021Kyle’s rant
THE topic of the moment is The Rex in Daylesford and the abhorrent waste of ratepayers’ money. I do intend to get to that after this quick community safety message.
Sometimes I get a little worked up at small things. Like when a car is sitting on the side of the road with its indicator switched to pull out while I am bearing down on top of them. Have they seen me or even looked and are they going to pull out on top of me?
Lots of questions pulse through my brain as I fly along our country lanes. Now kids, an indicator is just that, it is used to indicate your intentions at the time it is going. It is not used to indicate your intentions in what you might be doing should the traffic clear.
So, if you find yourself on the side of the road, stopped to take some Instaworthy photo or flicking off a quick text that couldn’t possibly wait until you reached your destination, please put your indicator to the left, letting all passing-by traffic know that it is safe to pass you. Once you have checked your mirrors and it is clear, then apply the indicator to the right and you’re good to go.
Speaking of good to go and this slightly jarring and misplaced segue, I thought The Rex was good to go. What happened? Early this year I received a fine in the mail because I didn’t vote in the Hepburn Shire Council elections. This was my choice as to my mind there are too many levels of government and funding bureaucracy. For example, a local council uses around 80 per cent of the funds that it garnishes on self administration, but that’s an argument for another day. And yes, I was sent a fine.
But now I am really reflecting on the councillors who did make the grade in that election last November and how anyone could see their way clear to delay such a project, as the Hepburn Hub, by years, citing a lack of community consultation.
Guys, I was there. You, yes a former council but still our council, had your consultation process. Admittedly The Rex at that point was not on the table, however you are voted in to gauge your constituents’ wants and needs and vote in their best interests, not to waste millions of dollars.
You will now be responsible for delaying council workers’ accommodation by years, which if I remember correctly at the time was the “how” of it all, as in how can we as a shire afford this? The answer was resounding – through the savings attributed to energy and productivity in the design of the build.
WTF rant over…
Oh, final thing. In the last edition I wrote about the increased cost of paper – about 25 per cent – and we also put a call out for donations to help us continue providing quality local journalism. So, a big thank you to those who have dug deep and donated one-off amounts or taken up subscriptions. It has been very humbling and much appreciated.
