Mayors Rubber Stamp Gang call Residents Problems “Time Waster”. 

Report on Mc Phail St, The “Pandemonium” Flood. From Ron Owen. 11th Dec 05.
History.
After being elected to office, one of the first issues I raised at this table was the lack of design planning in Storm Water. Leyden Court, Heights Drive, Mc Phail Street, each week it would draw smirks, smart remarks, calls, “of get on with it”, “a 5 minute rule”, and our Mayor’s favourite saying ‘Caveat Emptor’, let the “buyer beware”. Councillors put the blame on the builders for cutting in the blocks, blamed the home buyers, that the poor developers could not predict what sort of house would be built on the blocks. Even though Council Approved them all. Council could never be blamed, The Council can do no wrong. Eventually after many photographs of streams running from peoples houses. Councils perspective altered a little. The Director of Engineering instead of chanting, “If they have been signed off by the developers Engineer “that’s good enough”"we check no further”, changed to a slight degree, on Gympie Securities Mc Phail St he told me and Councillor Jocmsen, that “he knew that three houses were in danger of having water in them and he was going to insist that all the water problems were going to be solved by making the Developer build a retention dam up near the industrial estate to slow down the water from the upper developments”. The water problems in Mc Phail and Castlereagh Street have been raised at this table by Councillor Jocmensen and Myself at least every month for 18 months in November last year we showed council photographs of housing slabs that had been covered in water.
We were not told at this time May /June 04 that the Storm Water Pipes that had been put in beneath Mc Phail Street were not big enough to handle water from the streets above. Complaints were received from Mr Glen Read, a property owner from Mc Phail and Councillor Jocumsen and Myself were both told that when the job was completed that Mr Read would stop getting water on his properties.
In September 05 Councillor Jocumsen was told that the Council was going to spend at least $38,000 of ratepayers money to pipe water from Gympie Securities into a foot path area which would flow towards Mc Phail St. Besides the shock and disbelief that Council would spend this amount, bailing out a developer that had made a big mistake. I could see that this pipe would only make the storm water move faster to the lower houses and would add more water at a greater velocity to the storm water already causing problems. The vacant ground with a higher footpath situated as a dam wall at the rear of Mc Phail St acted as a natural retention basin as it had to fill up with water pouring in from Gympie Securities before overflowing down the footpath into Mc Phail now with Council assistance, that has been filled and the water piped to the foot path, from the footpaths it flows into the properties and houses of Mc Phail and Castlereagh St. When Councillor Jocumsen told me what was planned I was horrified, I phoned the CEO and told him that if this was allowed there would be lives at risk, I contacted the Director of Engineering and repeated what I had told the CEO, he told me that there had been some doubts of the plans and that council had paid $30,000 dollars for a Engineering Consultants report which had “signed off on the plans” and that the developer had an other independent engineers consultant approve it as well, so two consultants could not be wrong. He said that I was wrong and we had nothing to worry about. I asked him for copies of the reports and correspondence, for many weeks I reminded him at this table that I wished to see copies of those reports. eventually in early November I was given a folder with the reports and the last letter from KBR the Councils consultants, said “Subject to Cooloola Shire Council approval on the flood hazard management and the acceptance of undersized stormwater drainage pipeline to cope with a 5 year flood event”. The consultant for the developer ‘LSA’ stated, This footpath area and road sag will provide an area where pedestrians which may be in difficulty, could regain footing and avoid the possibility of being swept into deeper drainage channels downstream”. I brought these quotes to the attention of the Director of Engineering, he said that he “didn’t care they signed off on it that’s all he was concerned about”. I was very concerned I wrote a ten page report that recorded the worrisome quotes from the consultants and asked twelve questions from the CEO. and it was printed in its entirety in the minutes of the Planning & Development Committee Meeting on 22nd November 2005. The Director of Engineering did not answer the questions, and said of the Mc Phail system, “Staff know of no reason why it should not work… If Council wishes to review the decisions made over the course of this project they should commission a consultant”. (That’s after they have already paid $30,000. dollars for the KBR report).
Cr Cantrell and Mayor Venardos both said that, “Council should take the advice of its professional staff”. (but both, could not understand that the Staff were in conflict with the Engineering reports Council had paid for.)
It was moved by Cr Friske and seconded by Cr Nissen
That the matter be held in abeyance until all work …. are in place. Carried.
Later in that meeting.
Cr McIntyre moved and Cr Nissen seconded that, ” does not support further allocation of staff time to respond to Cr Owen’s questions”. Carried.
Then on the 1st of December we had a metre of water in Castlereagh St and many houses were flooded in the Gympie Security Development.
Last Tuesday the 6th December 05 we had a 15 minute video of the 1 metre deep river running through the streets filmed by the residents and myself. The Mayor had it turned off before two minutes had run. He opposed a motion to report the engineers responsible to the Board of Engineers. He supported a motion to leave the Director of Engineering, and the Design Engineer the same staff who have approved this disaster plan, to do the same thing. “Nothing”.
Then in the Gympie Times Sat Dec 10th Mayor Venardos states that “Council is working intensely to remedy the problems” and “rectified as quickly as possible”. Mayor Venardos complains that “the work was to be completed before the start of the wet season”, “to ascertain just where the drainage works were at in conforming to the design” “some of the remedial works had not been completed. These were now being pursued”. We would get the impression from this article that the Council was actually going to do something, but when you read a little closer it seems that Councils contribution as well as the $38,000 pipe and the $30,000. consultant report it just to force the developer to finish the job, even though the reports by the Consultants inform the council that there is a danger to Pedestrians and that Council has to accept flooding hazards. If the Gympie Securities are allowed to continue and concrete in the last of the water slides that divert the Creek that runs from the South Side Industrial Estate into the houses on Mc Phail street the next storm will be much worse, as it will get to Castlereagh St, quicker and with more force. As Council Engineers don’t want to read the Consultant reports or read them but ignore the warnings, nor does the Mayor want to read these reports, Will it take another flooding disaster in the Gympie Securities Development before adequate Storm Water pipes are put beneath the Streets or will it need some children washed away, to stop this continual ‘white wash’ protection of Council and Gympie Securities?

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The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual - for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.