When it comes down to it, local government is all about roads, rates and rubbish.
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Nobody wants holes in the road, they want rates kept low and the rubbish carted away.
A review into how Junee Shire Council handles rubbish might be boring, but it will have big impacts in the years to come.
It has become clear that taking out the trash is quite expensive.
Council has outlined in its review – available for ratepayers to read and comment on, a few ideas to make it more sustainable.
And not just in a environmentally-friendly, feel-good way.
They’ve pulled out the calculators and worked out ways to save dollars but the name of the game these days is user-pays and it will mean using the waste transfer stations will cost more.
Fortunately, council will only recover 85 per cent of the costs levied on the users of waste transfer stations, up from 50 per cent.
It will mean an increase of under $10 annually.
In a bid to reduce the amount of garbage, council is preparing to roll out a new organic recycling program. The program was trialled in 2011 and declared it a resounding success.
It’s not free either though, at the princely cost of $1 to households.
The real benefit of the plan, efficiencies and extra charges is preparing for that rainy day when the landfill will have to be closed and rehabilitated.
Closing Junee’s landfill is an expensive business. Council has estimated it will be upwards of $500,000. It’s also not due to close for at least a decade, maybe 15 years.
In finding all these little areas to save a few dollars, ratepayers in the future won’t get hit with a massive bill. This planning ahead and taking future liabilities is exactly the thinking needed at all levels of government.
It will also mean, should the state government return with its dreaded and despised forced amalgamation program, the Junee Shire Council will have a bit of a feather in its cap to fight any merger proposals.
The crux of the state’s argument is that a council cannot be sustainable, that it cannot take care of residents or itself. This waste review is vital if council is to prove otherwise.
At least if Junee is pushed to the wall, council will have done its best to prepare for the future and not simply leave complex problems like rehabilitated landfills lying around.
Declan Rurenga
Declan Rurenga was the editor of Griffith's Area News and Leeton's Irrigator until September 2023. Before landing at the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, he reported news in Junee, Wagga Wagga, Orange and Cootamundra.
Declan Rurenga was the editor of Griffith's Area News and Leeton's Irrigator until September 2023. Before landing at the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, he reported news in Junee, Wagga Wagga, Orange and Cootamundra.
