Alice Springs news
Alice Springs news; NewspaperNT
2009-07-02
This publication contains may contain links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.
This publication contains many links to external sites. These external sites may no longer be active.
English
Community newspspers; Australia, Central; Alice Springs (N.T.); Newspapers
Erwin Chlanda
Alice Springs
v. 16 issue 22
application/pdf
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
Erwin Chlanda
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/232851
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/659997
Mr Ryan says the Australian Government has poured $1 billion into local governments since last November. He says his peers across the country agree that the current national government is working with local government in an unprecedented way. Council has also received a $90,000 grant from the Territory Department of Planning and Infrastructure to develop the area between the Totem Theatre and the Senior Citizens centre in readiness for an outdoor food market during tourist season. And a further $75,000 over three years has been received for maintaining the Discovery Walkway and will be matched by council. While the walkway (pictured) was developed by Great Southern Rail and is on government land, no regular maintenance program was provided for. Council has stepped in, with the support of Tourism Central Australia and others, to work through overcoming the issues of maintenance, says CEO Rex Mooney. Councils energy savings get gong The Town Council has officially achieved Milestone Four in the Cities for Climate Protection program. Mayor Damien Ryan and Alderman Jane Clark on behalf of council were presented with their CCP certificate last week at the National General Assembly of Local Government in Australia, held in Canberra. Cities for Climate Protection is an international campaign to involve local government in greenhouse gas emission reduction which council signed up to in 1998. The previous council was taken to task for its slow progress on the program (see www.alicespringsnews.com.au/1405.html and www.alicespringsnews.com.au/1522.html). While the program has been defunded by the Australian Government, the Town Council will continue to Milestone Five which involves on-going monitoring of actions undertaken. The aspirational goal for Milestone Four was to achieve a 5% reduction in greenhouse emissions, which council easily achieved, says CEO Rex Mooney. Arid Lands Environment Centre coordinator Jimmy Cocking says councils involvement in CCP has been worthwhile: Theyve done a lot, but there is still a lot to do. With a 5% aspirational goal they really havent had to push themselves. There is so much potential here to lead the world as a sustainable arid city. Mr Cocking welcomed councils support of a community garden with a grant of $5000 and recognised their efforts with recycling. Localising glass recycling rather than shipping it off is a great idea, he says, responding to the news that council will buy a glass crusher. Now lets see some ideas for dealing with cans, plastic, paper and for community composting. The councils energy efficiency committee reported back this week on its energy audit reports for the Town Library, the Depot and the Civic Centre and the actions taken to reduce energy consumption. Among these were lighting modifications in the library which have achieved greater brightness with half the lamps. This resulted in financial savings of $2600 per annum from an expenditure of $1400. An air-conditioning timer/controller was also installed in the library to turn air-conditioning off during scheduled closures (with a manual over-ride switch for after hours activity). At the Depot actions such as turning off air-conditioning after hours achieved a notable reduction in electricity consumption with little expenditure. However subsequent installation of security lighting negated some of the savings (though they did reduce vandalism at the Depot). At the Civic Centre progress has been limited in part by contractual issues but also by lack of qualified tradespeople in Alice Springs. The committees report notes that a critical mass of buildings with leading-edge technologies like those installed in the Civic Centre, may be required before suitably qualified tradespeople become available in Alice Springs. Bushlight jobs safe for now. By ERWIN CHLANDA.