General News
25 September, 2024
Council's rural residents relish the opportunity to voice concerns
About a dozen rural ratepayers from the Mount Isa region met with the council last week.
Furious at copping a massive waste management fee on their last rates bill, Mount Isa City Council’s rural residents walked away with more clarity after a meeting with the leadership on Friday.
And while those living in the residential areas were also not impressed with the extra charge, they would at least see the benefit of the recycling program, expected to start before Christmas.
“I feel like a pay a lot of rates for limited town services,” said Shelley Curr, who lives on Yelvertoft Station, about halfway between Mount Isa and Camooweal.
“I appreciate being able to come to town and use the pool and the library and have those facilities ... but I think a lot of people came to the meeting to discuss the waste management levy because we don’t get any waste services out on rural properties.”
After a robust roundtable discussion between the rural residents and Mount Isa City Council’s leadership team, including CEO Tim Rose and mayor Peter MacRae, it was determined that the waste management fees would be used to ramp up biosecurity measures in the region.
“I can handle that if there is a role (created) – because $150,000 of that waste management fee does come from rural ratepayers – so that person would have to get additional funding from the state government for things such as wild dogs, weed control, washdown bays...”
Ms Curr praised Mount Isa City Council for staging the meetings with the rural residents, saying it was a good opportunity to make the time to discuss issues and opportunities in the vast shire.
“These meetings are exceptionally constructive and I really appreciate the council – the new council and councillors – coming on board and actually listening to us,” she said.
“We hope to have at least three to four of these a year.
“Hopefully there will be a day when we all sit and say, ‘oh boy, we’ve got nothing to talk about’.
“This was the smallest of the meetings in terms of attendance so I think it's already working.”
Other issues raised at the meeting included road signage and official numbering for rural properties within the Mount Isa council boundaries; a lack of council-run baiting programs for two years on rural properties; the need for a washdown bay for trucks visiting the region; wild pigs, dogs and cats and potential hunting bounties; and the need for more public toilets on the Barkly Highway.
One resident said sections of the road between Mount Isa and Camooweal had been littered with toilet paper because people, most likely tourists, had pulled over to do their business and weren’t digging holes.
The council said it would raise the issue with the Department of Transport and Main Roads about the need for another public toilet on the long stretch of highway.