By Raquel Mustillo
THE Millicent RSL as the site for Wattle Range’s proposed new council office could again be in play as elected members flagged a motion to reconsider the former netball courts as the location of the $5.5m facility.
Despite preliminary design work moving ahead at the North Terrace and Williams Road corner site, elected members raised concerns about the location at last week’s informal gathering, claiming the decision was rushed.
Councillors also floated purchasing vacant shops in George Street, moving the Millicent skate park and Apex Park as preferred sites for the proposed council office, saying the current location was too far from Millicent’s central business district.
Elected members discussed the council office for more than an hour, with a motion to reverse the decision likely to be tabled at next week’s full council meeting.
At the December monthly meeting, Councillor Dale Price raised a series of questions relating to the conditions of ownership between council and the Millicent Returned and Services (RSL) sub branch hall.
While councillors initially heard the building was owned by the sub branch, further investigations revealed both the land and building had been transferred to council following the expiry of a lease in 2006.
At last week’s meeting, council chief executive Ben Gower told elected members although council had sought legal advice about the RSL Hall, it was received “a couple of business days before the meeting where the decision was made”.
Mr Gower said following the expiry of the lease, council entered into a licence to occupy agreement with the RSL sub-branch, which did not provide exclusivity to the club.
Cr Price said expressed concern elected members had not received the information about the agreement prior to the October council meeting.
“I am uncomfortable with that decision because I think we made it in haste and we had actually sought that information,” he said.
“This is a significant decision which I think is better taken at leisure than haste.
“I still think the building needs to be somewhere near the CBD in Millicent.
“Council offers one of the largest workforce in the district and to have that workforce and their potential spending close to the Millicent CBD must have an economic benefit to the community.
“Because of the information that became available, I indicted to Ben I was prepared to put a rescind motion on the table… because I think significant information wasn’t considered at the time when it should have been.”
Cr Deb Agnew agreed the decision was rushed and backed Cr Price’s concerns the former netball court site was too far from Millicent’s main street precinct.
“I believe people won’t walk, talk and spend money in the centre of town,” she said.
“They are not likely to just zip out for a coffee from that site.
“You can argue about this, but there’s a lot of research that has been done.
“We are not going to be right in the middle, but we are going to be closer if we think abut where we might place this new council office.”
However Cr Kevin McGrath rebuked claims the decision had been rushed, saying council had discussed the issue for more than six months.
“It’s not as if it just come up that night,” he said.
“We have been going backwards and forward on this for months.
“We had to draw the line somewhere.”
At the October council meeting, Cr McGrath moved a motion to proceed with the formal netball courts for the site of the building, which was narrowly supported by a majority of councillors.
However, councillors Rick Paltridge and Moira Neagle said the vote – which was won by six votes to five – did not demonstrate overwhelming support for the site.
Cr Neagle said Cr McGrath’s motion “caught us a bit off guard”, saying the result “was not a clear decision one way”.
“To revisit it because of that vote is worth considering,” she said.
Cr Paltridge, who along with Cr’s Neagle, Agnew, Price and Dean Burrow voted against the motion, said he was “very uncomfortable” with what he termed as a close vote.
“Okay democracy rules and I know 50pc plus one and all of that, but at the end of the day six to five is really difficult to sell,” Cr Paltridge said.
“I think we have got to have a far more concrete conclusion or the vote has got to be eight to three, nine to two – that is going to be a lot easier for us to go out there with confidence and continue this process through.”
Cr Dennis Muhovics asked what would happen if a six to five vote was reached on the RSL Hall, asking councillors to justify what would be an acceptable voting scheme.
“If you are saying six to five isn’t a real result, what if you get six to five the other way?,” Cr Muhovics said.
“Is that a result?”
Despite Wattle Range mayor Des Noll urging councillors to consider the results of the community consultation, which showed 39pc of respondents preferred the former netball court site, Cr Graham Slarks said he would push hard for an office in the main street.
But Mr Gower said the main street posed a number of challenges for council, including the need to purchase multiple buildings and increases of property values as a result.
Cr John Drew said he agreed with an earlier suggestion made by Cr Peter Dunnicliff to relocate the current skate park.
“When you think about it, it’s not such a bad spot,” he said.
“The critical issues for me are the closeness to the centre of town, I think it is important and and that is the only site that is acceptable.”
