Council backdown on Utopia

Baw Baw Shire paid $115,000 for the business of Utopia Pet Lodge that it now plans to shut down after operating it at a loss since last September.

The business cost was included in the $1.2 million the shire paid for the Longwarry North property with the aim of operating the pet boarding facility alongside a new animal pound.

At its meeting last Wednesday council decided to close the Utopia Lodge and “retrofit” the main pet accommodation shed to house impounded cats and dogs.

At a meeting with The Gazette following the decision mayor Joe Gauci and interim chief executive officer Phil Cantillon confirmed the figure paid for the business component of Utopia.

They said the operational losses since council took over the pet lodge were in the order of $59,000, a figure inflated by one-off maintenance and equipment costs and “premium salaries” attributed to short term staff contracts above the industry award.

Cr Gauci and Mr Cantillon said the $1.2 million total purchase price was the amount assessed by an independent valuer for the fiveacre property that includes a house (built about 50 years ago), large shed used to house cats and dogs and some other outbuildings.

The shire’s valuation as assessed for rating purposes was not considered.

Cr Gauci and Mr Cantillon said the availability of the property came to council’s attention about mid last year and during the public consultation period on three possible councilowned sites for a new pound, two in Warragul and one at Lardner.

Cr Gauci said the priority had always been the need for a new animal pound.

“I said all along that (how that was achieved) would be a decision by all councillors”, he said.

The mayor conceded “the way (Utopia Lodge) had run over the past nine months was not the way we thought it would” and the estimated $200,000 extra cost for pound facilities at Longwarry North than what was initially believed had led to the decision made last Wednesday.

He said the adaptation of the premises to use as a pound “was the most cost-effective way now to get the pound up and running”.

A closure date for the pet lodge has not been set.

There are forward bookings we need to work through, Cr Gauci said.

Both Cr Gauci and Mr Cantillon defended the non-release of the business case or due diligence for buying the property into the public domain, claiming that information council “did not own” (financials relating to the Utopia business) constituted much of which the reports were based on and was commercial-in confidence.

However, they assured The Gazette that all future plans, possible business models and costings for the redevelopment to accommodate the animal pound would be publicly available.

Mr Cantillon said the due diligence investigation into purchase of the property and business “offered great prospects but required further work on how council might best operate it in the future”.

Cr Gauci said an aim of running the commercial pet lodge alongside the pound had been to at least recoup the nett cost of the pound service – currently about $60,000 a year – and generate extra revenue to the council from the operation of the pet boarding enterprise.