Cigarette sparks fire

A discarded cigarette may have started a grass fire near Calway St, Drouin last week.

Police attended the fire at 12.50pm last Tuesday where a small grass fire was alight at the intersection of Princes Way and Calway St.

A small area of grass, about two metres by three metres, was burnt.

“This is another $1 million being spent in the cbd and it deserves it but there is fatigue amongst the traders and residents because of the construction zone,” he said.

Cr Michael Leaney said funding was already committed to the works and it was a “logistical nightmare to unscramble the egg in front of us.”

“It’s not how it was written up but we should do it,” he said.

Cr Goss said in 2007, councillors made a commitment to spend money that developers paid into the DCP on the Warragul streetscape.

“It is up to us to spend it and yes we have to put ratepayers money in it, I’m not happy about it, but we have to do it.

“We’ve revisited the original plans for Queen St and will give everyone a chance to have their say on this new concept design, which vastly improves safety for pedestrians without losing car parks,” he said.

A set of secateurs and a can of WD40 were stolen from an unlocked shed in Neerim South recently.

Offenders gained access to the shed in Main Neerim Rd between 12pm on February 9 and 12pm on February 10.

Police said a neighbour also told police she had plants stolen at the same time.

When adopting the masterplan, council allocated $50,000 for the demolition.

It said the house valued at $96,000 would require $90,000 spent on it to become habitable.

Council paid $1.2 million for the property of about two hectares and pet lodge business in 2016 and has since spent additional funds upgrading the facility.

It intended to co-locate a new municipal pound at the property while continuing to operate the pet lodge to, as council stated at the time of purchase, provide a “welcome additional revenue stream”.

Twelve months after taking over council closed the pet lodge business because of financial losses and spent additional funds on the animal enclosures to meet required standards for a pound.

Council’s total investment and losses incurred running the pet lodge for one year were significantly greater than the cost of developing three initial possible new pound sites canvassed with the public in a consultation process.

Council has repeatedly refused requests for release of a business case on which it based the decision to buy the Longwarry North property that it claimed emerged as an alternative pound site during the public consultation period.

The Gazette also asked last week if the position of Operations Manager of the pound advertised last August had been filled.

The advertisement said the position would be in charge of a 24 hour a day, seven day a week operation.

A base salary in the range $84,415 to $92,014 plus 9.5 per cent superannuation was offered but negotiable based on skills, knowledge and experience.

Mr Dupe did not specifically answer the question instead stating “the facility is always adequately staffed for the purpose of all regulatory requirements”.

The impact of COVID-19 on employment in Baw Baw Shire is reflected in an increase of almost 65 per cent in the number of residents receiving JobSeeker and Youth Allowance.

At the end of December there were 2913 people in the shire receiving the benefits.

That was 1145 more than the number in March when JobSeeker replaced Newstart.

The figures sourced from the Department of Social Services have been compiled by Informed Decisions, an organisation that profiles local government authorities throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Baw Baw Shire’s two major towns, Drouin and Warragul account for the bulk of those receiving the government benefits.

Drouin had 1152 on JobKeeper or Youth Allowance payments at the end of the year, up from 679 nine months earlier.

The number represents 10.3 per cent of people aged between 15 and 64 years that live in the town.

There were 1053 Warragul residents receiving the payments in December, an increase of 371 since March.

There were 379 recipients at Trafalgar and another 346 across the rest of the shire.

While the total for Baw Baw represented nine per cent of those aged 15 to 64, a rise from 5.5 per cent in March, it was below the 10.5 per cent figure for regional Victoria but higher than the State figure of 8.5 per cent.

JobSeeker is available to unemployed people looking for work and the Youth Allowance is for people aged 21 under excluding students.

The analysis by Informed Decisions of census data also indicated about half of Baw Baw residents aged 15 and older have post-secondary school qualifications.

There are 9614 with vocational qualifications, 5456 with Bachelor or high degrees and 3504 with a diploma or advanced diploma.