During last week's Talking Lismore podcast with Mayor Steve Krieg, he mentioned a new funding agreement between Lismore City Council and the NSW Government so council can lead its own flood recovery projects. Dealing with multiple government agencies and dealing with so much red tape has slowed the recovery process substantially.

At that stage, there was no real detail about what was involved or what that meant for Lismore's flood recovery. This week, the Lismore App interviewed Council's Chief Operating Officer Brendan Logan to get the answers.

It turns out that the funding agreement has been in the pipeline since May/June last year.

"When Simon Draper was leading the Reconstruction Authority, he gave Lismore a genuine commitment that this will be a locally led delivery, as in, Lismore will rebuild its own assets. Obviously, something of this scale can take a long time to get that in place, but I'm certainly pleased to say that last week, through my team's work, collaborative work with the New South Wales Reconstruction Authority and other agencies, that we've been given a multi-year, multi-million dollar commitment to recruit the team.

"The Asset Delivery team are going to rebuild our road and bridges assets, our water assets, our waste assets, finish off the rest of our buildings, and also focus on those flood resilience initiatives that have come through recently.

"We can now run hard because we've been given the confidence from the state that the staff and the funding will be there for those things. So, where we might have been measured in the past, in the best interest of council, we can now really push on. Whether it's fast-tracked or not, let's wait and see. But I think our destiny is in our own hands a little bit now because the state government has backed local delivery properly. We can start to push and prod and ensure that the things that we think need the level of focus can get that focus.

One plus for Lismore is the employment of 60-80 extra staff to deliver these projects. As Mr Logan said, conversations started in 2023 with positive undertones, so council took a calculated risk and hired 40 staff.

"We took some calculated risk there, and we had a lot of confidence that eventually this would fall into place. The team at the moment, the forty I mentioned, most of those are local, or have become local in recent times, so it hasn't been too big a shift. However, some of the executive-level staff we've brought in are coming off projects like the Coffs Harbour Bypass or other large transport projects around the state, aren't from the area.

"Our Executive Director for Flood Recovery, Josh Hartcher, who reports to me, he's been flying from Newcastle for the past 12 months, and I did have a chat to him and say, look, part-time is probably not sustainable for such a large program. What do you want to do? He's actually moved his family to the area because he loves the challenge. The family saw it as a bit of an adventure.

"We've got a few examples like that where there's not just genuine commitment day to day. You've got people looking at this as a very unique opportunity with more of a social element to it than the average sort of construction project from their point of view. So, a great commitment. I think a lot of the people we've got in the teams, probably wouldn't look at Lismore ordinarily. Now, they want to be here, and they want to help us because of the opportunity. So it does benefit not only Lismore, but the Northern Rivers.

"We've got people in Tweed, we've got people in Lennox and Ballina, we have people in Lismore. They come from various places when you could argue with what's to come over the next three to five years in terms of disaster recovery funding; it's a form of stimulus. When you've probably got state and federal governments out there getting serious about fiscal repair, one area where a lot of money is going to flow into that will attract people is Lismore."

The Flood Recovery staff are located on Carrington Street in the CBD, so more good news for local businesses.

(Inside the Carrington Street Flood Recovery Office)

There are some major council assets that need rebuilding or to be completed, including the Lismore Airport and the Lismore City Hall.

Lismore Airport

"We've spent the last two years, for example, putting a fair bit of capital in just getting our airport back to a state where we can actually operate an airport. And we've spoken to the likes of Qantas and others about coming back, and they say, well, what's the future of Lismore? I think in the next 12 months, we'll be able to sell it. It's actually quite bright.

"I'd say it would be ready to reopen soon if we had the level of carrier coming in, which we don't. It's been a two-year program of genuine capital investment that's probably got a month or two to run. The terminal will be rebuilt, the pavement will be rebuilt, fences, security, all our compliance projects will be largely ticked off. I understand from the the airport guys that we probably have a level of investment running up to about February next year to ensure full compliance with CASA and those types of things.

"We're at the point now we can start to have conversations with those carriers like Qantas that we do want to bring to the region to help with our recovery. I'd say they're open-minded, but they're tough. For a national carrier to come to Lismore, they have to essentially make a decision, potentially not to do something else.

"We met with them a couple of times, and we got a really good hearing. But I'd say the questions they ask aren't simple ones to answer. The onus is definitely on us to demonstrate to a Qantas that the opportunity is there rather than them bringing it straight to you. And that's something we'll take on.

The Lismore City Hall

The fencing is down around the City Hall, indicating the work is done. However, when you look inside, it is far from complete.

"You may remember, I think it might have been a public briefing when we talked about prioritising the rebuild of our assets. We went to our elected members and suggested City Hall and a couple of the bigger, more complex things be put down the list. Not because they're not important, but we could deliver 30 other smaller assets while we were working out what to do with those bigger ones.

"There have been some delays in securing the right level of funding from the rebuild for City Hall. It isn't like the pool, for example, which basically had one funding source, you know, a couple of million dollars from one source to rebuild a pool. City Hall has multiple (funding sources) and getting them all to work together so that you spend that money correctly has taken longer than we would like. But, just last week, we were sitting down with our state government colleagues about securing the last level of funding required to get that asset up and running again.

"I expect in the next couple of weeks we'll have confirmation of that, and then we can talk to the public about what's next for City Hall."

Lismore Art Gallery

"I'm quite excited about about those ones opening.

"I remember standing with Ashleigh Ralph, our head of the art gallery in May 2023, in the art gallery and just looking at the mess. And Ashley was quite emotional. Do you think we'll, we'll get this back? And I said, we'll get it back, mate, we'll get it back.

"I walked in there last week. It's not just back, it's back, and it's better. It looks incredible. People will be very impressed with what's happened under that Bennett's contract with the art gallery. I certainly know Ashley's very happy with what's happened.

The government funding to rebuild our assets was on a 'Like for like' basis, but Mr Logan thinks we have built back 'Like for right', which means the buildings will be more flood resilient than pre-flood.

"We've got different circumstances now, and what we've been able to establish with the state government, even though it's been a very difficult journey, is you're restoring something to pre-disaster function, not necessarily pre-disaster condition. So that you can, there are some betterment angles and some resilient angles you can build in with that.

"The art gallery would be a really good example, even if it's just the way the windows are set up and where the footpaths are on the outside, they are better. Whereas, if you were to go back to the pre-disaster condition, it's actually quite hard to replicate. So there have been bits and pieces of that across our entire rebuild.

"I think where we'll really see that over the next three to five years is in the northern part of the catchment when we deal with landslips and roads and bridges. When you look at the Nimbin road project we opened before Christmas, a $14 million project delivered for 11, really well delivered. But 80% of the spend is under the ground. You don't see it. It's dealing with that geotechnical complexity. But that is future-proofed. That road that we may have had issues with over the next 50 years has now got that long design life, and we've spent that money.

"So, if you look at all the assets in that context, sure they're going to get rebuilt to pre-disaster function, but maybe they get rebuilt in a stronger way."

Last Friday, Mr Logan, along with Mayor Steve Krieg, travelled to Sydney to lodge a submission to the Select Committee on the Response to Major Flooding across New South Wales in 2022.

Eighty-seven (87) people, organisations and council's lodged submissions so the state government can understand the mistakes that have been made in the last two and a half years and put processes and legislation in place so the next time it occurs, whoever the council is, will have modelled processes for flood recovery in place, including funding.

"This was of a scale that no one's had to deal with before. In New South Wales, no one knew how to do it. So, yeah, there's been some challenges. And look, we made a submission. It's publicly available if people want to read it (click here). And, you know, it reads quite sobering. It reads quite hard. It could certainly be interpreted as critical. It is honest, but it's got to be honest in context.

"If we look at the last six months, I mentioned the people in the state government, the Mal's, the Amanda's, James, Matt, how much help they've given us in the last six months. You read the submission, and then that's what you've got to take it into context. You look at where we are now to where we were 12 months ago; we've come such a long way. But from our perspective, if we didn't tell the truth about some of those experiences, the next council might suffer. So, that's what I mean by taking it in context.

"We're in a good place now. Look at the commitments we're being given, look at the people we're working with that we know actually care. But I think, from our perspective, it is important to identify that baseline. To identify a lot of those challenges we've had to go through, not because we want people to get in trouble or we want to go backwards, but because we just want to make sure it doesn't happen again. That's the context we want it to be seen in.

Now, Lismore City Council is approaching a new phase, a building phase on key assets that will impact our city and it's budget. Mr Logan said he is willing to discuss the progress being made more regularly.

"I think the community's waited long enough to hear about these things. We've certainly felt like we've waited long enough so in the coming months, let's talk again, and let's talk specifically. I can tell you what's approved, I can tell you where you can expect to see activity, and I'm comfortable showing the public that three to five-year outlook.

"We've tried to ensure this entire program is delivered no later than quarter two 2029. So there are 400 separate assets that need to be built in that time. To some that might be unreasonable, but it is what it is at the moment. So, in the coming months, once it's all locked away, let's talk again and let's show the public what's ahead of us."

This is an edited version of Brendan Logan's Talking Lismore podcast. To listen to the full podcast, click Podcasts through the Lismore App or https://talkinglismore.buzzsprout.com/ to listen via the Lismore App website.