Mayor Steve Krieg was joined by Deputy Mayor Jeri Hall for the latest Talking Lismore podcast, where we discuss all things Lismore.

On a rainy weekend, click on the link (website version https://talkinglismore.buzzsprout.com/) and listen at home or in the car.

This week, topics included the Richmond River Historical Society, trains versus the rail trail, the Lismore airport, sewage treatment plant, the waste facility and the upcoming Eat The Street food festival on November 15.

Richmond River Historical Society

There appears to be a divide between the Richmond River Historical Society members and Lismore City Council; however, Mayor Krieg said not everyone was unhappy with the new lease being signed for the Goonellabah building.

"It is really interesting, you say that they're unhappy. I've been down to the municipal building a number of times, and I've actually been speaking to one of their longest-serving members down there, who was by himself getting things moved up to Goonellabah. He was saying that he is actually not disappointed with the move. He's actually happy to be flood-free, and his messaging was hopefully this political handballing will stop now that leases have been signed, and they've got a home. They've requested for years to have a flood-free home."

"His message was, we're actually glad. The majority of members are actually glad that they've got a flood-free place to be. It's sad that it's played out in social media circles and different things like this, because Council is fully supportive of the Historical Society where they're going.

"And it was raised in the meeting, it comes at a cost. Council supports not only this organisation, but some 46 community groups across the LGA, and for whatever reason, council seems to be the easy target, the big, bad bullies, all of that sort of stuff, we don't support this, that and the other. It's so far from the truth, it's not funny. And when you saw the list of demands that particular group, or elements of that particular group gave the council, there was literally not one council-owned asset that fitted every single criteria they had. Not even the Municipal building.

"Number one on their list was flood-free land, or a flood-free property. And the Municipal building went underwater. Didn't get to the second floor, granted, but it still was affected by the flood, hence the major restoration work that got undertaken there.

"As a council, we've got to do the best thing, not only for those 46 community groups, but also for the 46,000 people that call the Lismore LGA home. And we've got to be accountable to our ratepayers. And my number one message, Jeri's number one message to the staff, to the organisation, is that word accountability. We have to take accountability for the decisions that we make and be responsible and financially responsible, because we have inherited an absolute mess of a council. That's no surprise to anyone, and we've got to turn a ship around whilst trying to recover from Australia's biggest natural disaster and build what I want to see is the greatest Regional Centre in New South Wales into the future and and therefore, we have to be responsible and accountable for the services we provide to the community groups that ask us for support."

The key to understanding council's position when it comes to assets is the release of the Property Strategy. When will the community see that report?

"The property strategy is something that I thought wasn't going to be this drawn out to be honest with you, if I can speak frankly about it. Clearly and again, I've mentioned earlier what we inherited when we were elected, these are the sorts of things that you think you should be able to go to a register and pull out every property that your organisation has possession of. Clearly, that's not the case. So, we're building this portfolio from the ground up. We're finding things out that we didn't even know that we owned, and so putting all of that together and then developing a strategy as to best use, again, takes a bit of time, and I know that there will be vocal critics saying that it's all about the conservatives privatising everything and whatever, and again, that's people's opinions, and they're entitled to them as a council.

"Again, I say that we have to be financially responsible, and we've got to be accountable to our 46,000 residents here. And if we're carrying 200 properties and we only need 65 of them, what are we hanging on to the other 135 for? There's certainly better use than Council mowing them every fortnight, or whatever the case may be, so to me, when we can actually find out exactly what we own, what those properties best uses are, then we can make a decision as an elected body to move forward and to put Council in a far better position in for the long term."

Rail Trail v Trains

Another controversial Council meeting topic was the rail trail versus the trains. At the last meeting council voted to not support the Northern Rivers Rail Limited in its attempts to bring back the trains.

"Again, I will say that council has a responsibility to their ratepayers. The State Government has responsibility for transportation, and that's why we have an organisation called Transport for New South Wales. That is their job.

"Council can only do so much in this space, and I think I mentioned it in the council meeting when I spoke to this, I love the old steam trains I would love to see, and I use the example of Puffing Billy outside of Melbourne, which is a really big tourist attraction, and it runs on a 20 kilometre train line, or something like that. They have foot races once a year to try and beat Puffing Billy. It's really quite a good thing, and would I love to see that as a person, yes. As the mayor and as a councillor, is it the right thing to pursue? No, it's not. A state government shut down our rail line in the late 1990s I believe was the last XPT that came through Lismore. They're responsible for the transport corridor that facilitates the train line."

"As the mayor, I'm a strong advocate to complete the rail trail from Lismore right through to Murwillumbah. It doesn't mean that I'm against trains, but I just cannot see the possibility of rebuilding that train line up to a safe standard that's financially viable. It's just not going to happen."

Lismore Airport

This week, Ballina Council announced an extra Qantas Link flight leaving Ballina at 7:45am, getting into Sydney at 9:15am for business people who need to be in Sydney earlier for meetings. Does that mean Qantas are out as a potential airline for Lismore?

"There are many regional airports that don't have a commercial carrier that is still viable. And again, I will refer back to one of the first points that I made during this podcast. These are the sorts of things that there have been opportunities in the past that have fallen by the wayside, and now this council is left to pursue those other opportunities. I am talking about potential public-private partnerships down the track, possibly. I'm talking about flight schools setting up in Lismore. Maintenance is a big thing with Archerfield now closed, and that was a big hub for private aviation maintenance.

"Ballina is now taking on more commercial flights, and good luck to Ballina. I wish them all the best. That certainly will make Lismore business people more accessible to the city, which is a good thing. But, there's private aviation companies down there that might be feeling the squeeze, that might look for a new home close to Ballina, and Lismore presents that option.

"These are only my opinions, and they're not an official Council position on this, but if we don't explore every opportunity to turn the airport around and make that a viable and sustainable business for the council, then we have to explore other options as to to the uses of that. At the moment, we're breaking down every business that council has. We've obviously gone through that with waste, and we've turned that around, from losing a million dollars a year to break-even, and then potentially making the council a little bit of money down the track. That's with the support of the state government.

"The airport's going to be another business that we're going to have to look at and see how we can generate income for our ratepayers down the track. And that's where you've got to think a little bit outside the box and get a bit creative. But there is money in aviation if you have the right people and the right business model.

"I know there are people out there that would love us to shut down the airport, and then what do we do with it? So there are opportunities if you explore the market and test the market, and I think when we're in that position, there will be more said about that."

Lismore Waste: Cell 2B and Sewage Treatment Plant

Will we see our waste dumped in Cell 2B this year, or will we need to continue trucking it to Queensland?

"I believe we'll be using Cell 2B definitely before Christmas, which is exceptional work. As I said, a state government agency was put in charge of that, and there was no end date in sight. Council took that project on board, and I can't credit Council staff enough in the work that they're doing. We get slagged off a lot in council, but I tell you what, we are turning the ship, and our staff are kicking goals for this LGA like you wouldn't believe.

"We've just won a national procurement award, I think it was national, for the way that our flood recovery team has structured our roads and our land slips projects, it's an amazing thing that they've been able to achieve by bundling this all up, and it's saving state and federal taxpayers enormous amounts of money, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. That's been driven by Lismore Council staff.

"Cell 2B is another thing that, as I said, there was no end date in sight, the way it was tracking. Council staff took that project on board, and it'll be open before Christmas. For all the haters out there, dig a little bit deeper, and you'll see some amazing work going on. And Cell 2B is one of them. And, we're well on the way to doing great things at the waste facility."

Council was in a battle with the state government over funding to fix the sewage treatment plant at Monaltrie.

"This is a tricky one. I am of the opinion that we shouldn't settle and you know, to me, Lismore deserves nice things, and it sounds very unusual to say a sewage treatment plan is a nice thing, but given where we've come from to where we want to go, I don't feel that Lismore council should roll over on this and just settle for what the state government wants to give us. I'm prepared to have a bit of a fight over this particular issue, given everything that was promised from the outset, and we've got all that documented.

"To me, I believe that the right thing to do is what was originally planned, and we'll be pushing as hard as we can to get the money that we need to build a sewerage treatment plant that Lismore doesn't want, it actually needs it.

"I met with the premier last week, we have a very strong relationship, and I can't emphasise enough the need that this regional centre needs the upgraded sewerage treatment plant. So, we'll continue our efforts to get the money that we need to get what we deserve for the city of Lismore."

Deputy Mayor Jeri Hall makes the point that Lismore Council has saved the federal and state governments hundreds of millions of dollars through their procurement activities, but cannot get the money needed ( about $40-50 million) to fix the sewage treatment plant, not just for now, but for increased capacity into the future as Lismore's population grows.

Mayor Krieg adds, "We can rebuild our sewerage treatment plant back to capacity from before the 22 flood, and it can sustain our current population and a certain percentage of growth. But what you get when you get people coming to Lismore, when you get people moving to the area, when you get people building is that you get that increased income to enable you to, if you have to, to take out a loan to increase the capacity. Then, you've got that capability of being able to pay down those debts in a short time, or you've already got the income in the bank that you can pay for those sorts of things.

"At the very least, we want to be able to rebuild our sewage treatment plant back to what it was, then we're able to accommodate the growth in and around SCU, the 400-odd lots on Military Road that is part of the Resilient Lands Program. But then we can also open up the Oliver Avenue development, and we can also look at other options in and around the LGA for that potential and future growth."

"The reality is that our staff are working 16 hours a day. Things that should be automated are operated manually by our staff. And it's like that because of the instructions from very early on, just get the thing working. It's meeting EPA requirements. We don't know for how long, but we just need the backing of the state and federal governments to get this thing back to where it needs to be, and then we can accommodate the growth that, as a council, we need down the track.

Eat The Street

Jeri Hall, as the Deputy Mayor for Social Activities, as she was dubbed by the mayor, was looking forward to Eat The Street.

"Eat The Street is one of my favourite events in Lismore. We've actually pushed for the last couple of years to get it going again, and trying to work out what we can do to get some grant funds to get it going. It's just such a great time for the entire town.

"All the vendors, all the shops downtown, they get to open and trade, and the rides that the kids have, and all of the activities, like the circus people down the street that are doing tricks for the kids. It's just a really beautiful, wholesome family event that everybody can really sort of sink their teeth into and get behind.

"There's a lot of commentary at the moment about anti-social behaviour happening downtown, and it's activities like this that activate the CBD. Might I say, even Council moving back to the Municipal building might help to activate the CBD. It is on Saturday, the 15th of November, so make sure you have a tiny breakfast on the 14th, a tiny lunch and a tiny dinner, and make sure your bellies are very, very empty for the 15th, because I just like to eat my way around the street."

You can listen to the full Talking Lismore podcast through the App or https://talkinglismore.buzzsprout.com/ through the website.