Perth Voice Interactive

A FAILED geothermal heating project at Beatty Park has resulted in Vincent city council having to return $100,000 to the federal government.

Mayor John Carey was uncharacteristically furious at Tuesday night’s first council meeting for 2015, strongly criticising his team of senior officers for what he called a culture of poor project management.

“I can think of numerous examples,” he said. “Like the Beaufort Street artwork where the contract should have been managed better so we’re not in this scenario, and it’s not for our [new] CEO to fix up the mess.

“And that’s what it is, it’s a mess! From poor project management by this council, by this administration, and I’m really angry about it because we’ve seen the culture in the organisation that says ‘it’s alright, it’s okay’! We’re not being tough enough. I am angry. And I am pleased that we have our new CEO looking at this issue and trying to fix it.”

The $100,000 grant had contributed towards a geothermal heating ventilation air conditioning system (HVAC) at the revamped leisure centre.

But because the supposedly you-beaut way of delivering heated pools at less expense wasn’t working the HVAC project was shelved and the money returned.

Water has been lukewarm at best and a brand new pump broke down four or five times a year.

Mr Carey was gobsmacked to learn that officers had known of various problems with the major contract since April last year but had done next to nothing, before Len Kosova’s appointment as CEO, to bring contractors to account.

In a report to councillors, staff say “various contractors” who’d worked on the project had since been contacted but the council had “failed to identify culpability” for poor performance and breakdowns.

An independent audit will now seek to figure out what went wrong but in the meantime the HVAC cash must go back to the department because the council will miss a required project deadline.

Mr Kosova says the problem could be anything from poor design to poor installation or a combination, and the task now is to figure out which contractor is responsible and “seek recompense”.

The actual geothermal bore the project taps has more volume and is even hotter than first thought, so if the kinks can be hammered out it should, theoretically, work even better than first thought.

by DAVID BELL

IN a part of town where hardly anyone has space to swing a spanner, Ewan MacDonald has opened a combo garage/cafe where blokes can buy a coffee and bagel while they work on their hogs.

The 27-year-old was looking for a sea change from his job as a cardiology technician so he, his dad and a mate pooled their money to convert a rundown West Perth warehouse into the Spadille Cafe & Garage.

An old limousine hire joint, the king-size garage out the back of 7 Aberdeen Street was perfect for their needs. Mr MacDonald has traded ECGs for working the espresso machine out front, while out the back members toil away on a full set of hoists, welding and grinding gear.

Open a couple months now, he says in the early days customers were mostly people from the motorbike community who just wanted to support the concept, but now it’s branching out with more walk-ins and members.

Being in the industrial part of West Perth—now home to a fair few offices—even workers in suits who’ve never touched grease have also started wandering through for a caffeine fix and bagel.

THE members of the Bayswater Bowling Club have turned to Facebook to attract a new generation of bowlers.

Facing an uncertain future in the face of a review of local sports clubs, they’ve launched a Facebook page called “Save the Bayswater Bowling Club”.

The council is reviewing the level of support it provides the various tennis, croquet, bowling and soccer clubs that use Frank Drago Reserve.

Spiralling maintenance costs on old council-owned buildings and plummeting membership have resulted in pressure on clubs to merge and become more self-sufficient.

Bowling club president Clive Baldwinson wants to get the word out about the club being a great function venue.

“The club is available to non-members to hire out for functions,” he says. “We want to bring more people in and widen our scope.”

Last year the club was set to merge and share facilities with the neighbouring tennis club, but it fell apart at the eleventh hour.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

STAFF at the arts and recycling organisation Remida in West Perth arrived at work Tuesday to discover they’d been the victims of a khat burglar.

To be precise, someone nicked the 2m khat tree that had graced their courtyard.

The thief was tidy at least, going to careful lengths to re-fill the hole and even out the surrounding mulch.

Staffer Josie McGushin, pictured with all that is left of the tree, says the team is used to people dropping by to take unusual things (the organisation redistributes industry waste as art material) but this has definitely been the strangest.

Turning to the wonders of Google, the team learned the leaves of the plant are known to be mildly narcotic, and are traditionally chewed at social gatherings amongst some African communities.

Remida welcomes new members and suppliers, and would like it known there are no more khats on the premises.

by MATTHEW DWYER

THREE groups are locked in a struggle to deliver the next Maylands street festival.

The Maylands Business Association ran the last of three biennial events in 2012, with a November 2014 festival not happening because the MBA couldn’t organise enough funding or volunteers (Voice, December 11, 2014).

With the MBA now focused on a March festival, two rival groups are seeking to muscle in.

Local Arts and Community Events—which runs the local hawkers’ market—and local impresario Chrissie Parrott have submitted alternative plans to Bayswater council.

LACE chair Catherine Ehrhardt says there’s not enough time to organise a full festival this year and proposes a May street market instead, “as in March you have the autumn river festival”.

“From next year, LACE would like to organise a full street festival when we have time to secure enough funding,” she says, adding she has “zero confidence” in MBA’s ability to deliver.

But the MBA’s Dominic Cuscuna is confident his group can stage another “first class” festival in March.

“I think it is inappropriate, given the MBA went through a stringent selection process, for other groups to try and usurp us at this late stage.”

Ms Parrott, who ran a performing arts space in Maylands for three years, proposes a mix of live music, performance and visual arts for May.

“There are some big community ideas in this, including a photo booth and a dress-up event,” she says.

“I would like to feature multicultural musicians from the local area.”

Cr Terry Kenyon wants $12,500 of council funds earmarked for the MBA to be put back in the kitty and allocated to the group that can deliver a street festival on schedule. His motion and the alternative proposals come before council later this month.

Meanwhile, the council’s economic development officer, responsible for facilitating local festivals, resigned this month.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

MT HAWTHORN residents have joined forces to oppose a block of flats being built in their “character street”.

The department of housing plans to build a 10-unit, two-storey building in East Street.

Local Voices of Mt Hawthorn says a multiple dwelling will ruin the street’s ambience of federation houses on individual lots.

“We’re not against multiple dwellings in Mt Hawthorn, but they should be on major distributor-class roads like Oxford Street and Brady Street, not R30-zoned residential streets,” says spokesperson Richard Morup.

“We are advocating for the removal of loopholes in current local and state government planning regulations, which have enabled the approval of multiple dwellings in our quiet single-residential character streets.”

Two units in the development will be for social housing, but Mr Morup says the group’s not fussed.

“The occupancy of multiple dwellings is irrelevant to our concerns and campaign objectives,” he says.

In response to a petition from Local Voices of Mt Hawthorn, Vincent city council has initiated amendments to its town planning scheme to protect R30 suburban streets from multiple dwellings.

The East Street site had formerly been home to seven, single-storey houses tenanted by returned service personnel.

Local Voices of Mt Hawthorn was formed last July and has about 250 members.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

STIRLING mayor Giovanni Italiano has blasted Western Power for whacking councils with a new fee that adds 13.9 per cent to their energy bill.

He says ratepayers will inevitably end up wearing the cost of the utility’s “double dipping”.

Western Power has decided its customers should wear the costs arising from its capital contributions and value of gifted assets at a tax recovery rate of 13.9 per cent. If you don’t know what that means join the club—except you can be sure it’ll mean more money out of your pocket.

Cr Italiano says the move will impact the council’s ability to delivery capital works projects like street lighting.

“Once again when this cost is passed on via rates, it will be the local governments who cop the public criticism for increasing rates,” he says.

“[Western Power] are a profitable organisation and in the city’s view, transferring such costs back to local government is a way of hiding these costs being passed onto the consumer— disguised in rates.

“WP were gifted these assets for which they get the opportunity to derive revenue from.

“The City encourages the WA local government association to mount a fight on this matter on behalf of all local government.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK