Before the first item ¶
00:00:00 Mayor Wilkie: Well good afternoon and welcome everybody to this special meeting on Wednesday the 21st of May 2025. Declare the meeting open at 1pm. We're here today to discuss the disaster reconstruction funding arrangements, emergency reconstruction works for the Noosa Council Road and infrastructure network. Begin by acknowledging that we're meeting on the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi people. I'd also like to reiterate their invitation for us to join them as joint custodians in respecting and caring for this place that we all love and respecting and caring for each other. I notice that all councillors are in attendance. We have Councillor Nicola Wilson, Tom Wegener, Brian Stockwell, Amelia Lorentson here and we have councillors Jess Phillips and Karen Finzel on the line. We have Director of Infrastructure Services Shaun Walsh and Disaster Reconstruction Coordinator Julie Calvert here for this report. Julie, would you care to give us a summary of this report please? Speaker 1: Certainly. As a result of the, sorry, good afternoon everybody. As a result of some poor weather conditions experienced post-tropical cyclone Alfred but late March
2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY ¶
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3 ATTENDANCE & APOLOGIES ¶
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4.1 2025 DISASTER RECONSTRUCTION FUNDING ARRANGEMENTS - EMERGENCY RECONSTRUCTION WORKS FOR THE NOOSA COUNCIL ROAD AND INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK ¶
00:01:00 there has been some damage sustained within the asset network of the Shire mostly around gravel roads and asphalt roads and then there's a few larger sites. Today I just want to focus on the most immediate actions we need to undertake. The damage that was sustained is significant enough for us to engage Queensland Reconstruction Authority and activate with them and start progressing a grant program called the Disaster Reconstruction Funding Arrangement and that gives us recourse to be able to start emergency repairs of roads so that they can be safe and trafficable for the community. Today we wanted to propose to Council to allow us to expedite that process for a couple of different reasons.
00:02:00 The roads are in not a great state. We do want to keep the community safe by improving that. We have a deadline from a funding arrangement for those grant programs which is 90 days from the date of the event. So we're targeting to achieve all of those. Typically this would be some work that we would undertake using some Council resources but unfortunately at the moment we don't have all those Council resources available for us to do this. So the team has been progressing a project to outsource that work and find appropriate contractors who can undertake that work. So today I just wanted to walk you through that background, answer any questions that you may have about why we want to expedite it and how we plan to expedite it. Mayor Wilkie: And what is the funding source that you're using? Speaker 1: So the funding source is part of a disaster reconstruction funding arrangement where we have assets in the community that are classified as essential assets.
00:03:00 They're eligible for reconstruction of essential public assets under a particular program. That program is about emergency works. So these are the works that need to happen in the period most frequent post the event period. That's occurred that 90 days and it's about us making things safe until we can do more work if more work is required. So an example that I can provide here is that Middle Creek Road in Federal had a culvert, had wash over, severe asphalt scouring. We need to fix that scouring on that particular road but that's just the first part of that work. Further down we'll look to work with QRA to get some funding submissions approved to do some further work to repair that whole culvert system as well. So some of it will be minor works, we'll just grade the road and tidy it up and then we'll go back to general maintenance.
00:04:00 Some of it will be grading it and determining if it needs further work that goes into a more broader submission with Queensland Reconstruction Authority. Mayor Wilkie: Now it is a formal meeting so we'll have questions during, after the motion's been moved. If you can second it. Does someone care to move the motion? Happy to move it. Councillor Stockwell has a seconder. Councillor Wegener. Councillor Stockwell wants to speak. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Just, I have received quite a few requests for maintenance on a number of the roads that are listed in the appendix. And it was a significant main event that led to the opening up of disaster and recovery funding. I think in the current situations both internally within our workforce as well as internally, of course, and in terms of the need to get contractors where we can because there is a high demand for contractors, I think it is judicious to approve this and delegate the authority to the CEO to make the final decision on the successful contractors.
00:05:00 Thank you. Mayor Wilkie: Any questions or comments? Councillor Lorentson: Councillor Lorentson. Councillor Lorentson. Thank you. I just have a couple of questions. Sure. You mentioned that we don't have the resourcing. Yes. And the report also indicates that we lack the capacity and capability to respond to the damage to essential assets such as roads, stormwater and waterway crossings. Can you explain further why we lack the capacity and capability? Speaker 1: Yes. So, capacity is down to that we effectively have until June 29 to make the repairs to this road, for it to continue to be eligible under that grant framework. If we tip outside that date, it comes back to using council budget. So, we are trying to minimise that risk to council as much as possible. As the list highlights, there are other roads that weren't considered damaged under that
00:06:00 event. So, we want to try and make sure budget goes to where it needs to go. In terms of capacity as well, is when we do have council resources available, having them available to do those other works is really important to us. So, we want to make sure that we have those resources available to those people who haven't been affected by the disaster. So, we want to make sure that we can balance those resources and return a really good service to the community as quickly as possible. In terms of capability, there is a small portion of works that's around a little bit more than just road grading or filling some potholes. There's some minor works construction such as some concreting and fixing some drainage areas, etc. And it would be ideal if we go and fix them right the first time under this particular portion of the emergency works rather than doing a bit of a band-aid fix now and then coming back later with a larger grant program that some of that happens.
00:07:00 So, again, it's about trying to make sure that we can return those assets to a good condition as quickly as possible and not let them sit there degrading longer and longer. Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 1: So the 90 days started ticking from the moment that the event happened and we've been using this time to try and come up with a plan given we didn't have council resources and and that was an initial barrier so effectively we've got until now until June 29 so yes it is a really big challenge and this is why we're talking to several contractors about how we might be able to do this continually engage with council crew who is available to see if we can sequence some of their support when they do come back in about how we go about doing this but
00:08:00 based on the damage assessments we have at the moment and the forecast of how many kilometres per day they can do of gravel roads because that's my more concerning area that we believe that we can make that work it's something we're constantly in dialogue with QRA about we have a regional liaison officer and he's he's kept up to date with what we're doing and they're used to us sort of pushing the boundaries as much as we possibly can with suitable justification but that's not my intent and it's not the team's intent for this. Mayor Wilkie: Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Councillor Stockwell used to close. Good motion. All those in favour? All in line? Yes. That's unanimous. Motions carried. That brings the end of the agenda I declare the meeting
00:09:00 closed at 1.09pm. I should have closed those 30 minutes. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: Thank you.