Race to get pool ready for first dip

 

By Tim Howard

Clarence Valley swimmers will get their first chance for dip in the controversial new $30 million aquatic centre in Grafton later this month.

Delayed for two months because of wet weather, the Clarence Regional Aquatic Centre will be open “unofficially” to the public on Saturday, February 15, pending power connection by electricity suppliers.

It has been more than two years since the council announced it would shut the city’s main aquatic centre, the Grafton Olympic Pool.

The old pool included an iconic water slide, wading pool and a diving pool, which won’t be replaced in the new complex.

The closure came in September 2022, because of an extensive and long term water leak which had created instability which may have caused “infrastructure collapse”.

The loss of the pool sparked two years of bizarre events in the Clarence community.

From failed attempts to switch Bushfire Local Economic Recovery grants to the project, a ferocious council meeting which stunned the community when council agreed to borrow most of the money to fund the pool and a row over the naming of the pool, controversy has accompanied many stages of the centre’s progress.

But the pool builders, Bathurst-based company Hines Constructions, have been on target and on time for the majority of the project and hoped to have the 50m pool ready for use by December, until the weather intervened.

A Clarence Valley Council press release said the council would secure an occupancy certificate for the site once the power was on, the 50m pool was filled and the filter operational.

Then it would conduct water sampling to ensure public safety prior to opening.

If everything goes to plan, the region’s schools could get in first as the council said it was working closely with local schools to minimise disruptions and ensure school swimming carnivals could go ahead as planned from Wednesday, February 12.

Council’s general manager Laura Black said the site was all but ready to open with the amenities ready for use and the entrance foyer completed.

“We have been testing the IT and point of sale systems offsite to ensure smooth installation, once the electricity supply is available,” Ms Black said.

“We appreciate the community’s patience and look forward to welcoming everyone to the new aquatic centre soon.”

There has also been good news for the extended aquatic centre project with the Federal Government recently committing to $1.6 million in funding for two water slides.

The slide would complete the works for the facility, but would be subject to council endorsing the contract variation.

Council must co-contribute $1.6 million to complete the slides under the Growing Regions Program grant.

Ms Black said the grant application had been made possible through savings realised on the project to date.

“We’re absolutely thrilled about the recent announcement of funding for the slides, Ms Black said.

“Having slides at the facility has always been a key priority for our community, and it’s fantastic that we can now make them a reality in the coming months.

“And that fact that savings on the project over all, cover Council’s contribution to the slides is news that has been welcomed by councillors. We know how important it is to ratepayers that this project is delivered within budget.”

She said the council would commence the design phase for the slides, while the indoor centre and splash pad remained on track to open before the end of February.

The council has been working with the community toward a suitable official opening ceremony for the finished centre.

 

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Carnival over for Jacaranda guru

 

By Tim Howard

On the afternoon of Friday January 24 Jacaranda Festival manager Mark Blackadder shut the door on his office for the last time, feeling it was mission accomplished.

Six years ago Mr Blackadder returned to Grafton with two goals in mind: to spend more time with his elderly mum and to rejuvenate his home town’s iconic Jacaranda Festival.

Spending more time with his beloved mum came easily, but taking the Jacaranda Festival from a quaint country celebration and turning it into the slick, professional carnival has involved jumping some stiff obstacles.

The first festival with Mark  at the helm was in 2019, right in the middle of the worst bushfires in the region’s history.

But the 2019 Jacaranda Festival won praise as the best in years and the boost in sponsorship funding it received set the pattern for later years.

Barely had the excitement of the 2019 festival faded away and we started to hear of a mystery virus killing people in China, that was soon labelled Covid-19.

By late 2020 the need to lock down and isolate to stop the spread of the disease forced the cancellation of Jacaranda 2020.

But for Mark, who had amassed 12 years experience in international luxury goods marketing, it was a matter of not wasting a crisis.

He instigated the Go Purple campaign which encouraged people to ignore the absence of a festival and think of ways to keep the Jacaranda spirit alive.

Next year was not much better, when seven days before the festival was due to begin, a Covid outbreak postponed it to December, well after the signature purple blooms had dropped.

Once again, not ideal, but it was a challenge Mark and his committee rose to and met.

For the next three years the festival has gone from strength to strength culminating in 2024 with the 90th Jacaranda Festival.

The festival was a both a triumph for Mark and his team and also a landmark that convinced him it was time to move on.

“Yeah, I just, I honestly believe that the festival needs a succession plan with a younger generation coming through, and there’s plenty there available, if the committee choose the right people,” he said.

“And I just feel that it just needs rejuvenation. I feel every five to six years that’s definitely necessary.”

Mark said he’d passed on some names of people who he thought would be good in the role, but did not want to pre-empt the committee’s decision.

He said the next manager must maintain and build on the tremendous growth in assets the festival had developed in the past six years.

When he arrived the festival was largely paid for by the fund raising efforts of the Jacaranda Queen contestants, sales of Jacaranda merchandise and some input from local businesses.

The input from the contestants was not small, contributing $49,000 to the jacaranda coffers last year, but the growth in grant money and sponsorship from inside and outside the region has been massive.

Mark said the Jacaranda store’s merchandise sales had grown from $15,000 six years ago to $78,000 turnover in 2024.

And sponsorships growth has dwarfed that, jumping from around $40,000 in 2018 to more than $200,000 last year.

But while the cash has flooded in, Mark said the input from the thousands of community volunteers and in kind sponsorships from local are just as vital to the festival’s success.

He said the involvement of the operator of the new Clarence Valley Correctional Centre, Serco, has been one of the most valuable.

“Being able to use their inmates and their own staff for four weeks across the entire festival – they  ran the entire retail shop for us this year with their staff and two inmates – has taken the pressure off everyone,” he said.

The volunteers from the Army Cadet unit were also vital.

“You had 40 to 60 of them available any time that you needed volunteers,” Mark said.

He expected this would continue into the future, but would it would need to be nurtured.

“This was all built by relationships from when I started,” he said.

“Now you have to maintain those relationships. The most important part of the festival is the stakeholders.”

Mark said the success had allowed the Jacaranda Committee to expand its work outside of the traditional festival period in October-November.

He said the introduction of Marketta in Grafton and the community festivals in Ulmarra and Wooli were symptoms of the festival growing influence.

“We also did the Harwood Sugar Mill’s anniversary last year,” he said. “The biggest thing was through the festival, we bought Groove on the Grass to Grafton, which was Jess Mauboy concert.

“I twas the biggest concert Grafton had ever seen.”

Mark said would have preferred the concert to be in the festival, but the funding body wouldn’t approve.

“They wanted it another time to bring more people to Grafton,” he said.

“But that was by far the biggest event that I was involved with.”

Luckily for the Clarence Valley, Mark is not leaving the area and will start early next month with the Clarence Valley Council as its co-ordinator communications.

It wasn’t an easy decision.

“My blood will always run purple, and I hate to walk away, but sometimes you gotta think of yourself in your career,” he said.

“Money is not everything, but it is important as well. Certainly the hours I put in to justify the income, that’s for sure.”

He said Grafton now expected the Jacaranda Festival to keep improving and maintain its professional edge.

“I really do think across all the events, like with the likes of Jempire Events coming on board last year, the production level just went up that level,” he said.

“And I just think that the expectation is there now that it can’t be lowered.

“But I’ve always said we’ve only scraped the surface of what can be achieved.”

 

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Mikayla Memorial at Melanoma March

 

By Samantha Elley

Twenty four-year-old Mikayla Green had everything to live for.

The Ballina resident and her partner, Ryan Clarke, who was studying to be a doctor, had made their lives in Canberra.

“She was loveable,” said grandmother, Pauline Dorey, “Amongst the grandkids, she was the glue as she kept all the kids together.”

Then in 2018, Mikayla noticed a mark on her head that didn’t seem to go away.

“The specialist said he wanted more detail, so she was booked to have an MRI,” said Pauline.

“He said it was a haematoma and to come back in 12 months.”

In October 2019, it was found to be a stage four melanoma.

It was believed the haematoma had covered the growing tumour.

Mikayla was sent straight to Sydney where more tests were done and the cancer was found to be in her liver.

Treatment seemed to be working at first and the young couple moved to Armidale so Ryan could continue his studies.

During this time Ryan proposed to his beloved girlfriend and they planned a wedding in Byron Bay for April 16, 2022.

“By February 2022, just before the floods, it was the last time she came home,” said Pauline.

“I thought she looked really good but she ended up in Armidale hospital and was then sent to Sydney where she was told she only had 4-6 weeks to live.

“They flew her back to Ballina and she lasted not even a week.”

Mikayla passed away on April 8 and her funeral was held on her wedding day.

Pauline and her daughter, Sharyn Dorey, Mikayla’s mother, had dressed her in her wedding dress after she died.

The Dorey family are determined that no other family should suffer what they have been through, especially when something as simple as wearing a hat, putting on sunscreen or wearing long sleeves out in the sun, could save a life.

The Melanoma March is now in its third year and will be held on Sunday, March 9 starting from Missingham Park, near the amphitheatre.

People are to gather at 7.30am where speeches will be held at 8am and the walk will commence at 8.30am where the path will go across the bridge and out to the breakwall.

Ballina-on-Richmond Rotary will be holding a barbeque and there will also be a coffee van.

“It still is raw,’ said Pauline. “One of Mikayla’s wishes was that Ryan finished his medical studies, which he did.

“He is now known as Dr Ryan Clarke.”

To make a donation to the Melanoma Institute Australia or to find out more about the march, visit here.

 

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In-town green waste depot to close

 

By Tim Howard

Grafton gardeners face a drive out of town to get rid of excess gardening waste when the in-town depot stops accepting green waste on March 1.

An upgrade of the North Grafton sewerage treatment plant, part of the Grafton Waste Transfer Station in Kirchner St, Grafton, has led to the decision to close the green waste facility.

The plans for the upgrade of the North Grafton STP incorporate the land now used for green was treatment.

Clarence Valley Council said residents can still take green waste direct to the Grafton Regional Landfill’s organics facility at 704 Armidale Road Elland, or place it in the green organics bin for collection.

The council’s director environment and planning, Adam Cameron, said while it will be a change, there were other options out there for the community to utilise.

“Residents who receives a residential bin collection service can place their green waste in their green FoGo bin, which gets collected weekly,” he said.

“If you find that you’re regularly overfilling your green bin, you may also benefit from ordering an extra green bin from our waste contractor, with the cost added to your rates to be paid off during the Financial Year rather than paying the dumping fee every time you take green waste to the landfill.

“A compost bin also is a great way to dispose of green waste while providing extra nutrients for your garden.

“While it may be a little tricky to dispose of larger pieces such as tree branches and palm fronds this way, lawn clippings and leaves make great compost additions.”

But the Grafton waste transfer station would continue to accept general waste.

The changes are not popular with Grafton gardeners who, from March 1, face a trip towing their trailers through South Grafton to the landfill site and back.

For more information on the Grafton Regional Landfill and current fees and charges visit councils website.

 

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$5.6 million restoration of Lismore Library

 

By Samantha Elley

With younger children, Winnie, 5 and Sylvia, 3, snuggled up next to her in a lounge and older daughter, Juliet, 9 sitting in one of the cosy chairs of a disused fireplace on the first floor of the refurbished library, East Lismore mum, Lauren Onus, knows the importance of having Lismore library reopened.

“It’s wonderful,” said the East Lismore resident.

“I have six children and the older kids didn’t want to hang in the younger kids book section.

“(Before the library was re-opened) the libraries were separate and so we were in different spots.

“Now we can all be together.”

While the Lismore Pop-up Library on Molesworth Street and the children’s library in Lismore Central Shopping Centre served their purpose, they will now be closed and relocating to 110 Magellan Street in the newly refurbished Lismore Library.

At a soft opening on Monday, with the rebuild still continuing, many Lismore residents made good use of the re-opened facilities.

With a baby time class going on downstairs, children enjoying the junior section on the first floor and adults taking advantage of the computers and non-fiction area on the top floor, it almost seemed like business as usual.

“I vividly remember the disturbing picture of the large pile of water-soaked books outside the library reaching up to the second storey,” said Lismore Mayor, Steve Krieg.

“In total, 30,000 books were lost.”

Lismore Area librarian, Michael Lewis, who is leading the internal design of the building, was pleased to show off the flood mitigation aspects of the renovated building.

“The journey to get from a flooded building in 2022 to the beautiful space we have today has taken a lot of work from so many people across the full level of government organisations and community groups,” he said.

“The intention behind this space is always to be flood aware.

“(On the ground floor) what you will see is a lot of bare walls and these have been chosen to stay there just as an easier way to hose these things out.

“We have a concrete floor with an epoxy resin.”

Cr Krieg confirmed that when the Governor-General Sam Mostyn visited a while a go, she insisted the bare walls stay as part of the completed picture.

Lismore City Council’s Project Manager for the building renovations, Brett Lee, said the internal brickwork that greets patrons as they enter, will keep its natural look, just needing a water-based sealant to complete the picture.

“The slab (on the first floor) is brand new as the old one snapped,” he said.

“This building sits on timber pile and obviously the reactions of the ground caused movement and the floor broke.

“(The new floor) is hoseable.”

An information centre is now located on the ground floor where a point of contact is available for library users as soon as they walk in.

Since the devastation of three years ago, Mr Lewis said the support from people has been overwhelming.

“People were coming from all walks of life to give books,” he said.

“One lady came from Gosford, camping all the way up the coast, wanted to help and gave us some books.

“Staff were crying at the generosity.”

The $5.6 million flood-resilient restoration was funded  through state and federal government provisions of $4.5 million, NSW government’s 2022 community Local Infrastructure Recovery Package, 2023 Community Local Infrastructure Recovery Package , State Library of NSW Public Library Infrastructure Grants, Lismore City Council and Rotary Sunrise.

The Lismore Central Shopping Centre community book swap will continue to operate.

 

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