Deciding how to spend the more than one million dollars of Federal Government fire recovery funding that came to 42 local councils in January was not an easy task for Bellingen Shire's councillors - especially given the tight three month time frame.
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And their decisions have of course drawn criticism - which is why the Courier Sun decided to dig deeper into the figures with Mayor Dominic King.
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Cr King pushed back against some comments that due process was not followed during community consultation and the final decisive extraordinary council meeting.
"Everything had to be done quickly - we were the only council that did any consultation and we did it by gathering the RFS, National Parks, SES, the Red Cross and the business chambers together," Cr King said.
"The criteria were recovery, preparedness and resilience and needed to be for the benefit of all shire residents. During the fires we saw some real gaps in our systems and we have set about fixing them."
He said the suggestion from business chambers that residents be given $100 vouchers to spend at local businesses did not receive consensus support during the consultation.
"That would have cost $600,000 and really gone nowhere.
"And then as we were finalising the budget, COVID-19 hit and things got really hectic. We had to cancel the ordinary meeting and then we had to sort out the technical issues to meet via Zoom. There was only one public presentation received and that was read out to councillors."
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The Courier Sun then asked Cr King to explain some of the nominated quantities listed under the various categories.
Under Environmental Recovery there is $90,000 listed for a Vegetation Report and Plan:
"This relates to better understanding what we lost in the fires and how to better protect it in the future.
"We want to know what we have so we, together with the RFS, can allocate resources to protect our natural assets, not only houses and property. We have some of the best pockets of diversity on the planet - we need to know where it is.
"We have also put some money aside to look into cultural burning, firestick farming - we want Aboriginal people to be part of the bush fire committee.
Investment in Infrastructure - $120,000
"This money would be used mainly for community halls (and showgrounds) to buy such things as extra water tanks and possibly sprinkler systems.
"We also need to improve communications - there were times when it was really slow during the fires ... do we need WiFi, would walkie-talkies be better in some areas? Knowing what is needed will guide us here.
"Fire trails and keeping them clear might also fall under this heading - we need to talk to the RFS."
Personal & Community Support: $185,000 - with nothing allocated under Mental Health Support
"There are government agencies that deal with mental health - we can support them but it is really the State Government's responsibility.
"The funding is aimed at strengthening the micro community model as much as we can. It is a holistic strategy that takes a long term approach.
"It was the community that got us through the fires, so what can we do to strengthen that? And since we started this process the COVID-19 crisis began and we have been able to roll out a community response, possibly one of the best in the country.
"We are always keeping one eye on now and one on the future."
He said other projects such as campaigns to bring tourists back and other economic opportunities were postponed because they were based on State Government grants that had been withdrawn for now.
"But there are a lot of ideas and it will be fantastic."
Economic Recovery & Development: $275,000
"One idea is to host tourism awards because it brings operators and experts to the area, which would be a good thing.
"We have seen how much we rely on tourism and it is our natural assets that people want to come and see ... there are a lot of things to do and like everyone else, we are just taking one step at a time."
In the mix of all this is $145,000 for a Resilience Coordinator, a sum Cr King said included on-costs and superannuation.
"We need someone to oversee this large sum - it is important to ensure we achieve what we want to. The position has been advertised but not filled as yet."
He summed up saying the council was the biggest employer in the shire and was trying to keep everyone working "because we are a massive part of the local economy".
"There is no JobKeeper for us because we are a State Government-run body and this money is from the Feds. We need to keep all our services going for our residents - shutting up shop is not an option!"