while Rome burns - Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association

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while Rome burns …

Seems that council’s undercover spokeswoman has been at it again, this time trying to further muddy the waters around the giant “sinkhole” that has opened-up under Merimbula Airport.

Quoted in the local media, council’s anonymous spokeswoman claimed that references to the anticipated costs associated with the expansion of the airport of $24M made by federal Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro Fiona Kotvojs related to the cost of the terminal extension, runway extension, the resealing of the runway & the relocation of the general aviation area & really only amounted to $16M.

Council’s spokeswoman said that the figures attributed to Ms Kotvojs included existing projects (terminal extension & runway extension) & the seeking of additional funds for an overlay of the existing runway & the relocation of the general aviation area.

Council’s spokeswoman then went on to claim, falsely, that "Of those four projects, only the terminal project has been to the market, and the other three (runway extension, runway overlay and general aviation area) are estimates.”

In the case of the runway extension costs, the spokeswoman’s claim is simply false, with the application to the NSW Government detailing the runway extension costs down to the very last dollar as $4,391,040 + GST, while the risk management actions cited in the funding application included provisions for a 40% variation in the cost estimate.

We also know that council has made a fully costed federal grant application for $8.02M to partly fund the general aviation area (we know this because those details are included in the draft 2019-2020 Budget on page 24).

At the moment we know that the federal government has agreed to contribute $1.2M toward the new terminal infrastructure, while the state government has put $5.4M on the table for the runway extension & basic infrastructure: a total of $6.6M in state & federal government funding.

If we assume that the $8.02M grant application made to fund the general aviation area is successful, then the quantum of government funding available for all the projects will have grown to $14.62M, which would leave less than $2M out of the $16M referenced by council’s spokeswoman to fund the proposed reseal of the runway.

Now, the last reseal of the runway allegedly cost ratepayers $6.5M in 2013, which would suggest that the same work today would cost considerably more (perhaps this was the mysterious extra $8M that Ms Kotvojs alluded to when she suggested that the funding requirement for all projects was $24M ?).

Now the really bad news is that the above figures do not take into account the known cost blowouts that are likely to be billed to residents & ratepayers, as well as their contribution to the general aviation area project.

We already know that the new terminal is going to cost residents & ratepayers $3.2M versus the original estimate of $1.2M. We also know from council that the runway extension cost has blown-out to $7.4M from its original $4.4M, meaning that at this point residents & ratepayers are on the hook for a further $3M: a total of $6.2M.

We also know that council has allowed for a contribution from residents & ratepayers toward the general aviation project of $3,628,960 (that’s also on page 24 of the draft Budget).

On that basis, the cost to residents & ratepayers has so far climbed from $1.2M to $9.8M & is growing.

Now, the association accepts that the airport runway requires resealing, notwithstanding historical claims by BVSC's general manager that the 2013 work would last for 20 years. The reality is that the runway has required constant repairs since that resealing was completed, suggesting that the work was simply not up to standard ... but that’s a whole other story.

If the association is right about the estimated cost of resealing being around $8M, that cost will have to be met by either grant funding or by residents & ratepayers.

All of this means that the aggregate cost of all of the known works to be completed at the airport will be more than $30M, including a contribution of between $9.8M to $17.8M from residents & ratepayers, depending on the resealing costs.

Once again the association makes the point that, apart from the report relating to the new terminal made in January, 2019, there have been no reports to council detailing any of the above matters, including the plan to reseal the runway & to apply for grant funding for the general aviation area, let alone a definitive reconciliation of the known & likely costs of all of the works involved.

The association believes that the Merimbula Airport project is totally out of control & represents a major financial exposure to residents & ratepayers.

Amidst all of this, the elected council sits idly by, mute & impotent.

John Richardson

Secretary/Treasurer

Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association

Tel: 0264945669

Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au

Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au