Minutes 15-12-10 - Shire of Shark Bay

ORDINARY COUNCIL MINUTES – 15 DECEMBER 2010 100
Comment
A draft Forward Capital Works Plan has now been completed by Council's
consultant, and it is supplied to Councillors as a separate documents and an
attachment to this report.
Supplied within the Forward Capital Works Plan document is an “Affordability
Summary”, so as to show that what has been included in the draft Plan is achievable
and affordable. Provision has been included within the Plan for the employment of an
extra staff member in 2011/12, and another in 2014/15, as staff numbers are below
what they were some 6 years ago.
The adjusted annual operating figures have been prepared on known data as at 8 th
December 2010, and should be viewed as being optimistic, and a “best case”
scenario. For example, Council's FAGs grant increase for the current year were just
over 7% for the untied portion and about 5.5% for the road allocation, and these
have been extended into the following 4 years. There is a chance that this may well
be the case, but the Grants Commission is currently assessing as to whether it
should change its formulas for the calculations of such grants, and this could
possibly have detrimental effects on the allocations to this Council.
A positive note is that Councils in regional WA are fortunate in receiving Royalties for
Regions grants, and the Shire of Shark Bay Council will receive $1,092,547 over a 3
years period. As well, there will be monies going into a ‘regional’ fund of at least
$893,902 which Council may be able to access. Discussions have been held on
regional projects, which have included Solar Power, Regional Waste Services
[Mobile Crushing Plant], and Underground Power. If these Grants continue beyond
2013, then Council may be able to access addition monies, of over $1.3 million,
which might be able to be used for Aged Units construction.
For new projects, the Plan includes the estimated gross costs and identifies the
expected sources of funding. For certain items, provisions have also been made for
the On-Going costs relating to the particular item as well as provision of annual
allocations of monies, to be set aside into Reserves, for the renewal costs relating to
various new projects.
The draft Forward Capital Works Plan includes a list of the items included to date,
which total over $27.66 million over the 5 year period. These are large projects, with
high costs, but they also include items to be funded by the Gascoyne Revitalisation
Program.
The largest single item is that of the establishment of a Marina in Denham, at a cost
of some $10 million. This grant may be given to Council, or it may be given to the
Marine Division of the Department of Transport, and for them to be the constructing
authority.
Buildings are the other area of major expenditure emphasis. Movement of Council's
Administration Offices from the current location to either next to the Hall, or the old
School site, is a most important item for consideration.
Further, the Council has only 4 houses, and construction of additional houses should
also be viewed as a priority. The draft Plan provides for one house to be built in
2011/12 and another in 2014/15. The latter may have to be reassessed later, as
Council's ‘Gross Debt to Revenue’ Ratio may be a little high in the 2014/15 year.