The other night dreaming of wonderful winter rains ahead pushing fallen leaves down the Bendigo Creek when question after question popped into the head.
These little conundrums kept niggling away as the Town Hall clock kept ticking away into the wee hours with calibrated precision, while across the road in our municipal offices there was darkness and not even the sound of creaking foundations in a building constructed to take another two storeys.
I kept asking about all the costly dramas that have played out under the star of direction for Bendigo Bunch, CEO Craig Niemann.
You see, he’s been there for years …
So just asking, I wondered has this servant of council and city been able to muster the voting numbers of his Bendigo Bunch co-star councillors to pour millions of dollars into one costly and failed scheme after the other to “rejuvenate the Hargreaves Mall”.
And just asking again, how is the CEO still in his position after throwing away even more millions on the botched attempt to grab land at Marong from the Carter family and turn productive farming land into an industrial park with no tenants?
What about the chaos in Bendigo for planning and parking? Just asking again, how can CEO and council justify glossy advertising campaigns on an Active Living survey and, using our ratepayer money, give away a $10,000 prize for some modern-day Norm who got off the couch and swapped the TV screen for their computer screen to answer a few questions?
Then all of a sudden these dreams turned to fully-blown nightmare worse than any experienced by poor old Carlton that back in its glory days snapped up our young proud and passionate young football stars.
You, just asking, this nightmare ventured deeper into the dark territory of council decisions and this time the GovHub.
How could any council, just asking, sell out the pride and passion of Bendigo on a dud deal that will demolish the city family home in Lyttleton Terrace without all the details, no business plan and actually handing over city money, our money, to council’s boss the State Government?
Just asking, are councillors now so intimidated that they are afraid to ask questions in public of their paid servants?
And, just asking again, why are councillors blindly taking the word of Mayor O’Rourke who says “council would like to see new comes jobs to Bendigo as part of this [GovHub] project and will continue to advocate to all sides of government … for this to occur”.
So just asking, is it true there are no new jobs for dud GovHub?
Perhaps, just asking, the Bendigo Bunch has been reduced to a duopoly of Mayor O’Rourke and CEO Niemann also auditioning for starring roles in a remark of another TV classic F Troop where the key players in the off-fort business were O’Rourke and Agarn.
Just asking, has our once proud, passionate and independent council turned into a living reality nightmare?
Just asking …
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