Ratepayer outrage

Ratepayers say they feel like “cash cows” after Swan Hill council resolved to cough up $500,000 to fix the Chisholm Reserve drag strip. 

Resident Kim Stapleton-Mitchell asked why ratepayers were forced to pay for someone else’s mistake. 

“Why should it be our problem, when in the first place the foundations should have been prepared right,” she asked.

“If you want a job done properly, do it right in the first place.”

The $2.6 million drag strip has sat unused since last November because drivers complained that the concrete surface appeared to have lipped at each joint along the strip. 

In December, council engaged a contractor to laser survey and measure the surface levels across the concrete and asphalt pavement and identified upward curling at the expansion joints and outside edges of the concrete pavement, and overall central depression in some of the slab groups.

To read more of this story, grab a copy of Monday’s Guardian (April 3).