Douglas Shire Council CEO Linda Cardew has delivered a progress report of council projects and initiatives over the past six weeks. 

Community Development

• Officers have provided support and guidance to Parent and Community Engagement (PaCE) program in developing Draft Strategic Plan to address items raised in the previously held parent and student forums.

• The Bloomfield Track Steering Committee has met twice in the last six weeks finalising planning and program timelines. This initiative involves collaboration between Douglas Shire Council, Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council, Cook Shire Council, Wet Tropics Management Authority (WTMA) and Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC. Future involvement will also include Tourism Port Douglas Daintree (TPDD).

• First consignment of recycled mobile phones and tablets sent to the Aussie Recycle Program. Funds raised from this initiative will be donated to the Mayor’s Xmas Appeal.

• Worked with Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) Reef Guardian program to implement the project where professional photos of Council staff carrying out various tasks which protect the reef have been captured and will be used in both Council and GBRMPA educational programs.

• Planning with Mossman Gorge Interagency Network to conduct a Job Expo in Mossman Gorge and Mossman.

• Attendance at the CAN meeting, the Liquor Accord, Youth Network, Public Safety, Indigenous Inter Agency, Douglas Inc.

• Coordinated Anzac Day services including free community breakfasts to commemorate 100th anniversary of Gallipoli Landing in Mossman and Cow Bay. Approximately 1400 people attended Mossman Dawn Service, approximately 800 people attended the free community breakfast in Mossman and approximately 1200 people attended Port Douglas Ceremony. Approximately 230 people attended Dawn Service and free breakfast in Cow Bay.

• Produced a 52-page limited edition Diggers of Douglas book to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. Remaining copies of this book can be purchased for $10 from Council’s Administration office. Produced an eight-minute Diggers of Douglas video screened at Port Douglas & Cow

Bay community breakfasts.

Economic Development

• Meeting with TPDD, the Douglas Chamber of Commerce and theSpace to discuss and prepare for the business planning workshop to be held on 12 June in Port Douglas.

• Announced of the planned expansion of the Kiosk @ Port, the introduction of a co-working space called “Space Port” and the future introduction of a Council customer service facility. This initiative will encourage library usage and offer students, community groups, small business, and work from home business the opportunity to hire a temporary desk space in a comfortable, central area.

• Assisted with research and development of concept for the Mossman Town Centre upgrade.

Website updates

Some of the updates have included the new:

• Activities Map - douglas.qld.gov.au/business/major-projects/

• NDRRA Activity Map - douglas.qld.gov.au/activity-map/ndrra-activity-map/

• Activity Map - douglas.qld.gov.au/activity-map/

• Customer Service Charter

• Access Douglas and Missed Business

Library

• Douglas Libraries has received $12,258 for the “Best Start Family Literacy Initiative”. “Best Start” is aimed at supporting stronger language and literacy environments for young children 0-5 years and their families.

• Preparations for implementation of WiFi in the Mossman library are well advanced and this additional service is expected to be rolled out to the public in May.

• In March 5,760 people visited their local Library; 96 people joined; 7528 items were borrowed; 22 Inter-library loans were placed and 228 people attended library programs.

Development & Environment

• Targeted informal consultation is in progress seeking essentially technical feedback in relation to the draft Planning Scheme. 

Regulatory Services

• Work has revolved largely around the investigation of incidents including illegal clearing of vegetation and installation of infrastructure including electrical power points on Council controlled foreshore, Illegal track clearing on Council land, and illegal dumping of vegetation.

• Environmental Health has approved nine new businesses during for April (six food premises, two swimming pools and one accommodation premises). 

• An investigation was conducted into a diesel spill at Forest Creek. An extensive clean up by the company continues and is being monitored by authorities, including the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.

• Local Laws officers received 70 formal customer requests for the month and impounded ten dogs and two cats. Seven dogs were returned to owners. Officers investigated six dog attacks with two investigations ongoing.

• Execution of the capital works program is continuing, in particular the capping of Phase A of the Killaloe landfill.

Infrastructure

• Staff have recently had on-site meetings in relation to INCSnap Variant, a photo and video reporting tool. A version of the tool is currently used by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services for obtaining rapid intelligence from the field and the current program is looking at producing a variant for use by Council in disaster management and other reporting areas.

• Civil works inspection teams are inspecting all roads in the Shire including inspections of State controlled roads as required by our maintenance contract and reporting back to the Department of Transport and Main Roads. Additionally, during April, all marine infrastructure was inspected.

• Capital works projects over the past two months have included footpath renewal in Davidson Street – Port Douglas, extensions to culverts in Ironbark Road and culvert replacement in Nicole Close.

Open Spaces

• The Port Doulas Open Spaces team completed capital works projects including installing new bollards and formalising access to Teamsters Park. New bollards were installed at Four Mile Park to restrict vehicles using the park for residential parking and to discourage illegal camping in vehicles.

• Market Park also received a much needed revamp, replacing the coppers logs with new ‘Replas’ bollards. The team has also completed playground soft fall upgrades with new edging installed at both Four mile and Hutching’s parks.

• This month saw the completion of hardscape works on the Port Douglas roundabout landscaping project. A few minor finishing touches will still occur to satisfy the Department of Transport and Main Roads requirements in the next week. The team also upgraded the aesthetics of the Port Douglas Habitat roundabout by complementing the site with understory plantings and fresh mulch. These improvements have lifted the landscaping standard on the roundabouts into Port Douglas.

• All play ground shade sails removed as part of Cyclone Nathan preparations have now been reinstalled. The Mossman team completed capital works projects constructing and installing two new picnic tables at Daintree Village.

• The nursery provided a total of 1,148 native plants for council and community landscaping and revegetation projects. Works continued on the Nautilus Street upgrade project with the planting of 474 plants. Irrigation was also installed to the garden areas of the site, further mulching and planting is still to occur to finish the task.

• Pest Management Staff conducted a total of 159 man hours controlling 6.7 hectares of declared weeds across the Shire. The majority of time was spent targeting the high priority species Siam weed. A total of 32 feral pigs have been destroyed this month as part of the Daintree Feral Pig trapping program.

• New security cameras have been installed at the Mossman Shire Hall and one overlooking the Library car park as a deterrent for vandalism.

Water and Wastewater

• Drinking water is sampled at intakes, reservoirs, treatment plants and in the reticulation network to ensure compliance with the Australian Drinking Water Guideline (ADWG). Water samples were taken in the 4 water supply schemes and tested by a NATA accredited laboratory and the Douglas Water Laboratory for physical, chemical and microbiological parameters. All tested parameters in water samples were compliant with ADW Guidelines during this period. Wastewater compliance samples are taken from bio-solids, final effluent, receiving waters and bores. All parameters tested were compliant with licence conditions.

The full CEO report is available at douglas.qld.gov.au/event/ordinary-council-meeting-5-may-2015/.