MidCoast Council councillor Karen Hutchinson is pushing to get the television reception fixed in Stroud after a Federal funding announcement almost two years ago.
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She raised a Notice of Motion at the ordinary meeting on November 18 for council get the ball rolling again after progress for a solution has stalled.
The notice references a funding commitment from Federal member for Lyne David Gillespie of $394,000 (corrected to $300,000) to go toward the construction of a new tower for the Stroud community and seeks a further commitment for the ongoing maintenance of the infrastructure.
"I am pleased to announce that the community of Stroud, who have been putting up with bad to no television reception, will soon have a new TV repeater tower built," Dr Gillespie said in his January 2019 announcement.
"This has been an ongoing issue within my community for many years," Cr Hutchinson said.
Unfortunately it's getting worse, it doesn't even need to be a particularly hot day for the television to go off.
- Karen Hutchinson
"Unfortunately it's getting worse, it doesn't even need to be a particularly hot day for the television to go off."
MidCoast Council general manager, Adrian Panuccio explained to the councillors funding was secured but the issue lies in who would be footing the bill for the ongoing maintenance.
"Regional TV as such would say they are okay putting the infrastructure up but they don't see that the maintenance would be a matter for them," he said.
Council would say, nothing unlike phone reception, TV reception isn't a matter for the council and it isn't something we'd maintain."
He explained that the motion was required in order to get the matter moving again.
Council voted unanimously to make representations to the Australian Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications to secure the funding and get an ongoing commitment to maintain the infrastructure to ensure the service remains operational.
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