OPINION kal,mner.com.auMonday, August 1, 2016

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''kei Jetty in Epera ice has attracted a lot of criticism. Picture Slater

Today in history1625 The British Parliament moves to Oxford tosave itself as the plague rages through London,killing thousands each week.1778 World's first savings bank is opened inHamburg, Germany.1834 Slavery is abolished throughout the BritishEmpire; an estimated 770,280 slaves become free.1902 Australian magazine New Idea is firstpublished.1936 The Olympic Games open in Berlin with aceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.1998 Milan Kovacevic, a Serbian doctor allegedlyresponsible for the deaths of at least 2000 peoplein three concentration camps during the war inBosnia-Herzegovina, dies of a heart attack justweeks after his trial on war crimes charges is dueto begin.

Today's birthdaysDom DeLuise, US actor (1933-2009); Yves StLaurent, French fashion designer (1936-2008);Fiona Stanley, Australian paediatrician (1946-);Bastian Schweinsteiger, German soccer player(1984-).

Thought of the dayAs scarce as truth is, the supply is always greaterthan the demand - Josh Billings. American author(1818-1885).AAP/AP

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•WEIRDWORLDJuneau, AlaskaUnity key in jetty , project An Alaska whale-waturned into a rescue

FROM THE COAST• Victoria Brown

The replacement of the TankerJetty or rather, its demolition, hasbrought emotions to the fore inour community and attracted alot of criticism towards thecouncil.

We've seen the Facebookcomments, we've heard talk of apetition but to date no-one hassubmitted anything to thecouncil, and as far as we know,no-one has started a crowd-funding campaign.

Despite many people in andoutside our community beingquick to make assumptions andaccusations towards the counciland Shire staff, few have actuallyapproached us to personally voicetheir concerns and find out thefacts.

Don't get me wrong, we are apretty tough 1t.

We know local government isan easy target and we knowunpopular decisions sometimeshave to be made, and there hasbeen none so unpopular as thedecision to demolish the jetty.

The council unanimously votedto demolish the jetty in order toreplace a failing, dangerous andunusable structure - a structurethat was built to last 50 years andthat has been standing now for 80.

Why would all nine councillorsvote to demolish the jettyunnecessarily when we havenever underestimated the

emotions this decision wouldignite, or the cultural andhistorical significance of thejetty?

Since the State Governmentgave us the jetty, we have paid,patched and hung on to stretchout the life of this beautiful oldicon.

We are all residents ofEsperance and love the jetty asmuch as everyone else.

The reality is we don't have anunlimited amount of money.

We are a small community ofratepayers who are alreadyconcerned about the cost ofexisting rate increases.

To cover the cost of repairs, wewould need a significantly largerpopulation, and even if that was areality, a repair versus areplacement would only buy us asmall amount of time until morerepairs would be needed and then

we would be back to square one.Council has said repeatedly the

jetty would be replaced but inorder to have a reasonablestructure, we need funding.

We will need concept designsand business plans before manyfunding bodies will even considerapplications.

We have dedicated, trained staffin our organisation whose job it isto look for funding opportunitiesin State and Federal Governmentdepartments for any grant in anyaspect that will help our town.

In my role as Shire president, Iam in constant contact withFederal Member for O'ConnorRick Wilson, who has the TankerJetty listed as a priority projectfor this region, and am incontinual conversations with WAMinister for RegionalDevelopment Terry Redman andlocal Members Dave Grills and

Graham Jacobs about thisproject.

We as a council have made aresponsible economic decision forour community and theresolution to demolish anc.replace still stands.

We have $2 million, which isn'tnearly enough.

While we continue to apply forfunding, there is nothing stoppingthe community from fundraisingto show how important it is tothem, and help us make ithappen.

Working together and movingforward as a united and proactivecommunity will help demonstrateto funding bodies that this is aproject worth getting behind, andthat Esperance is a commt. aityworth investing in.

I Victoria Brown is the Shire ofEsperance president.

tching cruisemission for

an unusual aquatic species - adistressed, swimming deer.

The tour vessel lassoed thestruggling deer last Wednesday,pulled it on board and gave it aride to an island, Juneau radiostation KTOO reported.

Naturalist Audrey Benson saidvisitors and crew were watchingwhales when the boat received aradio transmission that deer wereswimming in the saltwater on thewest side of Shelter Island.

Crew on a larger tour boat triedto rescue the animal but gave up.

Benson, other crew membersand passengers moved in, andwith a rope, pulled the deer onboard.

The crew motored to ShelterIsland and released the deer.AP

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