When will a suitable bypass be built?
In the Narooma News of March 2 Alan Brown of Catalina asks when the Princes Highway will be duplicated as far as the Victorian border.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For the people of Narooma this raises the more pressing question of when a suitable bypass is to be built to get the heavy traffic out of our town?
If the road is duplicated before a bypass is built we will no doubt suffer even more from increases in traffic density.
Bypass plans have existed for many years, but these were based on building a new high level bridge across the inlet and routing the road through the reserve retained for that purpose to the south of the bridge.
This plan has never been activated due to the prohibitive cost of such a bridge and the need to compulsorily purchase a large number of properties north of the bridge in order to provide for the approaches to the bridge.
The better option would be to route the bypass around the back of the inlet, where the original coast road went, thus keeping all of the heavy traffic well out of the town.
As there is a desperate shortage of residential land in Narooma, sale of the reserve for housing would net a considerable sum which could help defray the cost of the bypass.
Experience with other bypasses in the region (Bega and Yass are good examples) has shown that towns thrive and local businesses prosper when heavy through traffic is kept out of the towns.
Peter Hawker
Call to say thank you to police officers
Take a moment to think back in time. Before the catastrophic bush fires of 20/19, 20/20, how many of us had heard the phrase, First Responders?
This was a term used by the Police Force, Fire brigades, Ambulance brigades, Emergency units, SES, etc, not a term that was used in conversation by "You and I," the general public so to speak. Then came 2019/ 2020 things changed for us all, (and oh how they changed). Catastrophic bush fires, then at the same time we were subjected to the first wave of the insidious COVID virus. As if that wasn't enough, severe flooding came to bear down on us with some of the worst floods recorded to that time. All this within the space of 12 months.
While COVID is still wreaking havoc within the community, we are at present being subjected to even more severe floods, that have again written new records for their devastating and destructive effects. When you read and combine these facts, they sound like something out of a horror movie, a fictitious story of ongoing catastrophic events, something that is extremely hard to comprehend, and come to terms with. But unfortunately they are facts, as we know them to be.
While all of these disasters are taking place around us we look for and call for "help", yes you guessed it, we call our FIRST RESPONDERS. Each and every one of our first responce organisations are unique within their own right, each professionally trained and dedicated to respond to their specific charter in a professional and expediant manner. However there is one first responce organisation that is there at nearly every first responce call out, and that is our Police Force, (The Thin Blue Line).
Fires, police are there. Floods, police are there. COVID Checking, police are there. Accidents, police are there. Crimes, police are there. Rescues, police are there. Domestic issues... The list goes on and on and on. The community's local show, police are there to prevent, control, or assist with any emergencies. A street rally, again our police force is there to prevent, control or assist with any emergencies.
Imagine turning up to work and your first call out is a domestic dispute, followed by a vehicle accident, then arresting a criminal, followed by being called to a suicide. Can you imagine this kind of thing on a daily basis. Yes it is hard to imagine but that's somewhat of an overview of what our police force are required to do to help maintain the status quo within the community.
With all due and humble respect to the other first responce organisations. I am not in any manner trying to take away from the importance of the job that they do, nor their integral importance as part of the overall FIRST RESPONDER group, just highlighting the overwhelming importance of our wonderful multi tasking Police Force.
Thought that I may add, I am not a police officer, but I have seen first hand what they are required to do and I have seen and heard of the toll that their dangerous work takes on the people of our police force.
I, like you, am a member of the community and just thought how lucky we all are to have such wonderful dedicated, special people who put their lives on the line every day for us.
So when you see our police at work or just in the street, stop and say hello and thank them for the job that they do for you, your families and our community.
Dennis Johnson JP
- Do you have somethingyou would like to share in the Batemans Bay Post Letters to the Editor? Publishing consideration is given to all letters, with preference given to those that are 250 words or less. Please include name and contact details. Contact details will not be published. Letters may be edited for space, clarity or legal reasons and will be published online. Submit your letters through the website at http://www.batemansbaypost.com.au/, community, send us your news.