How much the land and other council land is worth is the subject of considerable conjecture, but with current financial meltdown and the impending recession you could confidently say it's worth considerably less now than the former general manager of Wodonga City Council, Peter Marshall, believed it was.
As the economic crisis continues this debt will be increasingly hard to finance as demand shrinks and finance organisations demand greater equity.
What has all that got to do with it?
It's all about Wodonga Council's $26 million debt.
Inflate your assets and the banks are happy - well, were happy until Wall Street found itself in trouble.
The whole sorry saga, just like Guadalupe House, begins way back when decisions were made that reflected not so much a sense of vision but personal politics, small-minded, uncompromising egos and the quest for power.
Self-interest dominated, as deals were made and businessmen went from driving FJs to Mercedes in a day or two. The Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation spread its largesse far and wide. Socialist bastards, the beneficiaries would mutter, rushing cheques to the bank.
This must have been one of the reasons the Wodonga Council didn't see any need for the services of a town planner. That task was the province of Bill Page, Wodonga City Council's engineer who ruled the city with an iron fist. You didn't make enemies with Mr Page, and if you made enemies with Mr Page he could be a very vindictive man.
Ironically the Bandiana Saleyards, the W.G. Page Saleyards, bear his name - if only on one entrance, where it's almost obscured by an unkempt bush.
Sources have told Borderline that Mr Page, who spent 24 years on Wodonga Council, brooked little dissent. It seems the Bandiana Saleyards were a particular interest of his. The lack of consideration for environmental factors was a minor matter. So much so that the effluent ponds are located less than 30 metres from Middle Creek, when in fact they should be 100 metres from the floodplain.
But the deal had been made. The saleyards were built. Inherently flawed processes allowed vested interests to put their stamp on a town plan. The plan was so compromised it appeared to be the end result of a free-for-all.
If it's true that the present saleyards reflect the curious age in which they were built, it's also true that the curious nature of the proponents and opponents of the proposed new saleyards reflects similar thinking.
Few of the protagonists are interested in compromise.
The water usage of the current operation is so inefficient it uses close to 50 per cent of Wodonga's annual water. (In 2001 consumption at the saleyards was 76 mega litres). It needs major upgrades and will cost $6 million to bring it up to minimal Occupational Health & Safety and environmental standards. Former councils have only performed basic maintenance on the saleyards.
All in all, according to Wodonga City Council, it will cost close to $10 million to bring the existing saleyards up to current best practice. With Wodonga's present debt, this would be a huge additional burden on ratepayers. If Wodonga City Council went it alone, it would have to borrow this money on top of the existing $26 million it already owes the banks.
The capital cost the preferred developer, Regional Infrastructure, will spend to build a new state-of -the art saleyards, excluding land, GST and goodwill is estimated between $16 million and $20 million. According to information supplied to Borderline, Regional Infrastructure is made up of a consortium of companies seeking to develop livestock exchanges at strategic locations throughout Australia.
Why should councils be in the business of selling stock?
Now is the time to show a bit of foresight, significantly lacking in the past, and still lacking now - if the Guadalupe House and current poisonous saleyard situation is anything to go by.
What Bandiana needs is an environmentally sound solution that addresses identified problems so that the new saleyards can be sustainable for years to come. The only long-term solution is to learn from the past, rather than replicate it, and to move the saleyards to Barnawartha North.
