Thank you Dick Caine for 50 years of service
Dick Caine celebratesThis year Dick Caine celebrates 50 yearsat Carss Park pool. Dick is an iconic swimming coach who has trained Olympians, National and State swimmers, as well as thousands of children how to swim. Despite its age, Carss Park pool is a special place.
In 1990 luck would have it that I found myself living very near this pool. For the past 25 years I have been swimming there three to four times a week.
The endorphin release I get from this exercise is wonderful. For me, anxious by nature, and with a history of depressive illness, the swim is like a balm for body and soul. I swim all year round, and it is after the swim I feel truly alive. I feel alert, clear headed, re-charged and read to meet the world again. I feel a sense of peace and calm that sustains me throughout the day. Lately, I have noticed how the swim helps relieve an ageing body. I feel the same effect as I would after having a massage. The body feels relaxed, supple and limber.
I would like to say a BIG Thank you to Dick Caine for making Carss Park pool the special haven it is.
Mairead O’Connor, Carss Park
Council mergers
Paul Toole, Local Government Minister and his sidekick, Mike Baird, are like punch drunk boxers on steroids over proposed council mergers. Mr Toole, a previous Mayor of Bathurst, knows quite well you don’t put a policy change to the public between Christmas and Australia Day. The natives become very angry.
While local councils are being forced into marriages of convenience by the Government, our democratic state government has forgotten to sell the "Scale and Capacity" argument to the ratepayers, who are the major stakeholders in this whole mess. They are also the same stakeholders who vote at state elections.
Mr Toole has put out proposals for council mergers, for recommendations from the boundaries commission, which will report back to him. It is assumed the minister will then do what he likes. The process should be transparent and the minister should appoint independent boundaries commission delegates who report to an independent body and introduce legislation to state parliament as the final arbitor.
Finally It may be good now that proposed council boundaries are areas taking in two or three state parliament seats that we do away with one third of the Legislative Assembly members who will be redundant.
Brian Shaw, Hurstville
Seniors opal card
It seems very difficult for governements to get funding at the moment.That must be the reason it is considering penalising self-funded retirees by changing their Gold Opal Card to a Seniors Opal Card. The fare increases from a maximum $2.50 to $9.00 a day. It doesn’t seem to matter that these seniors don’t get any other concessions on council or water rates and the like.
The transport system has a high fixed cost, seniors usually travel at non-peak periods. Would the government prefer the train and buses to be reasonably empty at these times? Seniors who travel on public transport do their bit for the economy by spending money when out for the day.
State Transport please give self funded retirees the same deal as pensioners!
Kerrie Bible, Connells Point
Intersection concerns
We were very disappointed and annoyed to find out about the proposed changes to the Intersection of the Princes Highway, King Georges Road and Stuart Street Blakehurst.
Has the RMS considered for a moment the disadvantages that this action would cause to the residents of Blakehurst?
To prevent us from entering Stuart Street from Princes Highway means that we would have to travel quite a distance to the Loop under Tom Ugly’s Bridge. This is a very narrow road and then we would have to enter the very busy clearway on Princes Highway without the advantage of traffic lights – a very dangerous procedure.
Our only alternative is to travel up Terry Street – a very busy narrow street and proceed down the highway to Phillip Street.
Similar problems arise if we are prevented crossing onto Princes Highway from Stuart Street.
How about thinking about the rate payers and not so much about how fast you can have the traffic flowing.
The only change that we would like to see implemented is to prevent vehicles turning right from Princes Highway into King Georges Road. This really slows down the traffic in this area and only allows a few cars to cross into Stuart Street. at each light change. Sometimes we have to wait for up to three changes of traffic lights to get across.
I would like to invite the minister who is responsible for this proposal & anyone else who is voting on these changes to come to Blakehurst & enter the suburb without doing so from Stuart Street.
Then they can see what they would be doing to our life. It is all very good doing this from their offices but let them come onto the site. If the proposal goes ahead the problem will only be shifted elsewhere.
Dr & Mrs Eric Solo
Hospital security
Just 12 months ago leading into the 2015 state election , warnings about the parlous situation of security at our hospitals was given loud and clear. The Labor candidate for Oatley ,O’bray Smith, herself a practising nurse and hospital unit manager, gave clear accounts of the ongoing danger to staff from drug/alcohol fuelled violence. O’bray made a point of saying that, from personal experience, security staffing levels at hospitals, especially at night were inadequate. The response at the time from health minister Skinner and her acolyte the member Oatley, was to ridicule the claims by O’bray Smith as mere politics,that every thing was in order ,that there was no problem at our hospitals. Now of course ,with the near tragic shooting at Nepean Hospital of a policeman and a security guard ,the minister is having a review of security at all hospitals because she wants to ensure that the staff and public are safe at all times. This issue again displays the shallowness of the state Liberal Government,and it becomes more apparent at every turn. Hopefully there will be positive outcome of this review and those that matter ie; the health workers and public, are widely consulted to produce a proper report.
Phillip Edwards, Mortdale