Archived copy              

Electricity Supply 

From the Report to the District Council of Coober Pedy for the Month of May 2004, by Peter McBain, Distribution Supervisor, and Gavin Talbot, Electrician / Power Station Operator:

Generation (Gavin Talbot):

Diesel tanks 4, 5 & 6 have been relocated to their new position adjacent to the location where the eight StateWest Power engines will be situated. Fuel is now being supplied to our existing engines in the power station from these tanks and when the new engines are ready to go on-line, a few adjustments is all that will be necessary t connect the new engines to this fuel supply.

Diesel tanks 1,2 and 3, which have been supplying fuel to the power station, have been monitored very closely so these could be emptied in readiness for relocation alongside tanks 4, 5 & 6 at the beginning of June according to StateWest Power's schedule.

StateWest Power engaged the services of a Commissioning Technician, Robert Bennett from VA Tech Reyrolle Pacific Ltd., Victoria, to carry out upgrading of the High Voltage Switchboard ready to accommodate the new engines. This was from the 20th to 25th of this month and during this time, as I was assisting with the alterations required, it was necessary for Craig Maywald from O'Donnell Griffin, Adelaide, to once again come to Coober Pedy to assist with my usual duties for the power Station.

I have given additional assistance to StateWest power in various areas over the past few weeks as well as continua monitoring of the power Station.

.................

One property this month had to be disconnected because of faulty electrical wiring.

Two properties had new replacement electricity meters installed. One was a three phase meter on the Golf Club Rooms in time for their opening, and the other a single phase plug-in meter to a residential property.

There have been four unplanned outages this month affecting the whole town: Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd outages were due to changes being made to the main switchboard for the new engines. The other two outages were due to a magnetic fault on #1 generator causing loss of power for thirty minutes and a general alarm fault on #6 generator with no power for one minute.

Maintenance is ongoing to all power station plant on a daily basis as well as general cleaning up of the area inside and around the shed. 

The eight engines from StateWest Power arrived on Monday 31st with a crane to lift them off the semi-trailers and place them in their appointed positions.

Distribution (Peter McBain):

The planned outage from 3am to 8.30am affecting the whole town on Sunday 16th was necessary to replace H.V. cables to both the Township and Hospital feeders.

Fuses were replaced on burnt out services on two separate properties each one occurring on a Sunday.

A special thanks to Ian McIntee, linesman, employed through Electel Hire Services, whose assistance was appreciated for the two months straight of his employment. This meant Council was not covering return air fares from Adelaide every two or three weeks for an additional staff member. Council is still advertising for a Linesman, but as yet there have been no applications, hence the continuing use of Electel Hire Services.

The linesman's shed at the Works Department was erected by Basic Shed's staff members with the concreting nearing completion. In between other duties, we are in the process of organising our gear in our existing shed ready to relocate to the new shed when completed

One house fire during this month received our urgent attention in disconnecting the power supply.

Monitoring with the Poly Logger is continuing every week to assess transformer loads. StateWest Power hired the crane and forklift for several hours to assist in completing several sections of their projects. This amounted to $4,657 for Private Works.

O.H.S. & W. Information

Simon Witham and Zoltan Farkash completed the CPR refresher section of their First Aid Certificate.

Hep A and Hep B combination injections are now up-to-date with all staff members.

First aid kits in vehicles and on premises were checked and updated during this month.

Mayor's Report - for the June meeting of the District Council of Coober Pedy

Council received a letter from Mr Mike Milln, Dept. Transport and Urban Planning, in response to an application received from REX airlines to licence the route between Adelaide and Coober Pedy. The letter sought Council's views on licensing the route and sought an indication of Council's support or objection to the application. Subsequent to talks between myself, the CEO, Mike Milln and David Spear, and considering the terms and conditions of the route licence, the CEO and I concluded that it would be in the best interests of the residents and visitors to Coober Pedy to licence the route. Council has therefore advised the Dept. of Transport and Urban Planning that we support the application for Regional Express to be given a route licence between Adelaide and Coober Pedy.

Over the past couple of weeks, Council admin., managers and I have been working through next year's budget. We now have the budget at a stage that we are comfortable with, and will be circulating it to Councillors within the next week. It is anticipated that I will call a special meeting of the Council when the Finance Manager returns in the last week of June to seek your response to the budget and adopt the relevant motions.

The CEO and I met once again with Chief Superintendent Wayne Bristow and Sgt. Andrew Bartlett from SA Police on the 20th May. We once again expressed concern in regards to the enforcement of the dry areas legislation and the level of crime in general that is occurring in Coober Pedy.

We also met with Mr Peter Buckskin, CEO of  Dept. Aboriginal Affairs. We discussed a range of issues that are affecting Coober Pedy in general, and the impact that the increasing number of transient people from the Pit Lands is having on our town. I am hopeful that Mr Buckskin will assist in our endeavours to extend the MAP program and expedite the construction of the sobering up centre as a result of this meeting.

Steve Baines. Mayor

Here's Cliff Ferrall,  95 next month, driving his electric car down a street in town. 

Which street? 

Ferrall Street of course! 

Named after the man himself, in recognition, he says, of being the Opal Inn's Father Christmas for 18 years straight.

Regional Recreation, Sport and Open Space Strategy - from the Report by Trevor McLeod, CEO

At the Council meeting held on 18th May 2004, Mr Chris Maschotta, Office for Recreation and Sport, presented to Council information regarding the 'Regional Recreation, Sport and Open Space Strategy'. Council would be expected to contribute $5,000 and in the interests of the Coober Pedy community I believe that there would potentially be more benefits for Council to be involved in the proposal than not.

As Council will soon be finalising it's 2004/2005 Budget I believe that it should consider making an allocation of $5,000 to facilitate it joining the partnership to pursue the Outback Regional Recreation, Sport and Open Space Strategy.

Other items from the June Council Agenda:

D. Zechner, Works Manager, has completed an Airport Safety Management Course.

Thirteen dogs and three cats were destroyed in May.

Motion to be put by T McLeod, CEO: "That Council endorses the executing by the Mayor and CEO of the Deed of Condition of Grant between the District Council of Coober Pedy for grant funding through the Outback Tourism Development Fund

Soaking Rain