Yarra Ranges Council’s manager of infrastructure services Don Reiter, deputy mayor Tim Heenan, Labor candidate for Evelyn Peter Harris, and the council’s drainage co-ordinator Gary Whitehead discuss plans to clean up Wray Crescent.
By Russell Bennett
YARRA Ranges Council has acknowledged the “atrocious state” of downtown Mount Evelyn.
Members from the council and local community groups met in Wray Crescent on 7 September to discuss ways of beautifying the area.
The meeting came on the back of a program set up by deputy mayor Tim Heenan, Lyster Ward councillor Samantha Dunn, and Melba Ward councillor Terry Avery to clean up footpaths, road-side seating and planter boxes in 17 ranges townships.
Cleaning work in Healesville and Belgrave has already begun.
“What we’ve seen today (in Mount Evelyn) is no worse than what we saw in Belgrave,” said Don Reiter, the council’s manager of infrastructure services.
“But there’s obviously a lot of work to do.”
The work ahead in Mount Evelyn includes hot-jet spraying concrete surfaces, weeding garden beds, and removing litter.
Cr Heenan said he was “sick of the atrocious state” some of Mount Evelyn’s most frequented meeting spots had been left in.
He identified the footpath and garden beds around Morrison on the Park Café and the nearby rotunda as an area in desperate need of some tender loving care.
Cr Heenan said while graffiti removal wasn’t part of the initial project, it would be tackled in later stages.
The council has recognised public criticism of Wray Crescent’s current state, but Cr Heenan said: “People don’t just want Wray Crescent done. They want the whole area cleaned”.
Clean-up work will be undertaken by Yarra Ranges Council’s newly formed priority response township cleaning crew.
Gary Whitehead, the Yarra Ranges Council’s drainage co-ordinator, said the Mount Evelyn crew will only contain two workers initially – one during the day and one at night.
“There will be a truck out to get started on the project as soon as the workers can be organised,” Mr Whitehead said.
A total of $140,000 has been allocated in the council’s 2010/11 budget to pay for the crew. “The dedicated crew will provide detailed cleaning of the commercial zones of significant townships within the shire,” mayor Len Cox said.
Franc Smith and Barry Marshall of the Mount Evelyn Environment Protection and Progress Association (MEEPPA) said their group would also provide a helping hand.
