Councillor Gil Kelly will push for Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council to borrow the money needed to fix the brown water issue plaguing residents.
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Dirty water has been a issue for many years and Cr Kelly said it was time “to draw a line in the sand”.
He said it was important council maintained the assets it had.
There’s around 19 kilometres of cast iron pipes around Cootamundra – much of it is around 80 years old and rusting leading to brown water.
"We need to borrow the funds required now to get the whole lot fixed,” Cr Kelly said.
Council has already drafted tender documents to fix 11 kilometres of pipes at a cost of $2.7 million.
Fixing the entire network is estimated to cost an additional $3 million.
The merged council already has $3 million in secured borrowings according to council’s 2016 to 2017 financial statements.
It will mean the amount of money council has borrowed would double but Cr Kelly said the cost to borrow money was at its lowest.
He said council had access to loans where the interest rate changed after 20 years.
“There’s never been a better time to borrow money, it’s never been cheaper,” he said.
“The costs of the call outs and patch up jobs will cover the cost of servicing the loan,” he said.
“It’s almost cost neutral.”
Cr Kelly said brown water was an issue which could slow the growth of Cootamundra, because “nobody wants to see their laundry come out dirtier than when it went in the washing machine”.
Cr Kelly’s motion to borrow the money to fix the water network will be voted on by councillors at Tuesday’s council meeting in Cootamundra.
Cr Kelly said he’d spoken to a number of councillors who expressed some support for the motion.
“I need to get backing from councillors to approve borrowing the money
“It’s drawing a line in the sand – let’s get it fixed.”