History

Elec­tions for mem­bers of the sev­enth Coun­cil were held on 30 May, 1992. Andy McNeill was elect­ed as Mayor.

Elect­ed Members

• Tony Ali­cas­tro
• Lor­raine Braham
• Car­ol Frost
• Jeff Hud­dle­stone
• Robert Kennedy
• Ter­ry McCumiskey
• Geoff Miers
• June Noble
• Rod Oliv­er
• Lynne Peterkin

Changes with­in Council

• 15 June, 1992: Coun­cil elect­ed Alder­man Bob Kennedy Deputy Mayor
• Res­ig­na­tion, 30 August, 1993: Alder­man Jeff Huddlestone
• By-elec­tion, 9 Octo­ber, 1993: Alder­man Daryl Gray
• Res­ig­na­tion, 18 May, 1994: Alder­man Lor­raine Bra­ham resigned to con­test the NT elec­tion. Being suc­cess­ful, her res­ig­na­tion was not withdrawn
• By-elec­tion, 6 August, 1994: Alder­man Fran Erlich
• Res­ig­na­tion, Feb­ru­ary, 1996: Alder­man Daryl Gray. With the ordi­nary elec­tion due to be held at the end of May, 1996, the vacan­cy was not filled

1992 – 1993

Dur­ing this year the Coun­cil intro­duced a sys­tem where­by rates could be paid by instalment.

The Ear­ly Bird Draw was also intro­duced. Ratepay­ers who chose to pay the full annu­al amount of the rates and charges due by the due date of the first instal­ment were eli­gi­ble for inclu­sion in the Ear­ly Bird Draw.

Ten names of ratepay­ers were drawn by the May­or and received a refund of the rates paid for the year.

In response to eco­nom­ic and com­mu­ni­ty needs for addi­tion­al park­ing spaces in the north­ern end of the Todd Mall, the deci­sion was made to open that part of the Mall to vehic­u­lar traffic.

The Coun­cil entered into a five year con­trac­tu­al arrange­ment with Envi­ron­men­tal Waste Man­age­ment for the land­fill oper­a­tion at the Munic­i­pal Dump.

Dur­ing the year a study was com­plet­ed into the stormwa­ter drainage sys­tem in Alice Springs.

The results of this study led the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Gov­ern­ment to com­mis­sion con­sult­ing engi­neers to inves­ti­gate alter­na­tive approach­es to flood plain man­age­ment in the town, both with regard to flood­ing of the Todd Riv­er, and to over­top­ping of the open unlined drains.

The Council’s Cor­po­rate Plan was com­plet­ed. A review of all sys­tems and work prac­tices for the full range of Coun­cil ser­vices was car­ried out to ensure max­i­mum util­i­sa­tion of resources.

Coun­cil devel­oped the Albrecht Oval as an addi­tion­al facil­i­ty to serve the leisure and recre­ation needs of the town’s people.

Con­struc­tion of two addi­tion­al ten­nis courts at Traeger Park was completed.

It was decid­ed to open all Coun­cil meet­ings to the public.

The Coun­cil main­tained con­stant liai­son with all North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Gov­ern­ment Depart­ments to ensure urban beau­ti­fi­ca­tion projects were implemented.

The cycle path along the bank of the Todd Riv­er between the Tunks Road cause­way and the Casi­no cause­way was recon­struct­ed by the Coun­cil using grant mon­ey pro­vid­ed by the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Government.

1993 – 1994

By Sep­tem­ber, 1993, Coun­cil had re-opened the north­ern end of Todd Mall to vehic­u­lar traffic.

This includ­ed a well-used car park and achieved an increase in pedes­tri­an traffic.

In Jan­u­ary, 1994, the Coun­cil con­tract­ed the RSP­CA to con­trol the dog pound.

In ear­ly 1994, Coun­cil pub­lished the first edi­tion of a new quar­ter­ly newslet­ter aimed at com­mu­ni­cat­ing top­i­cal mat­ters regard­ing the Council’s pro­grams and activ­i­ties to the local and wider com­mu­ni­ty. It was enti­tled About Alice – Your Coun­cil Newslink.

The Stage 1 upgrade of the Memo­r­i­al Ceme­tery involv­ing fenc­ing and land­scap­ing along the Memo­r­i­al Avenue frontage was car­ried out.

A grant was received from the NT Gov­ern­ment to assist the Coun­cil to build an exten­sion to the Nevil Shute Memo­r­i­al Library.

For the Anzac Day cer­e­mo­ny each year Coun­cil staff help by clean­ing the area, assist­ing with the set-up includ­ing the stage for the salute, and clean­ing up afterwards.

1994 – 1995

The Coun­cil con­struct­ed a shade struc­ture over the train­ing pool at the Swim­ming Cen­tre. In con­junc­tion with the NT Gov­ern­ment, the Coun­cil con­struct­ed a veran­dah at the Alice Springs Child Care Cen­tre locat­ed in Bath Street.

Reha­bil­i­ta­tion of the Coun­cil dump was com­plet­ed in ¹⁹⁹⁴⁄₉₅, ahead of sched­ule. Mos­qui­to lar­val sur­veys were car­ried out on a week­ly basis.

Treat­ment was car­ried out on the spot to reduce the num­bers reach­ing the adult stage.

From the 111 entries received, Coun­cil Alder­men select­ed Math­ew Sheridan’s entry as the win­ning logo in the Council’s Logo Com­pe­ti­tion. The design was an oasis in the mid­dle of a red sandy desert.

The Coun­cil and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Native Title Claimants formed a con­sul­ta­tive group with the view to ensur­ing the exchange of infor­ma­tion regard­ing the Native Title Claim over vacant land in Alice Springs.

Two new net­ball courts were com­plet­ed at Ross Park.

The build­ing of the library exten­sion meant a 50 per cent increase in floor space – dou­bling the space for chil­dren, appro­pri­ate archival con­di­tions for the Alice Springs Col­lec­tion, and more study space for the patrons.

1995 – 1996

On 1 July, 1995, the Town Coun­cil grant­ed Free­dom of Entry to the Town of Alice Springs to No. 1 Radar Sur­veil­lance Unit Roy­al Aus­tralian Air force, and Detach­ment 421 Unit­ed States Air Force.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 trees were plant­ed while only 150 to 200 were removed.

The Gap Child Care Cen­tre was sub­stan­tial­ly upgrad­ed with new fences, win­dows and sew­er lines.

A facil­i­ty for the iso­la­tion of dis­eased ani­mals and the euthana­sia of ani­mals at the Ani­mal Pound was con­struct­ed dur­ing the year.

The major urban beau­ti­fi­ca­tion project by the Coun­cil dur­ing the year was at the ​“Hos­pi­tal Lawns” — the park­land along Stu­art Terrace.

Some trees were replaced where nec­es­sary, seats in the orig­i­nal design replaced old ones, and the play­ground equip­ment was bright­ly painted.

A major thrust dur­ing the year was to pro­mote the town as a con­fer­ence and con­ven­tion cen­tre in an effort to attract a greater share of that part of the tourist market.

The objec­tives of the man­age­ment of the garbage dump focussed on the reha­bil­i­ta­tion and re-veg­e­ta­tion of the dump faces in an effort to con­tin­ue improv­ing the appear­ance of the town dump. Seed­ing and plant­i­ng was still to be under­tak­en because of a delay with the pro­vi­sion of a water supply.

In Octo­ber, 1995, the name of the ceme­tery in George Cres­cent was offi­cial­ly changed to Stu­art Town Ceme­tery. The Coun­cil was respon­si­ble for the over­all con­tin­u­ing phys­i­cal main­te­nance of this cemetery.

The Coun­cil con­tin­ued its involve­ment with the Alice Springs Show by pro­vid­ing play­ground equip­ment, seat­ing, an out­door area, a baby’s change/​feed area, free tea, cof­fee, and cor­dial, and var­i­ous giveaways.

Tree plant­i­ng was under­tak­en in eight neigh­bour­hood parks and play­ground equip­ment was installed in sev­en parks.

A small water­slide was installed at the train­ing pool for use by chil­dren up to the age of ten years.

The Nevil Shute Memo­r­i­al Library record­ed an increase in both loans and mem­bers over the pre­vi­ous year.

Loans totalled 165,532 and mem­bers reached 14,796 – an esti­mat­ed 58 per cent of the town pop­u­la­tion. Roslyn Cousins’ work with­in the library field earned her the Library Man­ag­er of the Year Award.

Two major projects were the con­struc­tion of slow points in Madi­gan Street and a pass­ing lane in Head Street at the Madi­gan Street intersection.

Both result­ed in expect­ed improved traf­fic conditions.

The first stage of upgrad­ing the Schwarz Cres­cent cause­way was com­plet­ed in Novem­ber, 1995.

About thir­ty streets were resealed under the Road Reseal Programme.

Foot­path con­struc­tion con­tin­ued in a num­ber of streets.