Hervey Bay Gossip

There’s a lot of pain for three small businesses in Urangan

While it has been easy to see the advantages to Hervey Bay of a big development like the Peppers’ resort The Chronicle reported yesterday on the hidden cost to three small businesses in Urangan.

Three fast food outlets have now been caught by workers on the project who ran up large tabs and then left without paying up. While extending credit to anyone can only be described as risky you can’t help but feel the pain of a small business that is owed thousands of dollars and has little hope of recovering the money.

Sometimes the people at in the front line have the answers

As we all know our kids are killing themselves at an ever increasing rate on Queensland roads and the people who have to face the carnage every day are the local police and ambos.

Today’s Courier Mail is carrying the story of a local cop in a north Queensland town who has managed to reduce the number of teenage road deaths in his small patch to none in the last three years.

Driving for Answers is definitely worth reading.

It’s a message in a bottle you would not want to receive

Fair Trading Minister Margaret Keech today warned Queenslanders a glass bottle ornament containing toxic seeds may be in their homes.

Mrs Keech said the ‘Message in a Bottle’ ornament, sold from variety and discount stores between September and November, contained seeds from the deadly Abrus Precatorius plant.

“The seeds are the size of a tic tac, bead-shaped and are red in colour with a black spot at the base of the seed,” she said.

“The raw seeds contain abrin, one of the deadliest plant toxins known. If cracked and swallowed, one seed could be fatal to a child.

“The seeds are also known as Crab’s Eye, Gidee-Gidee, Precatory Bean, Rosary Pea and Jequirity Bean.

“I cannot stress enough how dangerous this product is.

“If you have purchased this product you can take it back to the trader for a full refund.

“Alternatively please dispose of the item by placing it in a plastic bag and putting it straight into the wheelie bin.”

The product importer has launched a voluntary recall of the product.

It’s absolutely spectacular

Judging in the Light Up Our City 2006 is now well and truly underway and that means all the houses that have been entered in the competition have their Christmas lights on every night between now and Christmas.

There are certainly plenty of spectacular displays out there and 71 Denmans Camp Road Hervey Bay is definitely worth seeing.

Christmas Street Hervey Bay - otherwise known as Hayman Court - at the end of Royal Drive is also worth seeing but be prepared for a lot of traffic if you’re heading up that way.

 This year there are 53 entrants in the competition and you can find a full list and a map to help you find them all in today’s Observer.

The world is running short of helium

Fortunately it’s only a temporary shortage brought on scheduled maintenance at several plants in the US and delays in completing new plants but for the moment the world is running short of helium.

Fortunately there’s no shortage of politician’s hot air so we should make it through this festive season with plenty of what’s required to inflate all the party balloons.

On a more serious note helium is used for much more important uses than inflating party balloons and the world supply is being rationed so that MRI machines that use the gas for cooling and manufacturers who use it in their processes won’t run short.

At a price most people can afford

It’s great to see that finally there are some good quality bananas appearing in the supermarkets at reasonable prices. The price is still not down around what it was before Cyclone Larry but they are no where near as expensive as they have been since the cyclone.

Ted looks like he’s been taking lessons from the John Howard School for Dealing With Difficult Questions.

Well the town plan for Hervey Bay has been approved and the buildings are going to rise higher in some parts of the town.

I can understand why some people are already feeling angry about the new plan and Ted Sorenson’s response on the television news last night really seemed to indicate that he couldn’t care less about what many people here in town think.

The comment from one councillor that all these high rise developments would include bars and cafes on their ground floors that the people of Hervey Bay could enjoy was just delusional. We already have bars and cafes we can and do enjoy - we don’t need more in places where the rents are going to be so high that normal people won’t want to pay the prices these places will have to charge.

Now let’s hear from those councillors who got elected on a platform of keeping development along the Esplanade under control.

And the view is superb

Aquavue right on the water at Torquay, Hervey Bay, has to be one of the best places for breakfast, lunch or just a great cup of coffee. Not only is the food good but the view is wonderful.

Aquavue is currently open from 7am through till 4pm every day except Christmas Day. From next Monday - December 11 Aquavue will be open right through till 7pm.

It definitely comes with the Gossip’s seal of approval.

One may appear in your front yard any day now

This is an AMR smart meter and Wide Bay Water is currently replacing 20,000 water meters across Hervey Bay with this new model.

This new meter collects comprehensive data on water collection not only within each home but within the city-wide system. The data these meters collect will enable Wide Bay Water to identify leakages and so reduce water wastage.

The new meters will also provide a cost saving in the labour costs involved in reading water meters each billing cycle. Instead of visually inspecting each water meter on each property the meter will now transmit data to a receiver carried by a vehicle passing the property or an employee walking down the footpath.

Funding for the project, whick is estimated to cost $5.4 million has come from the Federal Government, the Queensland Government and Wide Bay Water.

Backhoe cuts a gas pipeline near Peppers on The Esplanade at Hervey Bay

At lunch time today shopkeepers and residents along the Esplanade at Urangan were warned to stay inside until a break in a gas pipeline near Peppers could be repaired. Emergency services attended the scene and authorities went door to door warning people to stay inside until the break had been repaired.