Griffith City Council has committed to applying for extra funding to complete sealing Boorga Road, after the new plan fell two kilometres short. After years of complaints and issues surrounding Boorga and Dickie Roads, Griffith City Council applied to the Growing Local Economies program for funding to upgrade and seal the infamous pair back in 2018. Obtaining the funding in 2020 from the Fixing Local Roads program, an initial plan to seal over 10 kilometres was set, using grant money along with council funding and a contribution from Rombola Family Farms. While Rombola Family Farms contributed approximately 800,000 dollars worth of gravel to seal the road, the gravel is unused due to Griffith City Council changing the plan and requiring a different grade. This new plan, without the gravel that Rombola now sits on, proved too expensive and time-consuming, prompting Griffith City Council to consider downsizing the project to 8.6 kilometres and no longer sealing the entire road up to Rombola's driveway. Councillors consulted with Fernando Rombola at the August 9 meeting, hearing the entire affair from his point of view. "We were asked what contribution we could make, we said that we have an inactive quarry... At the end of the day, we can provide rough material - we had no idea the value of gravel or anything, we just wanted to get this thing done," Mr Rombola said. He explained that they weren't issued any details or requirements for the gravel, but were surprised by a request for more from Council at the time after a new plan was put up that would reduce the amount of gravel needed. "We donated a quantity of gravel, not a value." "In the end, 90 per cent of it was able to be used if we adopted a design that had been certified by Aiken Rowe. That design was overlooked, so the design they progressed with utilises 66,000 tons of gravel instead of 124,000 - so then we've been told we need to come up with our co-contribution another way." Rombola Family Farms offered to conduct the earthworks on Dickie Road to make up the contribution, however that fell through within two weeks. READ MORE "In the end, we had a meeting at council, the General Manager was involved and said that option had been taken off the table. We accepted that - at that point, we were notified the road would be stopped two kilometres short of our driveway. One of the major reasons for that was because of Rombola's lack of co-contribution," Mr Rombola said. "To say that we feel like we're hard done by would be an understatement." Griffith City Council resolved to apply for Round 4 of the Fixing Local Roads program, in order to fund the extra two kilometres of road, as well as complete a gravel resheet as a 'next best thing' if the application is unsuccessful. Of course, this raises concerns for Rombola Family Farms regarding a potential road closure during peak harvesting and export times of the year. This concern led Councillor Dino Zappacosta to add a final amendment, pushing to hold a workshop with councillors and Rombola to sit down and fully go through the issues that led to this stage. "I think we owe it to ourselves to be fully briefed," Cr Zappacosta said. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
