Is the old college beyond salvation?
LAST week's call for someone, anyone, to come clean on the future of the old Mort Street (Lithgow) TAFE College eyesore has brought stony silence from anyone in the know - but not from the column's correspondents.
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They agree there's a community out there becoming more and more concerned at a lack of any evident action that has been the case for years.
One astute local businessman even volunteered an opinion that by now the neglected monolith could well be beyond economic redemption.
His view, and one shared by others in the past, is that it could be better for Lithgow's sake to knock the place down to make way for an extended landscaped car park.
This, he said, would serve the added benefit of opening up access across Cook Plaza to the CBD.
A similar view was expressed years ago in Lithgow Council by then Councillor Howie Fisher.
The problem with this scenario is obviously the issue of private ownership by out of town investors who are unlikely to come on board without a very costly sweetener.
When the current owners acquired the already tatty old college in a mortgagee sale forced by the bank there were vague statements about a development incorporating a mix of commercial and residential uses.
The ghosts of more than 90 years of 'Tech' students past will be watching and wondering about their legacy.
Bustin' out all over
FOR decades locals have regarded the first 'official' confirmation that Springtime really is imminent is when the street tree blossoms appear in Birdwood Street. Rest easy folks; the first Birdwood blossoms are beginning to peep out from the Winter hibernations. Any day now and Spring really will be, as they say in the old song, 'bustin' out all over'. Don't put your thermals away just yet though.
Cold shoulder
YOU know the weather's extreme when in the midst of footy season madness you can't even give away tickets to the games. In the recent three day icy blast over the State (including Lithgow's two days of snow) Westfund had tickets to the Penrith Panthers Friday night match against someone or other. But alas, no takers among the fund's members. The tickets were available from Westfund's NRL sponsorship program.
Corn Corner
JUST to lighten up the week we attribute this piece of news to veteran local firey Paul Carter who assures us it's from a reliable source. According to Paul the McDonalds promotional team offered the Vatican a princely sum to change just one word in the Lord's Prayer to read '..give us this day our daily Maccas'. The Pope convened a meeting of Cardinals and they were enthusiastic - except for one. "Can't do it," he reminded the assembly. "We've still got a year to run with Bakers Delight".
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