SO despite all the 'expert' opinion to the contrary it seems there's life in the old girl yet.
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Who would have thought the tatty old Lithgow TAFE college - widely regarded as our most embarrassing mid city eyesore - was actually an appreciating asset?
The critics, admittedly including this column, were largely gobsmacked when the sprawling but long neglected pile went at auction for just short of a million.
It was a nice little earner for the previous owners, not known for having done any visible work on the place, who picked up a cool $300,000 plus a bit in just five years.
Further back a few years when the TAFE first moved out it changed hands for just $215,000 before the mortgagee reclaimed the keys.
Now there's finally every indication that there's a positive future for the one time house of learning.
Can't help wondering, though, what the other two bidders at the auction had in mind for the place.
Nice work - but!
ANYONE with a smidgin of civic pride will applaud the current litter bin replacement program in the Lithgow CBD. The new bins are a far cry from the environmental train wrecks they replace. But there's one new installation that needs adjustment. The new bin outside Subway is perfectly positioned to further obscure driver vision at an intersection that has probably the worst sight distance in the CBD - a hazard amplified by the regular illegal parking in the 'no stopping' zone.
Positive moves
IT'S always encouraging to see new shops opening or existing ones expanding in the street shopping strips across our district. And in Lithgow's Main Street lately there's been pleasing activity. In the east end there's a new barber shop and Lithgow Restorations, together with Logan Signs relocating to bigger premises. Further down the strip there's the enticingly named Belle Rose Emporium winning praise and the Gourmet Meats butchery re-opening. All good healthy indicators.
Out of the USA
THAT torn up and roughly repaired stretch of Lithgow's Tank Street could easily pass for an off roaders' training track for months now. But according to a correspondent who claims to have the inside running on such things the long delay is the result of Council having to send to America for a costly valve that can be matched to the ageing water pipes under the road. Seems the pipes are so hold that matching fittings are no longer available in Oz. Old pipes? Surely not!
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