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Speaker 1: Now a real change of page right now, because we

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Speaker 1: haven't been down to Catherine for a little while to

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Speaker 1: find out what's happening. And joining me on the line

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Speaker 1: is the mayor of Katherine, Liz Clark.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Liz.

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Speaker 3: Oh, good morning Katie, and good morning listener.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show now, Liza's quite

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Speaker 1: a bit happening in Catherine at the moment, I might

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Speaker 1: ask you. First, we know the aging Katherine Pool. It's

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Speaker 1: being closed ahead of upgrades to that at Quatac Center,

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Speaker 1: and despite efforts to sort of maintain and keep the

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Speaker 1: pool clean, safe and operational, unfortunately another major water pipe

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Speaker 1: leak was discovered earlier in the month. Talk us through

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Speaker 1: exactly what's going on with the pool, Liz.

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Speaker 3: Okay, the pool is now forty three years old and

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Speaker 3: apparently the youth by date finished twenty three years ago,

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Speaker 3: so it has had issues over time, of course, because

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Speaker 3: it is so old, and we were promised funding by

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Speaker 3: both sides of this government the last election. They both

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Speaker 3: promised us ten million dollars each, but that was a

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Speaker 3: couple of years ago. We have now got the funding. However,

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Speaker 3: the costs have gone up so we can only afford

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Speaker 3: to actually do the main pool and the small children's

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Speaker 3: pool because it needs a gradient. It's not whereas currently

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Speaker 3: it just has a shelter and the little pool and

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Speaker 3: you just jump straight in. So but apparently with new

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Speaker 3: rules and regulations you've actually.

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Speaker 4: Got to have a grade here to the little pool.

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Speaker 3: So and of course the pump, you know, the pumping

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Speaker 3: area that you know that feeds the chlorine and everything

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Speaker 3: into the pool. So that so those three things will

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Speaker 3: be upgraded because that's all we can afford to do

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Speaker 3: at this stage.

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Speaker 1: So these in terms of the funding, how much have

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Speaker 1: you got at this point in time, and break it

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Speaker 1: down for us in terms of council, federal and territory

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Speaker 1: government funding.

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Speaker 3: At this point we have ten million dollars from the

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Speaker 3: federal government. Yeah, you know, and you know we of

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Speaker 3: course we would like more like everyone else, you know,

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Speaker 3: so that we can do more. But however we have that,

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Speaker 3: we have the ten million dollars now in hand, so

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Speaker 3: we are able to go ahead with the with the upgrade.

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Speaker 3: It was just unfortunate. Thankfully the schools had all finished

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Speaker 3: their carnivals so so they were able to finish their

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Speaker 3: the swim things that they have every year, but we

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Speaker 3: have to now close it because of the Major Order League.

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Speaker 3: We can't keep the pool going currently.

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Speaker 1: And Liz, I know the school carnivals have finished, but

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Speaker 1: I've just been at the on the weekend the NT

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Speaker 1: Championships are on for swimming. I know that the Catherine

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Speaker 1: Swimming Club has an awesome crew. Do you know what

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Speaker 1: they're doing to kind of be able to keep training

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Speaker 1: and keep swimming with the pool closed.

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Speaker 3: We have made arrangements with the raft to the four

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Speaker 3: them to be able to use the pool out there.

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Speaker 3: So they do they you know, and because they're constant,

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Speaker 3: they have the same people in that club for you know,

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Speaker 3: for security and everything else. They will be able to

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Speaker 3: use the raft pool in the interim.

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Speaker 1: That's good news. That is good news to keep those

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Speaker 1: kids active. And like I said, I know they're an

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Speaker 1: awesome little club, so I reckon that's good news that

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Speaker 1: they're able to continue swimming. What's been the feedback, you

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Speaker 1: know from the locals. Are people sort of annoyed that

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Speaker 1: the pool has to close or are they understanding that

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Speaker 1: really the work does need to take place.

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Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of there are people that

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Speaker 3: are unhappy and Unfortunately, the river is not an option

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Speaker 3: either because you know, we have the increasing crocodiles, and yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's going to be very difficult, particularly because it's a

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Speaker 3: you know, we're in a cold place, you know, like

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Speaker 3: we're coming up to the cold season, so you know,

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Speaker 3: people don't general use the pool so much during the

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Speaker 3: cold season.

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Speaker 4: But the new pool will have will be heated. But yeah, the.

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Speaker 3: Issue here is I guess we'll have to find other

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Speaker 3: ways of keeping cool, which which people will be drawn

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Speaker 3: to the river of course.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, now tell me, Liz, I understand as well that

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Speaker 1: there's quite a bit happening at the moment in terms

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Speaker 1: of seeking expressions of interest for food vendors for community events.

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Speaker 4: Yes, we are.

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Speaker 3: Some of the food vendors that we had last year,

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Speaker 3: some of them are not no longer going. They're going

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Speaker 3: to you know, they're going into others doing other things

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Speaker 3: this year. So we are really looking for food vendors

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Speaker 3: for our very popular food collective. It starts on the

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Speaker 3: second of May, so you know, there's expressions of interest

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Speaker 3: out there.

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Speaker 4: So anyone that's interested in selling food.

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Speaker 3: It is a very popular night and most nights that

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Speaker 3: have been on, everyone sells out so you know, it's

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Speaker 3: certainly the market is there. We just need some more

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Speaker 3: food vendors and.

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Speaker 1: Any kinds of any particular foods that you're after, or

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Speaker 1: you're after whatever.

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Speaker 2: You can get.

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Speaker 3: I think we're after whatever we can get because I mean,

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Speaker 3: you know, people's palets have changed over time. So I

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Speaker 3: think any food that anyone, you know, anyone can make,

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Speaker 3: I think people would buy it.

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Speaker 1: Now, Li's just a bit off track here. I am

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Speaker 1: just reading in the NT news. I've just seen in

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Speaker 1: the NT news this morning that they're saying that two

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Speaker 1: men are hopelessly lost northwest of Catherine, with desperate text

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Speaker 1: messages set by one of the requesting his ex partner

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Speaker 1: called Triple zero this morning. Are you guys hearing much

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Speaker 1: about this in Catherine this morning?

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Speaker 4: No, I haven't heard that at all.

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Speaker 2: No, well, we'll see what else we can find out.

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Speaker 1: But no, I just looked at it from the on

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Speaker 1: the NT news there and thought, oh, I wonder if

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Speaker 1: Liza heard anything about this. But no, we'll see what

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Speaker 1: we can find out before I let you go this morning.

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Speaker 1: How have things been in Catherine. I know that it

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Speaker 1: looked as though there was a bit of a crime

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Speaker 1: space over the weekend if things settled down at all.

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Speaker 4: It goes up and down, Katie. You know it's and

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Speaker 4: of course we do.

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Speaker 3: Get a lot of people coming in from other areas here.

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Speaker 4: Because of the wet season. But no, it is up

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Speaker 4: and down with the crime.

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Speaker 3: We did have extra police a couple of months ago

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Speaker 3: which did help, but.

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Speaker 4: Yes, it's an ongoing it's ongoing.

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Speaker 2: Well this Clark. It's always great to catch up with you.

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Speaker 1: We'll have to do it a bit more often and

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Speaker 1: find out what's going on in Catherine.

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Speaker 2: I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 4: Thank you very much for having me.

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Speaker 2: Thank you