Federation Council may allow new group to have key say over unsealed road maintenance

The municipality's engineering chief Steve Carmichael gave that indication at Monday's monthly council meeting.

He was responding to councillor Aaron Nicholls who was asking how the yet to be formed committee would fit into the hierarchy of decision-making.

"They may even be the people that decide in the end how often we grade roads," Mr Carmichael said.

"But we don't want them having the say on which road is getting graded on which day and this type of thing.

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"That needs to be left to the operational side, but it may be that you decide school bus routes need grading three times a year not twice a year and that type of thing, if that's the consensus of opinion from those people and council can afford to pay for it that would then be reflected back into these documents."

Mr Carmichael was referring to documents such as the council's management plans for road maintenance and traffic assets which were endorsed at the meeting.

Council is currently seeking expressions of interest from residents wanting to join the committee and they will close on August 1.

Its creation follows community concern over the upkeep and financing of road works across the council which has 950 kilometres of unsealed local roads, compared to 583 kilometres of sealed local roads.

Earlier in the meeting, Mr Carmichael noted a conversation he had with NSW Roads Minister Sam Farraway at Mulwala last month about state funding of carriageways through the Fixing Local Roads Program.

"The first round was broken up into about six different areas and there was a number of roads in each area, so he's indicated that he wants to return that (rather than fund specific roads)," Mr Carmichael said.

Also at Monday's meeting, the council approved an upgrade to the Cross Street Reserve at Howlong and the installation of a concrete boat ramp at Kyffins Reserve which fronts on to Lake Mulwala off Spring Drive to the north of Mulwala.

The NSW government has provided council $80,000 to construct the ramp which will allow anglers to launch their boat from one location rather than various areas.

The project is expected to be completed by June 30 next year.

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