All the Mountains villages and towns are in desperate need of road repairs and Mayor Mark Greenhill has asked the council chief executive officer to borrow money to fix the roads if need be.
At the May council meeting in an urgency motion, the mayor noted the scale of the natural disaster over the summer and beyond, and the impact a second La Nina event had had on the infrastructure.
He expressed support for council workers and said additional resources had been brought in to try to fix the problem. Particular mention was made of Megalong Valley, where garbage services had been disrupted due to poor roads. He said if extra resources were needed, council should borrow the funds.
"The task is enormous, Megalong Valley particularly worries me. Council will be spending literally millions of dollars to fix those roads.
"We are not alone. What this resolution does is thank our workers .. but importantly it offers our staff more resources should they need it. It says to the CEO [Dr Rosemary Dillon] and her team if you need more resources, we as a governing body will give them to you. If you need the money to accelerate the process ... if it has to come from reserves, if we have to resume borrowing ... let's borrow, let's get on top of this issue and return our roads to normal."
The mayor asked that the council be regularly briefed on road network repairs and any obstacles. Council noted the recent commitment by the incoming federal government for millions in funding for Mountains' roads. The matter was passed unanimously.