Arthur is a local who returned to King Island after time working in Hobart to use his expertise to help the King Island community. Councillor Vernon Philbey, who nominated Arthur as a high achiever, praised him and his team for going above and beyond to achieve road sealing on Pegarah Road after more than 20 years of talking.
King Island is a small council, and according to General Manager Mark Goode, when Arthur was made the new Works Manager about two years ago budget was often in the red and only a kilometre or two of roads were being built each year. The past year has been ‘amazing’ for Arthur, who not only achieved the long-awaited sealing of Pegarah Road, which council had been told would take two or three years, but did it in six months and for about a third of the projected cost.
Mark said Arthur has not only done a good job, he’s paid careful attention to budget and efficiency. “He was so efficient that he was able to seal other roads that weren’t even on the program, for no additional cost. We sealed the road to British Admiral Beach, which is probably the most popular beach for locals and visitors. He also refurbished an old lookout that had overgrown years ago, he just threw it in as part of the efficiencies.
“On top of all that, he did it all without borrowing a cent. We built five bridges, built 15 kilometres of road and did Pegarah Road. We really had a big year and did not borrow a cent, in fact we ended up with a cash surplus.”
Among Arthur and his team’s other achievements are providing work for locals who lost their job when an abattoir closed, improving relationships with people living near the quarry, who had previously been unhappy with the Council, and helping to secure funding for an upgrade to the airport terminal. Mark Goode added, “We have two great big golf courses which look like increasing tourism, and we’ve always talked about doing an upgrade to the airport terminal. Arthur recalculated the numbers and on the basis of that calculation we received $500,000 in RDAF funding from Canberra. He put forward an argument to Council and Council is now going to top that up with $1 million, which is huge for us, and it will double the size of the airport terminal.”
Arthur does not wish to take credit for the successes of the past year – he says it’s not him, it’s the team.
