What an adventurous week it has been in Roundstone through the Christmas and into the New Year, what with no water for a time, power and very high winds last Wednesday evening causing a bit of damage around the surrounding area of Roundstone, slates, a boat sank fortunately, all is well with the said boat. On a slightly humorous side, a lit up Santee climbing up the wall of the Shamrock, santee lost his head, however the head was found two days later, the head is now inside behind the bar, all we have to do now is to find his left foot. He is still on the wall headless ha ha ha
Meeting between Roundstone Development Council and Mr. T.J Redmond (District Engineer) and Mr. Tony Kelly (Senior Engineer), Galway Co Council in Roundstone on Fri. 11th December

Roundstone Development Council met with Mr. T.j Redmond (District engineer for Clifden) and Mr. Tony Kelly (Senior Engineer for Connemara Area) on Friday December 11th 2009 to discuss a number of issues around the village. A two hour meeting ensued and rather than go through the exact detail of the discussions I will list the topics discussed and the Councils position on each topic.

1) Traffic Management Plan for the village: Conclusion: The council’s view is that it is imperative that a proper plan be put in place and that this plan should have the input of all the people of Roundstone whether they be business people, Pedestrians, Road users, Tourists etc. The council have initiated a similar plan in Clonbur, which had similar problems to Roundstone, this plan is at the consultative stage but so far it is moving successfully. The council plan to start the process in Roundstone in the next six weeks. The initial stage will be a public meeting in which the council will outline how the process will evolve and all of the public will be welcome to take part. This public meeting will be advertised locally so watch out for it and if you want to have a say in the future traffic management plan for Roundstone then this is your chance.

2) Removal of the ESB Poles from the village Street: Conclusion: The approximate cost of the removal of the 10 ESB poles from Linnean’s Corner to the Catholic Church would be about €45,000. However this is not a final figure and some more explorative work will have to be done to establish a final costing. The council affirmed their support of the imitative through a leader funding project from FORUM in Letterfrack. This would see Leader funding providing 75 % Galway County Council 20% and the local community would have to provide 5%. The next step is that the county council will do an accurate survey of the streetscape to establish where the existing ducting for the cables is and what type of works need to be undertaken, i.e. Road crossings etc etc, depending on the complexity of the work could add to the initial costing done. Also Eircom have to be contacted as it was established that there are a couple of Eircom cables crossing the middle section of the village. No time frame on this project can be established just yet as all prepatorey works must be carried out and all stakeholders involved must be in agreement to undertake the project. RDC and Galway County Council affirmed their position in supporting the project and work on this will continue in 2010.

3) Resurfacing of the Bog Road from Clifden to Roundstone: Conclusion: Galway County council stated that it had been there aim since 2004 to resurface one kilometre of the bog road from Clifden to Roundstone every year. This they had done successfully until this year. The roads budget for road resurfacing in the Clifden district in 2009 was cut by 30% and unfortunately the bog road was one of the projects that had to be dropped. They hope to re-continue the work in 2010 but there are no guarantees as budgets are set to be under pressure again this year. Also due to the flooding around the county in November monies for resurfacing work may have to be used for immediate flood damage repair. Anyway they have stated that they are aware of the poor state of the bog road in some sections and when they have money available they will do what they can. They indicated that there is a section of the ballyconneely road just after Dogs Bay that they regard as a priority and that this area will be repaired first.

4) Provision of Pavement on Ballyconneely Road: Conclusion: Galway County Council confirmed that work will commence in January or February on a new pavement and associated street lighting from the Garda Barracks as far as Annie King’s gate on the Ballyconneely Road.

5) Poor condition of Road through Cottages and at the top of O’Dowds Lane. Conclusion: Galway County Council engineers inspected the road and agreed that it was in a poor condition. They promised that the pot-holes would be repaired immediately and that work will be undertaken at a later stage to repair the burst waste pipes at the top of O’Dowd’s lane which is leading to a poor road surface and dangerous conditions in icy weather for pedestrians and road users. They expressed their opposition to the provision of speed ramps in the estate but they promised that they will provide more signage for road users to slow down while passing through the estate.

6) The unblocking of Street Gutters in the village: Conclusion: Galway county council were shown that all the gutters in the village were full and there was an especially dangerous situation at the Catholic Church where there was a large pool of water stretching from one side of the road to the other and covering the pavement. They promised to have the gutters cleaned out immediately and this was done within a couple of days.

7) The repair of the Old Stone Quay at Marine Terrace. Conclusion: Galway County council agreed that this quay, which is the oldest quay in the village, was in a bad condition and needed urgent repair work which they hope will be undertaken in the spring.

RDC thanked the council engineers for taking the time to come out and walk the village. We are confident that we can work well with the local council and despite funding difficulties we envisage that we can get a lot done in 2010. Once again we would stress to the people of Roundstone that we meet on the first Monday of every month, the next meeting being the 11th of January, if there are any issues you would like us to raise with the county council please contact any member of RDC and we will bring it up at our meeting on your behalf. Of course the next meeting will be dominated by the water problems which the village experienced over the last week and we are currently in contact with the water division of Galway County council to hold an urgent meeting with the Director of Services to get a full explanation as to what is going on with our water supply.

John Keane:
Our Condolences to Michael Keane and to his immediate family on the loss of his brother John. John was buried on Thursday in Gurteen. May he rest in peace?

Father Ray Flagherty:
As Father John McCarthy is due to retire in June of this year, he announced at the funeral of Michaels brother John, that a Father Ray Flaherty who at present is a curate in Tuam and was present at the funeral as a friend of the Keane family will be our new priest and will take over from Father John at the end of June. Father Ray was originally I think from Renvyle and was in Cladderduff for three years as priest. Anyway having met him twice now glad to say he has a great sense of humour rather like own Father John. We are lucky to have him, therefore we will do all we can to help him within the parish, and welcome him with open arms.

Nicky and Diana
On a nice note Nicky Griffin from O’Dowd’s informed me this after noon, that his wife Diana is expecting their first baby in April, so there is some nice news for a change, looking forward now to wet the baby’s head in April.

The Shamrock& Eldons:
The Shamrock bar and Eldon’s had their doors wide open with entertainment to see the new in, and also to celebrate Trish O’Donnell’s birthday, congratulations Trish, It was a good one and our thanks to Eldon’s and Shamrock for putting on such a fun night.

Roundstone Water Situation:
Everybody is experiencing water problems, apparently the supply source pumps are turned off from 10pm to 8pm, but there lies the problem the reservoirs have so little water left, house holds will experience only a trickle when the pumps come on, Errisbeg East will have no water at all for the moment, its just not there, one of the courses, is that people are allowing the taps to drip overnight, which does not help the reservoirs to fill and supply water to the other areas, I.e to me the cottages and to the Gurteen side, so please turn off your taps, bare in mind by keeping them on if you are paying water rates, its costing you and its so unfair for the other house holds. As you are aware of there is a black tank with drinking water by the flag poles in Roundstone for any body who needs it, it’s a bore but there it is, we will just have to ride it out.

With very low temperatures expected to continue, Galway County Council is again

Requesting all water users to reduce water use to the absolute minimum. The Council will continue to monitor the situation closely, and some night-time restrictions may be placed on supplies to conserve water & allow reservoir levels to build up.

Unnecessary and excessive water usage will give rise to water shortages. On the other hand, minimizing water demand in the home, business, and around the farm will ensure that water Outage can be avoided. Everyone can play their part by ensuring that:

• Taps are not left running or dripping

• Vacant properties are checked for leaks or bursts, and repairs carried out where

necessary.

• Businesses, offices, or schools that may have been closed for the holiday period are checked.

• Outhouses, field pipes and troughs etc are checked and leaks or bursts repaired.

Regular updates will be posted on the Council’s website at www.galwaycoco.ie.

Please contact the Water Services Section on 091-476401 with any queries.

Well that’s all from me this week, have a good one, keep warm, and watch out for the icy patches on the roads, some people are still driving to fast.