I wish to assure Mr Boorer and all our patrons that noise is no longer an issue at The Long Room.

Since reading of Mr Boorer's concerns, I have held an emergency meeting with my staff and other concerned passersby, who previously had been crossing the street rather than walk past my cafe because of noise concerns.

We did consider nailing pieces of egg carton and carpets to the walls, and, indeed, I did have some old dog bedding at home which would have done the trick, but I decided more was needed.  

We have installed Rococco antique hangings on all the walls, and indeed on the coffee machine, as the noise of the grinder in particular was way off the scale. 

We still have a kettle and coffee powder out the back for anyone desperate for a coffee.

In addition, we have installed state of the art Cones of Silence on all tables, and customers will be issued with BOSE noise-cancelling headphones on entering the cafe.

In particular, we are being careful to ban excessively noisy people, and all children are being banished out the back where no-one can hear them scream.

In general, I wish to apologise for having an excessively popular cafe, with too many rowdy, frivolous customers. 

I believe that these measures should solve all problems, and Mr Boorer is welcome back any time to ascertain for himself our success in solving the noise crisis.  Powdered coffee for Mr Boorer is, naturally, on the house.

I refer to the front-page story, “We’re still in limbo”, which appeared on page one of the Dungog Chronicle on March 29.

My comment to our mayor, Cr Harold Johnston, is: that's no surprise! You have just made your second representation to Macquarie Street seeking a solution to a problem that could easily have been solved at the last council meeting by accepting the second offer to merge with Port Stephens Council.

Did you get what you wanted with the State Government? Compensation and assurances of ongoing financial support for the future of our shire?

I would have thought if successful, this would surely amount to an admission of guilt on the part of the State Government for what you refer to as “the ill fated merger process”. Surely that is a naive and risky gauntlet to throw down.

When will you share with Dungog Shire constituents the outcomes of this final meeting and the implications for our community?

Merging with Port Stephens creates some certainty for our future. We expect rates to rise but we have also been informed that we can expect delivery of services and financial assistance with the infrastructure backlog.

All we know so far about Council's stand alone proposal is that in the Macquarie Street meeting on 4 April maybe the State Government responded to Council's request for compensation and ongoing financial assistance...maybe it didn't. Then what?

The next part of the stand-alone platform proposes doubling rates, decreased service delivery and a significant unaddressed infrastructure backlog.  Surely a bitter pill for our community to swallow.

A mandatory requirement for Council's rate increase submission to IPART is community consultation. When can we expect this process to begin? What if IPART does not approve this increase, which it has said it won't, prior to us getting this far? Does this mean more time in limbo?

There are too many questions you have not provided answers for, so yes, our community languishes in limbo. My last question to you, are we in limbo because Council cannot or will not make a decision?