The strange (and smart) things you would do as mayor

WHAT would you do if you were Lismore's mayor? Our readers have promised to fix the roads, reduce rates, reopen the lake pool and make the ark seaworthy.

Brett Payne's photo of Lismore's ark. Picture: Brett Payne

JUST for a bit of fun, we decided to ask our readers what they would do if they were Lismore's mayor for one day.

The overwhelming response was to "fix the roads" (good luck doing that in just one day), while others wanted to reopen the Lismore Lake Pool and some people pledged to reduce rates.

Link Smith picked up plenty of votes when he vowed to "make the ark in town seaworthy, no matter the cost".

Bel Hanson thought it was a great idea, "as long as Captain Jack Sparrow is on it", and Jarrad Stephen also supported the plan, saying: "Turn it into pirate ship complete with cannons and I'll support your campaign."

But it wasn't all fun and games.

Many of our readers had some excellent ideas when it came to things the mayor or the council could do to improve life for residents.

John Henry: "Would make rates cheaper and free parking."

Justine Doncaster: "Fix up your transit centre."

Byron Brooks: "I'd give a 45 per cent rate cut to all farmers and 20 per cent cut to town people who give up water to help farmers out in NSW anywhere."

Belinda Scott: "Remove paid parking at the hospital."

Don Abrahams: "Stop wasting money on unnecessary things and get the infrastructure right first."

Controversially, a number of people said they would remove fluoride from the drinking water.

As mayor, Alan Willoughby would clean Lismore lake and make the drainage 10 times better, while Ivan Gosper would "stop all spending, go back to basics, fix the infrastructure then grow from there".

Ellen Rose agreed with fixing the Lismore Lake: "It is the first thing people see, when they drive in from Casino or get off the plane, it's quite simply an eyesore."

When it came to roads, there was plenty to say.

Shay Jansen would "rip out all the bloody roundabouts - no one knows how to use them".

Stephen Beacom: "Make sure all pot holes fixed properly and get rid of the bitumen spray truck, it's not worth it."

Mandy Hansen: "Fix all the crap roads. Even roads newly tarred are sh--".

But being the mayor of the Lismore local government area is a tough job, and David Craggs was well aware of the difficulties he would face if he was mayor for a day.

"(I would) sit in my chair rocking back and forth... and nothing else," he wrote.

Shane Weston-Fitzgerald said he would just resign.

"It's a no win job, life is too short to be trying to please all the people all the time," he posted.

Kirsten Chambers had a slightly different coping mechanism: "Take a long boozy lunch followed by a nap".

Some of your other ideas:

• Del Marie McAlister: Approve several safe dementia villages with farm animals
• Cindy Dickson: Make the rent more affordable for all shops so they don't close down
• Corey James: Beautify the CBD and make more businesses want to invest here
• Michelle Anderson: Do something to support the homeless people
• Stephen Bradford: Have more police walking around the streets and through shops
• Rhea Harding: Invite in the Local Aboriginal elders and listen and learn
• Rudy Van Wyk: Make all Mondays no work.