Hollywood star filming in Ballina?
A COUNCIL worker to sweep the streets in Ballina should be employed as the town needed to be looking its best, especially as famous people like Hollywood legend and Oscar winner Russell Crowe were visiting on a film project in the location, claimed Cllr Phyll Bugler at the December meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District authority.
The Fine Gael councillor made her comments as reports emerged that Crowe was in the lakeside village shooting scenes for his latest movie, The Pope's Exorcist, based on the true story of Fr Gabriele Amorth who carried out over 100,000 exorcisms.
According to Cllr Bugler, who was speaking at the municipal meeting on Thursday, December 15, Mr Crowe was filming around the picturesque lakeside village of Ballina.
The actor has already revealed that he was looking forward to shooting scenes around Limerick and was reported to be based in a castle in county Limerick.
Cllr Bugler also revealed that the crew behind the highly-successful Smother series shown on RTÉ1 was due in Ballina towards the end of January.
Cllr Bugle said Ballina is very much a focus for film production, and she called on the council to ensure that tourist signs in the area were maintained and cleaned.
She also appealed for a person to be employed in the village on a permanent basis to carry out cleaning and maintenance.
SIGNS TURNED GREEN
She said signs promoting the lake on the approach roads to the village had turned green for want of washing and she urged the council to take action.
A man used to be employed by the council to maintain the streets and footpath in the past, but nobody had replaced him since that service was withdrawn in 2006. She and other members of the local Tidy Towns Committee could not do all the work themselves. The council needed to fill the position again.
Area Engineer Barry Murphy said the council spent €15,000 in the Nenagh District cleaning signs this year, and most of that had been in the Ballina area.
Council Director Marcus O' Connor said the local authority's budget was limited and it did not have sufficient funds to deploy a worker to Ballina on a full time basis. But the council was more than willing to help in any way it could to keep the town looking well during the busy summer months.
Cllr Bugler said Clare County County Council was able to afford to have someone sweeping the streets in Killaloe full-time. She did not see why the same provision could not be made on the Tipperary side of the Shannon.