PARKS, pools and halls are the big winners in a $1.1 million Federal Government spending spree in the Great Lakes, but local officials are not sure how to access the money.
The ideas were agreed on by excited Great Lakes councillors after they were promised the funds as part of the Government’s $250 million for small projects.
The $1.1 million injection will be funneled into infrastructure upgrades including:
$150,000 on Tuncurry’s John Wright Park
$130,000 of repairs for Forster Ocean Baths
$112,000 to Wade Park, Bulahdelah
$100,000 for a new toilet block at Boomerang Beach
$60,000 facelift for the Coomba Park Hall.
The handout is part of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s plan to avoid a recession. He said councils nation-wide will get the money by the end of this financial year, and it must be spent before October 2009 to help stimulate the economy.
“We expect that the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program will create thousands of jobs for tradespeople, engineers and administrators,” he said last month.
The excitement of passing the plans at the last Great Lakes Council meeting of the year was tempered by confusion over what happens next.
“These are all things that have been on our wish list,” engineering director Ron Hartley said.
“We’re just not sure whether these projects are automatically approved, or whether there’s a special approval process to go through.”
An Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government spokesperson said the process had been “quite clearly explained”, and emailed a link to the funding program’s website.
The Frequently Asked Questions section stated ‘Councils are required to submit proposals that meet the program’s guidelines in order to claim their allocation.
If approved, 100 per cent of the funding will be provided upon signing an agreement with the Department’.
How councils get that approval remains unclear.
The department was not answering calls on Wednesday, which, it must be said, was Christmas Eve.
Great Lakes general manager Keith O’Leary said the council agreed to spread the funds around several projects.
“Instead of one big project, we looked at putting some much-needed funding into a range of projects,” he said.
“Council staff put together a list, and the councillors ranked those in order of urgency.”
The money, which can only be spent on infrastructure, was handed out at the inaugural Australian Council of Local Government, attended by around 560 mayors and shire presidents.
For the Myall Lakes...
$100, 000 for the Marine Drive foreshore in Tea Gardens
$65, 000 for the installation of tennis courts in North Arm Cove
$60, 000 for the design and construction of a disabled toilet and kitchen upgrade to the Hawks Nest Community Centre
$30, 000 to replace picnic benches as Bennett’s Beach
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