At the September Council meeting Councillors considered two funding opportunities- one from the Federal Government and one from the State.  The Federal Government program was for facilities, such as sports grounds improvements.  It couldn’t be used for roads and bridges.  Councillors agreed to apply for funding Central Reserve in Colac in respect of that grant program.

The State Government program is for $561,000 per annum and may be used for facilities, or for roads and bridges.  Generally, most discretionary grant programs cannot be used for roads and bridges.  Where that is an option, I believe Council should spend most of the grant on infrastructure as Colac Otway Shire has a significant backlog.

Council Management recommended that $324,000 of the State Government grant be saved for a larger future project and that all of the balance, $237,000, be spent on Bluewater Fitness.  The Beechy Precinct includes the Joint Use Library, Bluewater Fitness and Central Reserve.  Had this been approved, every dollar spent would have been on the Beechy Precinct.  The Federal Government has already committed about $5.5 million to Bluewater Fitness under an unrelated funding program.

Councillors decided, at the September meeting, that $200,000 of the first year’s State grant should be saved and that all of the balance, $361,000, should be spent on bridges on local roads.

Council has been working to quantify the amount needed to improve the local bridges and initial estimates are that $5 million of work is needed in the near term.  Following this latest decision Council has the following funds available for bridges in the current financial year: 

Please feel free to contact me on 5237-3196 if you would like to discuss this or any other Council matter.

To comply with the Councillor Code of Conduct I need to make it clear that these comments are my personal report. I am not speaking on behalf of the Council.