Published on Tuesday, 23 February 2016 at 12:00:00 AM
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
As most residents are aware, the Shire of Koorda was requested in 2011 to consider upgrading the Koorda Recreation Centre to ensure that the facilities can meet the requirements of the town well into the future. This included the addition of a gymnasium to the facility for general public use.
As a lead up to this, the Shire has had several meetings with users of the facility and the public to create a picture of what the public and users desire for the facility. This process has taken several meetings to ensure that what has been suggested as a ‘practical building’ by all users has been interpreted by designers to best represents the communities requests.
Once the general design was considered to be what we were seeking, a costing of the works was sought. This came back a lot more than what was initially anticipated at an estimate of $4.7million for the buildings, not including the court facilities. While we have been advised that this estimate was conservatively high, it still creates issues as to how we were going to fund this project as we had initially expected this amount to be significantly less. This meant that we had to try and find additional funding or reduce the scope of the works.
Late last year, the Shire of Koorda was advised that under the National Stronger Regions Funds (NSRF) program, the Shire was considered remote and therefore could make a claim for funding at a rate of $3 grant funding for every $1 shire contribution. Previously this grant was to be done at a $1 to $1 contribution. This grant was seen as our best source to try and fund the Recreation Centre Upgrade without making any compromises to what we wanted for the building as other grants were less supportive.
The lead up to the application for the grant funding was short. The grant was opened in mid January 2016 and has a closing date of mid March. The Shire sought advice from a grant writer to assist with the application and to see if the Shire had a chance of receiving this funding. It was believed that we did have the basis for an application, so the Shire has been working with the grant writer to prepare the information. Some clubs have been written to with a request for a letter of support for the upgrade as a part of this process.
It is important to note that this grant application is for the buildings of the Recreation Centre and not the bowling green or courts. This will be funded at a later date as per the initial project considerations. This will allow the Shire to rebuild funds in reserve accounts for this part of the project.
While work on the grant has been progressing and due to the short deadline of the application due date, the Shire has had to make some decisions to ensure that the grant application was lodged in time and unfortunately public consultation has been limited. To try and correct this oversight, we are issuing this press release to bring the public up to date with the Recreation Centre application.
In order to try and improve our chances of receiving the grant, the Shire has resolved to commit $1.3m to the Recreation Centre and seek $3.4m from the Federal Government. This is slightly more that the $3/$1 ratio, but improves our chances of getting the grant. The Shire has also allocated an additional amount of $300,000 for any building cost overruns, however as our initial quote is considered conservatively high we do not expect this funding to be required, just a consideration.
When we started this project, we had many concerns from the general public as to how we were going to fund this upgrade without it being a burden on the ratepayers by a huge increase in rates. We have kept regard for this concern throughout the process of this project and have tried to ensure that the upgrade will not jeopardise the financial position of the Shire or create a huge increase in rates.
Currently the Shire has $1.1m in the Recreation Reserve which is to be allocated to the Recreation Centre upgrade. This includes a contribution over the last 2 years of over $470,000 in preparation for the upgrade. We firmly believe that during the construction phase of the building we will be able to transfer the balance of the $1.3m contribution (balance of $200,000). This may also cover the $300,000 for over costs, or the Shire could consider using funds from the Building Reserve which has in excess of $1m.
Another consideration for funding if required was the application of a loan. This Shire currently does not have any outstanding debts (other than self supporting) and while we would like to keep it that way, but if necessary, the Shire could take out a loan for the works. A loan of $500,000 over a 10 year period would cost the shire just over $100,000 in interest with repayments of approximately $60,000 per year, or over a 5 year period costing only $46,000 with repayment of $108,000 per year. As we have shown by the transfers to the reserve funds over the last two years, this can be done without and increase in rates. The application of a loan is only a consideration if required, but is not anticipated. Public notice will have to be given before the Shire takes out any loans.
The NSRF was seen as our best chance for funding the project due to the amount of funding that we can receive. Due to the cost of the construction, we looked at Community Sports and Recreation Facilities Funds (1/3 Dept. Sport & Rec, 2/3 Shire and sporting groups) and Lotterywest (50/50), but these would only fund certain parts of the project and a lot less than the federal grant has to offer. We will be looking at other funding sources if we are successful with the NSRF grant, but the benefit of these other funds will have to be shared with the federal funding on a similar funding basis of 3-1, but will reduce our costs.
The funding application for this year was considered important for several reasons, which is why we have put it together and tried to push our best chance of getting funding:
- If there is a federal election announced before the grants are announced, all grants will be stopped while the government goes into caretaker mode until the results of the election and the grants considered by the new government or funding withdrawn; or
- As there is a possibility of an election, the federal government may expend all funds for the NSRF project which will increase our chances of getting funded.
Should the Shire not be successful in this round of funding, we will then have to look at options for the future. There may be additional funding rounds of NSRF which we will certainly be trying for, the scope of works will need to be reduced or we can look at chipping away at the project piece by piece to complete the works. The last 2 options were what we considered in the initial phases.
Most clubs and organisations that use the facility have recently received a letter of support request from the Shire. The more clubs that we have supporting this project, the greater chance we have of getting funding. We have also asked for financial support if possible. As part of the grant application, if we can show that we have co-contributors to the project, it improves our score for the application and our chance of getting funding. This financial support does not have to be a huge amount and the dollar value is not scored, just the number of contributors. We thank all groups that have pledged support either financial or a letter for assisting with this application process.
To ensure that all members of the public are fully aware of funding application and the Shires commitment, we have tried to enclose as much information as possible in this notice, but if you want further information or clarification on this, please contact the CEO at the Shire. Further to this, a public information session will be held at the Koorda Recreation Ground on the 10th March from 7pm to ensure that all members of the public are aware of the application before it is submitted.
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