A SUPERSIZE water slide could be built at the Millicent swimming lake if an ambitious funding bid by Wattle Range Council is successful.
Council has put a ballpark figure of $1.2m on upgrading the concrete foundations as well as the water slide.
Engineering services director Peter Halton told Tuesday’s historic electronic council meeting the water slide would be similar to structures at other public swimming facilities.
Mr Halton was speaking in support of a staff recommendation to back the suggested lake upgrade, as well as 11 other community projects totalling $19.3m.
He said council needed to have several shovel-ready projects ready as he anticipated a number of financial stimulus packages would be flowing from the State and Federal Government in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
According to Mr Halton, council needed to allocate $300,000 for design, costing and other preparatory work on the 12 projects as well as a commitment to fund up to 50pc of the capital costs.
The recommendations were debated and endorsed by a unanimous vote of the meeting.
Although he described the projects as “fantastic”, Councillor Peter Dunnicliff expressed reservations about the $300,000 funding allocation.
“It is over-the-top to spend $300,000 on the $20m worth of projects,” Cr Dunnicliff said.
“Perhaps the list could be trimmed,” Cr Dunnicliff said.
In reply, Mr Halton said the money would not be wasted as there was the capacity to leverage other government funds.
Chief executive Ben Gower said there had been clear and consistent messages from the Federal and State authorities about future funding schemes.
He said both tiers of government wanted to create jobs and stimulate the economy.
“Wattle Range has the cash reserves and there are low interest rates,” Mr Gower said.
Cr Sharon Cox said she doubted the council would qualify for a grant towards the suggested $3.6m needed for new council offices.
However, Mr Gower gave an optimistic reply.
“It is a different ball game,” Mr Gower said.
“Much of the design work for these projects has to outsourced.
“We have recently lost one of our design engineers and it is difficult to recruit them to regional areas.”
Cr John Drew lent his strong support to the staff recommendation.
“We have to be the first cab off the rank and beat the other councils,” Cr Drew said.
He pointed out the council had previously invested in two ill-fated projects for the sake of economic development around 20 years ago.
“We put money in to the Penola pulp mill and the [Teletrak] racecourse at Beachport and took a risk”.
