Charlotte Varcoe
A DECISION made by the District Council of Grant will increase a community club’s project by $50,000.
Elected members considered a range of options to assist the Port MacDonnell Netball Club with its redevelopment plan including providing a $30,000 no-interest loan over a 10-year period.
This is alongside the prior decision for council to provide a $10,000 cash contribution to the project.
Initially, the club’s redevelopment proposal was estimated to cost up to $100,000.
The original proposal was to remove two existing tennis courts and make the area into full-sized netball courts which would be dual painted for both sporting activities.
At the December council meeting, elected members opted to provide the loan and remove the four old tennis courts with two to be replaced by the netball courts and the rest of the area be made into a recreational reserve.
The new netball court will also be dual line-marked for tennis and netball while the internal and boundary fencing around the old tennis courts would be removed.
New boundary fencing would be erected along with what would become the new border of the netball and football clubs.
The netball and football clubs would also have to enter into a new lease agreement reflecting the expansion of their designated area, to include the area which is currently a recreation reserve.
During the meeting, elected members discussed the multitude of options presented to them in a report with Councillor Barry Kuhl questioning the club members volunteer hours.
Cr Kuhl asked council staff if they were aware of the number of volunteer hours club members put into the facilities stating he believed it came across as the club coming to council and asking if it does the work for them.
Cr Rodney Virgo put forward a motion that a similar option be put forward yet the dual-lined marking be conducted in-kind by council.
The motion lapsed due to a lack of a seconder before Cr Kuhl moved the final motion.
Speaking to The Border Watch, Ms Lewis said removing the four courts and redeveloping the area would be a “financial implication” put upon the club.
She said when the club had been applying for grants under the estimated $100,000 final costing, the club was receiving feedback it was not financial enough to meet the grant.
Now, Ms Lewis remained concerned about the estimated increase in cost and whether it would hinder any chance of securing grants in the future.
“The redevelopment of the grassed area is where the price comes in,” Ms Lewis said.
“We will have to get it compacted and bring in soil, seeding and everything like that.
“We would then take over the lease for that area which makes it hard because we do not have a lawn mower at the moment so we would have to invest in one of those as well.”
Ms Lewis said she was concerned councillors were not provided the complete picture.
“Our only other hope is to write an email to the councillors and the mayor and hopefully one of them will bring it up at the next council meeting or put it on the agenda in the future,” Ms Lewis said.
“Our only hope is then they would revoke the decision of removing all four courts and just allowing us to have the two we wanted and then we can redevelop that space.
“I feel redeveloping two courts would be better than none and that is the situation we are looking at at the moment.”
She said should the final figure be around the $150,000 mark, the club was confident it would not be successful for future funding.
“This way we are looking at a $70,000 grant instead of a $30,000 grant which makes it much harder,” Ms Lewis said.
In response to Cr Kuhl’s comments about volunteering hours, Mr Lewis said she was “very disappointed”.
“The amount of volunteer hours we put into the club is a lot and over the past 10 years we have done countless hours of volunteering to fundraise for the improved courts,” she said.
“The amount of money we have got saved to be able to put towards this project has been unbelievable and we are all family people, we all work full time and we are also volunteering for a club in town that we love.
“We do not want to sound ungrateful because we are not, we are grateful for what council has given us and the support we are betting but to be able to remove all four courts…I just do not think it will be feasible for the club.”
