Sophie Conlon
The Mount Gambier and District Tennis Association will persevere with site upgrades despite having a funding application rejected by the City of Mount Gambier.
Association president Andrew van den Hurk approached council requesting a $15,000 grant to assist in the delivery of lighting upgrades at the Olympic Park tennis courts.
The request was for a pre-approved allocation from the 2024/2025 Grant Funds, which if approved would have supported a grant application to the Office of Recreation and Sport.
Mr van den Hurk told council the lights had surpassed their end of life and Tennis Australia had deemed their replacement essential.
“We’re at a stage now where we will need a major upgrade,” he said.
“As part of our strategic plan we’re trying to stage upgrades at some of our venues and the first one is to attend to the lighting upgrade, based on the fact we have no flexibility anymore for fixturing and also coaching activities.”
Council declined the request and instead referred the application to the 2024/2025 Grant Fund application process.
In moving the motion councillor Sonya Mezinec said it was a tough decision.
“This is really tough I have to admit, on one hand we’d love to support the clubs to be able to proceed in improving their facilities, but then there is also the commitment of being in the middle of budgetary processes,” she said.
Speaking to SA Today after the meeting Mr van den Hurk said the rejection would not stop the association moving forward.
With council’s Master Planning process for Olympic Park still a few years from starting, Mr van den Hurk said it could be up to six years before the association could properly upgrade the venue.
“In the interim a lighting upgrade would be the bare minimum we need to get by until we can obtain a proper upgrade of the venue,” he said.
“Because the lighting isn’t working it just restricts our opportunities to run social competitions in the evenings, it slows down our coaching activities as well, so it’s something that needs immediate attention.”
The association had been quoted $75,000 for the new lights, which Mr van den Hurk said were transportable and could move with the association as it changed.
“We proposed that we get some lighting that is transferable,” he said.
“So even if we get an upgrade here and they redesign it, these lights can still be utilised for whatever design we choose.
“And if we weren’t to remain here then they’re transferable to another venue.
“So we covered all bases to make sure we spend our money and any funding we get wisely.”
It was hoped a successful application to the council would boost their chances with the Office of Recreation and Sport, but without it the association did not meet the 50 per cent required contribution and was deemed ineligible.
Mr van den Hurk said they would continue with looking at other grant options and would reapply with the Office of Recreation and Sport in their next round.
“Even though we’ve been unsuccessful with council in obtaining some of that funding we’ve got some other avenues we can go down to try and secure funding through,” he said.
“We’re hopeful we can secure the last $15,000 by Tennis Australia in the meantime.
“When you go for grants it doesn’t always succeed the first time you’ve got to try it two, three, four times sometimes, so this is the first little hindrance but we’ll just keep trying until we succeed.”
Mr van den Hurk said in the interim they had installed some old lights from the neighbouring courts, though they were quite dull and not ideal for tennis.
