HORSHAM Rural City Council has allocated $400,000 to upgrade the change rooms at Laharum’s Cameron Oval.
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Horsham council will spend the money on stage one of the plan to upgrade the sports precinct if the state government decides to contribute $100,000.
If the project goes ahead, it will be based on upgrades at Horsham’s Coughlin Park and will start in the middle of the year.
Councillors approved the plan at the Horsham Rural City Council meeting on Monday night.
The total change rooms upgrade budget would be $650,000 with a $150,000 community contribution.
Councillor Mark Radford said the motion was a win for the people of Laharum.
“Cameron Oval is used as a recreation facility and it is also used in times of fire as staging area for the Grampians,” he said.
Horsham council will use $340,000 from its infrastructure renewal fund to help pay for the stage one upgrades.
The infrastructure fund is maintained through raising rates by one percentage point above Victoria’s rates rise cap through an exemption from the Essential Services Commission.
Cr Radford said the Cameron Oval works were a good example of why the Horsham council had sought the exemption.
“In the coming weeks in a months, there will be discussion as to whether we should continue to put money into that fund,” he said.
“The reason we have done that is that it’s like building up a nest egg for projects like this, not just roads.
“Without this fund, I don’t know where this project would be.”
Cr David Grimble said the Laharum sports community was very active.
“It’s motivated by some leaders, and there are some young leaders coming through,” he said.
”Given that there are number of sports codes in the district and an active school in the district, they use they’ll use these facilities for a long, long time.”
Stage two of the plan involves spending $750,000 on a Multi-Purpose Community Centre at Cameron Oval, including money from the federal government and $100,000 from the community.
Horsham Council chief executive Peter Brown said that stage would depend on a grant from the federal government, but he was not as confident in a successful application.
Mr Peter Brown said the infrastructure renewal fund had $2 million and rated infrastructure from zero to nine.
“The Laharum change rooms are in a disgraceful state and are belong more to 40 years ago,” Mr Brown said.