Dimboola community hub scaled back

Council adopted its 2017-18 budget at a meeting on Wednesday.

The budget includes a $200,000 council commitment towards the Dimboola project.

A new community, civic and business hub in the town was initially mooted to replace the current library and council customer service centre in the town’s main street.

Hindmarsh mayor Debra Nelson said council applied for federal government funding to help cover the $1.6-million project cost, but was unsuccessful.

She said council needed to change the project’s scope.

“We received $500,000 from the state government’s Living Libraries program, so it is now a $700,000 project,” she said.

“We’ll move ahead and probably end up staging it so we can really get to where we want.

“At the moment the architects are redesigning the plans.

“The original plans included removing the public toilets at the back of the building, but we'll have to work around them.

“Basically it will be an extension of what is already the existing library.”

Council rates will increase four per cent in 2017-18 after the Essential Services Commission granted council a rate cap variation earlier this month.

Council applied to the commission in December for an increase on the state government’s two per cent rate cap so it could move forward with renewal projects.

Council also approved $100,000 each for skate parks in Dimboola and Rainbow, and $325,000 to rebuild the Albacutya Bridge as part of a three-year, $3.3-million project.

“We’re pretty proud of the budget, despite the fact we're hamstrung for a lot of funds, like many councils,” Cr Nelson said.

“There are some really good initiatives in there and infrastructure projects.”

Among council’s major infrastructure projects in the next 12 months is Lorquon East Road.

Council has allocated about $730,000 for two reconstruction projects, as part of a plan to make the road a major east-west transport link through the centre of the shire.