The 265-seat Roberts Avenue centre has been closed since November 2017, after a council building surveyor uncovered issues with its fire safety.

Treasurer Simon Dandy told the Mail-Times work was going on behind the scenes.

"There have been fire engineers in and tenders have been put out for some works," he said. "I don't think any of them have been awarded yet, but it is certainly progressing.

"Ideally around July next year would be a great time to get it going, but there is a big caveat on that with all this (pandemic) stuff going on.

"Before closing, it was a fully operating venue: It had concerts, funerals, weddings, musicals... at one stage Daryl Braithwaite and he writes the committee a letter saying it's got one of the bests acoustics of any venues he's ever played.

"We all love Horsham Town Hall - we are blessed to have it - but this is different. It's small and intimate."

THROUGH THE YEARS:

At its meeting in May last year, Horsham Rural City Council agreed to take ownership of the centre. It has members on the project control group.

Mr Dandy said the group was working to establish the full costs of the works, and establish realistic timelines for each job that needed to be done.

The council has committed $545,000 to refurbish the centre in its 2020-21 Budget, adopted on Monday, August 3, $45,000 of this its own money and the rest contributed from the sale of Horsham Music Academy in December.

With this, it will undertake assessments and complete works to address building regulation and structural integrity requirements so the centre can reopen.

"An extensive Performing Arts Services Demand Assessment study showed that the Wesley PACC was a required and valued facility for the Wimmera, providing a small intimate space that his very highly regarded by the community," said a summary of the project in the budget's capital works program.

The summary said the outfitting of the centre is likely to take place between October and March 2021.

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