Royalties for Regions

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Council will begin looking at projects which can be funded by Stage 2 Royalties for Regions grants.
What sort of projects would you be interested in undertaking in our communities?

The criteria for expenditure is as follows:

• address infrastructure requirements
• improve asset management and capacity building
• encourage standardised asset management practices and improved regional governance in local government.

For our community projects, I have some ideas that have come up now and then and have added some of my own:
PINGRUP:

• Assist with upgrade of one of the accommodation units at the Caravan Park with facilities for couples. This has already been funded by the PPA through a grant.
  
• Satellite Internet for the Telecentre, or upgrade the Exchange to ADSL2+
• New Community Building to include new Telecentre rooms and office for visiting professionals. Community members have said they'd like an office for visiting health professionals, IT specialist and the visiting Child Health Care Nurse.

NYABING:

• Assist with upgrade of Ladies Changerooms at Pavilion
• Build Accommodation Units at Caravan Park
• Employ consultant to plan the Historical School Site landscaping and building fit-out.

Council will also need to look at how we plan to use our Regional Funding for the region. Of course, we will need to have a VROC meeting to discuss this further.

I'm planning to advocate that the Shire use some of the money to upgrade our asset management systems and perhaps join a structured assets and infrastructure program. As this is a very expensive undertaking which will require a large percentage of staff's time, we can use Royalties for Regions regional funding to employ a person to manage the three (or more) council's assets and infrastructure programs. Other councils in our region may want to be a part of this too, so it would be wise to consider our neighbours if we decide to investigate this project.

If you have any ideas on how we can best utilise our regional funding, please leave a comment.

Alternatively, you may phone or email me:
p/f: 0898291076
m: 0427 297 712
e: skinflint@skinflint.com.au