Sporting glory
LEONGATHA Recreation Reserve now has even more reason to be known as the sporting hub of South Gippsland.
South Gippsland Shire Council and the reserve committee have just completed $900,000 worth of roadworks and drainage at the reserve.
The 115 year old, state of the arts sporting facility is used by hundreds of thousands of people each year.
Over the years, around $8 million has gone into maintaining the reserve.
Chairperson of the Leongatha Recreation Reserve Committee Glenn Wright said the traffic count at the reserve was as high as busy roads in South Gippsland.
“Users of the facility have put up with parking on unsealed road for around 40 years and it was just a bit of a mess, especially the golf club car parking. That was quite ordinary so that’s why we’ve spent the money,” he said.
Asphalt has been laid around the main reserve’s oval as well as car parking areas, and draining systems have been installed.
Leongatha Recreation Reserve Committee put $150,000 towards the project and council contributed $750,000, totalling a cost of $900,000.
Council’s engineering coordinator and project manager Paul Challis said the project was just within budget.
“There’s a bit of money left up our sleeves still,” he said.
“We still need to discuss with the committee about what that money will go towards. We’re hoping to do more drainage works and that might be able to link to the netball court project.”
New netball courts – a match court and training court – are a project of the Leongatha Football Netball Club.
The $300,000 project is set to be funded with a $100,000 council contribution, $100,000 Victorian Government contribution and a $100,000 contribution from the Leongatha Football Netball Club.
The reserve caters for around 20 organisations.
Former council mayor Jim Fawcett said, “We’ve just got to be aware and appreciative of what facility we’ve got in this town.”
Reserve secretary Frank Dekker said the roadworks and drainage had been on the committee’s to do list for up to 40 years.
The committee has put around $30,000 into refurbishing the front gates of the recreation reserve.
The gate pillars on the Pioneer Memorial gate will be straightened, and parts will be re-concreted and re-painted.
New gates will replace the agricultural gates there now.
“For it to still be here today and to be improved on all the time, we’re so lucky,” Mr Wright said.
“Now we will be able to look at the netball court master plan.”
Mr Wright said the committee would like to improve the drainage and undertake other works towards the velodrome next.
“That sort of project we would like to do but that’s costly and we haven’t got the funds to do it,” he said.
“They are projects we can look at in the future with grants. The car park at the tennis club also needs redoing, so that’s something we will look at in the future.”
On behalf of the reserve committee, Mr Wright thanked Mr Fawcett and another former councillor, Nigel Hutchinson-Brooks.
“They both really pushed the project through council and got it to this stage,” he said.
“We’d also like to thank Paul Challis as project manager and all of the shire workers who put in a fantastic effort to complete the project to a very satisfactory high standard that exceeded our expectations.”
Short URL: /?p=22232