Breaking news – infrastructure $ boost

Which project should be Alpine’s No. 1 priority?

As part of its bid to stimulate local economies and provide employment, the Federal Government is about to announce ’special’ funding of $300 million to be spread over all 500+ local councils. At this stage it’s not known how much Alpine will get but there is a suggestion that it will be spread evenly, so we may see as much as $500,000.

One stipulation is that THE MONEY MUST BE SPENT WITHIN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS, meaning we’ll have to decide very quickly what we do with our allocation. Here is the excerpt from ABC Online. My further comments appear at the end:

UPDATE: Alpine to receive $410,000

Now we just have to decide which NEW project to spend it on. The Government requires plans for NEW projects to be submitted as soon as possible in order to claim the allocation. 

The Federal Government is to inject $300 million into local infrastructure projects in a bid to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will announce the full details of the program later today at a meeting in Canberra of over 400 local government leaders.

Infrastructure and Local Government Minister Anthony Albanese says the funds, which will be taken from the Budget surplus, will help boost economic growth.

“We think it will be particularly effective at creating local jobs and also providing local stimulus to economies out there in communities, whether they be in cities or regional Australia,”

“We recognise that infrastructure is important at local community level.

“The great thing about local capital works is that it can be done quickly.”

Comment:

I think the NEXT Alpine Council should make the decision on which project(s) this ‘bonus’ money should be directed to. The present council is in caretaker period anyway and, as such, is not permitted to make any decisions involving sums of more than $100,000 and (at this stage) it looks like we’ll be getting a lot more than that.

I suggest our priority projects should be the implementation of the master plan improvements in each of our three major centres of Bright, Myrtleford and Mt Beauty.

The Alpine Shire’s economy is heavily reliant on attracting tourists and by ‘fast-tracking’ those improvements, it would greatly enhance the look, function and overall appeal of our towns as well as providing a boost to local employment and tradespeople.

In Bright, the obvious project is the one that the Bright Framework committee has already identified as the biggest infrastructure priority – the revitalisation of Mafeking Square and the clock-tower roundabout into a usable space, designed to heighten Bright’s appeal to tourists.

Whether there’s enough money from this ‘grant’ to go around the whole shire though is questionable. It may be the case that the council will have to ‘pick one project only’ and go with that one. In any case, this decision shapes as the first order of business for the NEXT council (well, following the election of the Mayor, that is).