By Mikayla van Loon
Yarra Ranges Council has put forward applications in the Country Football and Netball funding program to help provide upgrades to two recreation reserves in the shire.
Nominated in this year’s round of grants were Mount Evelyn’s Morrison Reserve and Belgrave’s Recreation Reserve.
The State government’s Sport and Recreation funding program matches council funding dollar for dollar of up to $250,000 per local government area to achieve improvement works at sports facilities.
The council is seeking funds to resurface the netball courts, replace fencing and improve lighting at Morrison Reserve, as well as improve lighting at Belgrave Recreation Reserve.
Councillor Johanna Skelton said wherever there is an opportunity for the council’s capital expenditure budget to be supplemented by funding it is always worth applying for.
“These are both great applications…mostly because they are both in line for council to spend our own money on and they’re very much needed projects,” she said.
Cr Skelton said the upgrades to Morrison Reserve would provide ongoing benefits to the community in Mount Evelyn.
“The Morrison reserve netball court surface is used by a whole bunch of schools nearby so I think that’s fantastic in itself. It’s going to get that midweek use, daytime use,” she said.
“It’s also going to be resurfaced to be multi-use and I’m always looking for those opportunities when the council is spending its money to expand who is using the resource.”
Mount Evelyn Netball Club expects to field 22 teams in the 2023 season, equating to around 200 players.
With the reserve already hosting state of the art facilities for athletics and soccer, upgrades to the asphalted netball courts will complement the rest of the sports offerings.
In Belgrave, as the Lyster ward councillor, Cr Skelton said lighting improvements would be a cost saver to the club’s who use the reserve and for the broader community.
“Belgrave Recreation Reserve, the sports lighting upgrade is so needed, it’s not up to par at the moment and the club is spending a lot of money on lighting,” she said.
“They are going to be very happy if we are successful in getting this money from the State government because it’s going to reduce the running costs for the club and enable them to do night games and some other uses of the space.”
Supporting the motion to approve the two projects being submitted to the State government, Cr David Eastham said the financial assistance the council would receive might allow for other projects to gain extra funds within the budget.
“These are projects that we already had in our pipeline that we would be spending money on so it allows us to deliver other key projects with that money instead,” he said.
Cr Eastham also agreed there would be “a range of demographics” who would benefit from these upgrades.
The motion was passed unanimously at the council meeting on Tuesday 28 March.
