COUNCIL will spend a further $985,000 upgrading Jimboomba Park after identifying a significant funding shortfall in its original plans for the project.
The upgrade, which will now total $4.535 million, has been jointly funded between council and the state government.
Plans to upgrade the community facility first got under way in December 2014, with council contributing $1.95 million to the project after securing a $1.5 million grant through the state government’s Get Playing Plus program.
A further $100,000 was then injected into the project from council’s Division 11 funding pool but council sport and community services chair Russell Lutton said the $3.55 million total ultimately fell short of meeting the vision for the precinct.
“We developed a concept design to identify long term vision… (but) when we got down to the nitty gritty we identified a funding shortfall which meant we couldn’t deliver what we set out to do,” he said.
“In trying to stick to budget we cut things and cut things… we weren’t going to deliver (the project) as we initially thought.”
The project was to include the relocation of the Jimboomba Pony Club, including the development of new dressage and showjumping arenas, the building of a new netball clubhouse and the provision of a new field and changeroom for the Jimboomba Thunder Rugby League Club.
In addition to those upgrades, it will now include 30 new parking bays for use by Thunder as well as the construction of a full-sized junior/ training rugby league field.
It will also include four new parking bays for the pony club, which will also get a new gated entry for vehicles and floats, 20 new yards, two isolation yards and two wash bays for horses.
Thirty new parking bays will also be provided for the netball club, along with a new illuminated pathway, while council will also upgrade the precinct’s electrical infrastructure.
The additional funding for the plan will be pulled from council’s 2014-15 budget surplus.
Cr Lutton said council was “fair dinkum” about upgrading the facility for the community.
“We wanted to deliver a project to the Jimboomba and surrounding community so that’s why we found the money,” he said.
“We saw this as something justifiable to utilise the surplus on, otherwise we would have had to wait 12 months for a budget and that just delays the project.
“It’s a great project, it delivers on a lot of needs for that community, we’ve done thorough consultation with the clubs, we know what they want.”
The park upgrade is expected to be complete by December 2016.
