Koroit’s long awaited township renewal will begin in the coming weeks, with essential drainage works kicking off stage two of the project.

At Tuesday’s Council Meeting, Councillors reallocated $300,000 from the annual drainage renewal budget to works which will address flooding issues in Commercial Road.

Mayor Cr Ian Smith said with township renewal works beginning soon, it made sense to do the drainage first and work would begin in the coming weeks.

“It’s ready to go now. The plans have been done and there’s about to be plenty of activity in Commercial Road,” he said.

“Once the drainage work is complete, we will begin preliminary footpath works on the section of funded works from IGA to Woolsthorpe Road on the northern side of Commercial Road. This will include repairing the existing kerb, new kerb channel and driveway crossovers, before getting into building the new bluestone path in the new year.

Cr Smith said this stage of works was being funded with the $1 million Council had previously allocated to the project.

“We’ve got a funding application in for $2 million in matched funding from the Federal Government’s Growing Region’s fund to complete works to the other footpaths in Commercial Road and for works in Hight Street.” he said.

“If we are successful in that application, we will have a further $4m in total to complete bluestone footpaths on both sides of Commercial Road from High Street to the Commercial Hotel and for footpath, road and parking works in High Street as far as Victoria Park

“The detailed plans for all that work are now complete, so once we have the funding secured, we can get underway.”

“We asked businesses and the Koroit and District Progress association if they would prefer us to wait for the outcome of the funding application or to get started and spend the money we already had allocated. Their preference was to get started, so that’s what we are doing.”

Cr Smith said Council’s project management office would work closely with businesses who will have work in front of their stores and the community would receive regular updates via Council’s social media and website.

Work on stage two of the Koroit Township Renewal will get underway as soon as possible.

At Tuesday Council Meeting, Councillors opted to spend the $1 million allocated to the project to complete stage two of works - the bluestone footpath on the north side of Commercial Road, between Daly’s IGA and the intersection with High Street.

Works will commence as soon as possible with timing dependent on favorable weather conditions, procurement processes, and contractor and material supply availability.

Council will also lodge an expression of interest to the Federal Government’s Growing Region’s fund, using a further $2 million Council allocation to the project as the required the matched dollar-for-dollar funding.

If the application is successful it would ensure a $4 million project to complete footpaths in Commercial Road as well as works in High Street.

If the funding application is not successful, Council would need to reassess options, including exploring an application to the second round of the fund.

Mayor Cr Karen Foster said the steps being taken were the preferred way forward of the Koroit District Progress Association and from traders in the immediate project area.

“We are committed to this project, it is our number one capital works plan and we are keen to get it moving, as is the KDPA, so it will be great to see this project start to take shape,” Cr Foster said.

“There is $1m allocated in Council’s budgets and we’ll use that to complete the bluestone footpath on one side of Commercial Road. We will also allocate a further $2 million which will leverage for the matched funding application to try and progress the project further.

“Township renewals are expensive, transformational projects, and we need government funding to assist us to complete them – renewals in Mortlake and Port Fairy were completed with funding assistance from government – so it’s not out of the ordinary to try and attract that support.

“We’ve been advocating solidly on this project to both the State and Federal governments for a long time.”

Cr Foster said the township renewal was the priority project for Council and it had already made significant contributions – including $100,000 to complete the stage on the Village Green, $167,000 towards a new off-street car park and $260,000 towards bluestone paving in front of Daly’s IGA – all key elements of the plans.

She said after further assessment and discussions with the Koroit District Progress Association, to avoid further delays, the proposed program of works does not include undergrounding of power infrastructure.

“That work would require significant funding support and would take some time to get – unfortunately the footpath work wouldn’t be able to begin before the underground was completed – so to avoid lengthy delays, it was agreed getting new footpaths built was the priority,” she said.