At the July meeting, Council approved a $4M line of credit borrowing to support the delivery of a vastly increased program of major works over the next 12 months.
Lithgow Council has set a large and ambitious program of works for the year ahead. Capital works projects include:
- Waste – completion of the Resource Recovery Centre – $1.9M;
- Water – Portland Foundations Trunk Infrastructure – $1.485M;
- Cullen Bullen Sewer Scheme – $4M (multi-year project);
- Farmers Creek upgrade works – $1M; and
- Fixing Country Bridges Program – three new bridges on the Glen Davis Rd – $5M.
More than half of the total $26M capital works program is grant funded. For most grants, the Council expends large amounts of money well ahead of receiving the payments back from governments. Alongside of these big payments, the Council also has other outgoings every week that must be met, such as payments to local suppliers and salaries of staff. A line of credit allows us the certainty that we can pay both the big accounts, and the many small ones, when they overlap.
The approach is like that of the private sector (farmers especially because their income is seasonal and lags behind their expenses) and households. In Council’s case, it allows us to deliver a large program of new projects, pay our bills on time, deliver more services to the community and support the local economy.
