Preschool project needs Building Better Regions Funds

Murray River Council

Behind the scenes planning for the new Moama Preschool is ticking along, however the project can’t yet kick-off without a successful funding application via the Federal Government’s Building Better Regions Fund.

Murray River Council applied for $2.9million under Round 5 of the federal funding program, after receiving $1.5million through the NSW Government’s Start Strong Capital Works Program.

The $1.5million was successfully obtained for the construction stage of the project but is entirely contingent on additional money from the Commonwealth to enable council to deliver the project in full.

Murray River Council mayor, Chris Bilkey said the $5.9million project is still a big priority, but council needs all the funding to line up.

“We want the community to know that the project is not on hold, we are simply waiting for outcomes of funding applications to proceed.”

“This is the nature of a lot of big projects that council needs to deliver. In many cases we don’t just get a big lump sum of money to get things done; we have staff working hard to secure funding from a range of sources to make sure these important priority projects for our community can get up.”

“We are hopeful we will have an outcome regarding the application to the Federal Government soon.”

The new preschool project has been gaining momentum over the last few years with the current preschool, located at Regent Street Moama, operating at capacity with an expanding waiting list.

Council has allocated $1.5million to the project and engaged a local architectural company to deliver detailed drawings and other architectural services to progress the project to approval stage.

The proposed site for the new preschool is located within the Moama Recreation Reserve – situated along Boyes St – and has the capacity to double the number of places offered for 3 year old and 4 year old programs.

/Public Release. View in full here.