Wodonga Mayor Cr Anna Speedie, Senator Bridget McKenzie and surrounding business owners welcomed the Richardson Park area upgrade today.
Wodonga Council is undertaking several smaller beautification works around the CBD following the High St reconstruction.
This includes the extension to Richardson Park which is being completed this week, just in time for the easing of restrictions for restaurants and cafes that begin in Victoria on Monday.
Works included the removal of asphalt, landscaping and plantings between the old station buildings and the recently completed Richardson Park green space.
Turf is due to be laid on Friday ahead of the final temporary fencing being removed.
The projects have been partly funded by the National Stronger Regions Fund following savings made on the four-year project that was completed with the final stage of High St.
Cr Speedie said it was an exciting day.
“We are going to see the reopening of this component right next to Richardson Park,” she said.
“We have been working hard during COVID to keep our projects moving.
“Tomorrow we see some turf go down and we will see this component right here and the extension of Richardson Park reopened to all of our community.
“We can’t do this stuff without support from other levels of government.”
Senator Bridget McKenzie said regional centres such as Wodonga have vibrant and dynamic cities with fabulous, world-class businesses and restaurants and playspaces for citizens to enjoy.
“It’s part of our broader goals for decentralisation to get people to move,” she said.
“This sort of project investment created a lot of jobs locally that is also something the Nationals in governemnt are absolutely committed to continuing, which is why we brought forward the financial assitance grants next week.”
Dan O’Connell from The Goods Shed is excited about reopening on Monday.
“We are excited to welcome our customers back and have been doing delivery and take away through this, which has given us some pretty exciting challenges to work through and some different ways of working,” he said.
“We are excited about these challenges because it allows us to get our regulars back in the door and say hello because we have really missed them.”
Works continue on the temporary green space and accompanying car park off High St which are due to be completed in July.
The proposed works will see just under half turfed with paved areas and a path to Jack Hore Way, benches with umbrellas and tree and shrub plantings in a similar design to the surrounding precinct.
The turf will be irrigated to ensure year-round useability. The landscaped area will also be protected by bollards along the western and southern edges.
The remaining area will be reinstated to be used as an overflow carpark for the precinct with access off Church St.
