LOCAL Rural Fire Service volunteers were pleased to discover Shoalhaven Council will fund a much-needed upgrade.
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Councillors with the swinging vote have changed their minds about stumping up $400,000 for the Berry & Broughton Vale Rural Fire Service Station.
Council will fund extra cost of building the station, via a specific allocation in the next financial year.
A majority of councillors voted against funding the shortfall in the April ordinary meeting.
But a rescission motion brought the matter back to the agenda on Tuesday night, where councillors unanimously supported funding for the station.
Deputy mayor Patricia White said councillors were hesitant to hand out funds until they knew more about the work that needed to be carried out.
“We really needed the detail to understand what needed to be done,” she said.
“Initially the $400,000 was an estimate.
“In the last term of council, we got a request similar to this from the RFS. It blew out to $800,000 and it sent council into deficit.
“The RFS need to be clear about costings, if there are going to be overruns we need to know straight up.
“Some of us thought we were being caught yet again.
“But after a briefing, once council put more information together, we were able to make a stronger decision for the RFS.”
The final clause in the motion will see that ratepayers are not overburdened by the cost of works.
The hope is, with state government assistance, council will only pay its 11.7 per cent share of the project, as per usual with RFS projects.
Council will:
- Bring forward the replacement of the effected water mains that run through the site.
- Fund the water main works from the Water Fund budget.
- Complete the site improvement works (estimated cost $410,000) in the 2018-2019 financial year using General Fund loan funds.
- Continue to make representations to the State Government to fund the complete project costs for this station under the RFS budget process (future years if necessary) so council ultimately only pays it’s 11.7% share.