Community Halls Upgrade Funding Success of $1.4M

Snowy Monaro Regional Council has successfully gained funding under the Strengthening Communities Safer Places Project (NSW State Government), with $1.4m awarded to upgrade and overhaul community halls across the Snowy Monaro region.

Council sought funding to improve the standard of Community Halls across the region as well as the provision of training programs and safety equipment that will vastly enhance our community's resilience to and recovery from past and future disaster events.

The Snowy Monaro relies heavily on the support of the community through our s355 Committees, which are dedicated to the management and ongoing availability of these crucial public places. The past 24 months has demonstrated the importance of these facilities as the region has struggled with the impact of drought, fire and the ongoing global pandemic.

Council will undertake Building Compliance Audits on 14 of our public halls to inform immediate rectification works. This will help us to better understand building condition, improve maintenance, accurately budget for ongoing operations, and help support improvements and grant applications for the halls in.

This program is aimed at improving Communities resilience in the face of current and future emergency events by providing Community First Aid Training and the provision of emergency equipment including communication packs and access to AEDs.

The program includes:

• Building assessments on 14 halls: This will clearly identify building issues and provide Council with a detailed report on issues that will inform ongoing management plans, budget allocations for repairs and maintenance, as well as pursuing funding.
• Provide First Aid Training for community members associated with the hall.
• Provide assurance for the availability of equipment for use in emergencies and natural disaster events.
• Ensure connectivity during emergency and natural disaster events is available. This project will procure three satellite phone packs for use in communities across the region in an emergency.

Halls set to benefit from this funding: