November 17, 2014
Wondai’s revamped CBD recreation area, dubbed the “Village Green” will be officially opened on Saturday.
The opening has been timed to coincide with the monthly Wondai Country Markets.
South Burnett mayor Wayne Kratzmann will conduct the official opening at 10:15am.
Fr Michael Carroll, from the local Catholic Parish, will then bless the area.
The morning will include live music as well as all the regular attractions of the Wondai Markets.
The Stolzenberg Brothers will be on stage at 7:30am, followed by the Wondai Band at 8:30am and a collection of local choirs from 9:15am.
The Wondai Kindergarten will have a barbecue running from 6:45am.
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Stage 1 of the project was allocated $100,000 in last year’s Council Budget. The $150,000 Stage 2 of Wondai’s Village Green project – which aims to transform the centre of town – has received a $60,000 boost from the State Government.
$310,000 plus spending spree by the tourism entertainment industry. I doubt many people see this as value for money as rate payers struggle to pay for these non-essential activities.
Coronation Park is mostly used by Wondai residents for market days, Christmas celebrations, Anzac Day and Reserve Forces Day commemorations, last week’s movie night etc etc. So it’s Wondai residents and businesses who get the most benefit from an upgraded CBD not tourists.
And $250,000 – which is what the Council spent on it over two years – works out to about a quarter of 1 per cent of an average rates bill, or about $5 per year for the last two years. I don’t begrudge it. I like Wondai and have a lot of friends there.
Most residents of Wondai and the travelling public frequented Dingo Creek Park whilst Coronation Park remains empty most days.
This project has been promoted under the tourism umbrella by business interests and publicly funded social philanthropists with little regard to affordability and public usage. The figure remains the same at $310,000 plus spent with $250,000 funded by ratepayers directly and $60,000 funded by taxation indirectly, all public money.
I have been to many events in Coronation Park and agree with Rod Long. This upgrade to the village green is welcomed by Wondai residents I talk to and no they are not publicly funded social philanthropists. It seems to me that this Council couldn’t do anything that Jack Black wouldn’t say was negative.
Scotty and Rod, would either of you be prepared to spend $310,000 of your own money to redevelop a park?
Has Jack Black ever been to Wondai? It is plain to see that Coronation Park is widely used by all sorts of people – travellers, locals, school kids, shoppers partners etc
Andrew, I am familiar with Wondai and many of the social alliances and issues within this township as with many other communities throughout the shire. This ranges from kerbing and channelling issues, loss of local business and employment opportunities to accessing the Bunya highway via Hodge St. Heavy vehicle access from the Bunya Highway into Wondai’s industrial estate via Old Dip road. The hazardous parking arraignments in close proximity to Wondai’s roundabout when exiting Wondai roundabout to Murgon and entering Haly St from Murgon. All towns and rural communities face a diverse range of localized problems not addressed by a monopolized signal issue social network in a community.
I said I wouldn’t comment here again but sometimes I just have to.
Jack, decisions are made by people who turn up. Did you go to the community meeting where the decision was made to spend Wondai’s allocation of town funds on the Village Green project or were you sitting at home trying to figure out who belongs to your latest tourism conspiracy network? (I assume this is what you mean by “a monopolized signal issue social network”). Coronation Park is used a lot. I agree with Andrew, you must never have been there.
You ask would anyone be prepared to spend $310,000 of their own money to redevelop a park. Of course not. Nor I would I spend $70 million of my own money on a new Kingaroy Hospital. But that’s the point isn’t it? If we all spend a little bit of our own money – in this case $5 if Rod’s calculations are right – we all get something of benefit. That’s how a “common-wealth” works as opposed to a selfish “I’m all right Jack” attitude.
Jack, you won’t stop whinging about how the council spends money until Wayne Kratzmann knocks on your door and personally hands you a cheque for a million dollars.
Peter my views are well documented regarding tourism and that cost to ordinary rate payers. 16 people made the decision to proceed with the village green proposal – hardly representative of a town the size of Wondai.
Ratepayers are not paying for a single project but many across the shire. all adding to people’s rates bill.
$310,000 plus spent on a park with very little public conciliation other then a group of 16 people and your best argument is weather I frequent the township of Wondai or not.
Not correct. There were multiple meetings held about the Village Green concept over a span of six months including open-air public consultation meetings which wound up involving several hundred Wondai residents in the creation of a final plan. Those meetings were widely advertised and written up in the media.
As was made clear at the time, the project would have been cancelled if there was any significant commmunity opposition to it or if Wondai’s community wanted to spend its money on something else. But there wasn’t. In fact, the Wondai Lions were so much in favour they tipped $5000 of their own funds into it. And many of the tourist related aspects (like the 48-hour RV park) were suggested by Wondai residents themselves, not the Council. So if you didn’t bother to turn up and have your own say at the time all of this was going on, Jack, you have no right to complain now.
The decision was made at the first meeting and ratified in the second meeting.All activities beyond this point concerning public consultations were to promote the village green concept to which several additions to the final plan had been added. No opportunity beond the second meeting to raise objections to this project was advised to the public, these objections being brushed aside. The 48 hr caravan park proposal was initiated from within the Wondai social network group then advertised as a tourism attraction in conjunction with the rail trail, village green, timber museum and art gallery.
So come down to the opening tomorrow, introduce yourself Jack and convince everyone there that they are wrong.
Interesting comments. I wonder how Wondai ratepayers feel about paying for the Kingaroy sewerage upgrades?