June 21, 2017
The South Burnett Regional Council’s call for tenders for the sale and/or removal of Hivesville Hall has failed to attract any interest from potential buyers.
The Council voted unanimously to sell the hall at its February meeting and called for tenders on March 31, giving intending purchasers a six week window until May 17 to put in a bid.
On Wednesday, Deputy Mayor Kathy Duff said the call for tenders had failed to draw any bids.
The hall has now been put into the hands of real estate agents to see if they have more luck.
Interested buyers can either purchase the building and the land it sits on as a package, just the land itself, or just the hall, providing they remove it from the site.
The hall is located on Main Street in Hivesville and was built in 1924.
It was once in regular use, but it had steadily fallen into disuse over the years and had not been maintained.
Councillors felt the hall was not worth the cost of restoration, and would be better in another owner’s hands.
Apart from generating funds that could be used for other services, a sale of the hall would remove the building from the Council’s asset register, along with the cost of setting aside annual depreciation funds for it.
Since amalgamation, all councils are required to set aside funds for depreciation to maintain assets when they need repair, or replace them when they reach the end of their working lives.
Depreciation now accounts for $13 million of the South Burnett Regional Council’s annual budget.
This year an unexpected blow-out in depreciation costs, along with falling revenues at the region’s two tourist parks and lower interest returns on the council’s cash reserves, led to a $1.5 million shortfall the Council now hope to cover by eliminating 10 to 13 staff positions.
Last week South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell said the time had come for a discussion in the community about which assets the Council should retain, and which ones it should look at selling off or privatising.
