April 12, 2023
South Burnett Regional Council will spend the equivalent of a luxury home in Kingaroy to build two PWD toilets and renovate existing toilets and showers at Murgon’s PCYC.
The decision to upgrade the facility has come after almost six months of discussions that began last December, when $365,000 was set aside from the Council’s Round 4 Works For Queensland grant funding to carry out the project.
However in February, Councillors received advice the cost of the upgrade had blown out to more than $660,000 – roughly the price of a modern five bedroom, two bathroom 4400sqm home in Kingaroy – and those costings had been confirmed by an independent quantity surveyor.
Councillors were told the root of the problem lay in the PCYC’s construction.
The facility’s builders had embedded a water pipe into the building’s concrete block walls when the PCYC was built more than 40 years ago, which meant the only way to remedy a leaking pipe was to demolish the wall.
As well, the building’s existing shower and toilet cubicles had been built without doors, something that might have been acceptable in the 1980s but was no longer up to contemporary standards.
Staff explained that under current law, the Council was obliged to incorporate PWD (People With A Disability) facilities when upgrading any Council-owned buildings.
Cr Danita Potter questioned the amount Council was prepared to spend on the project, noting that a portable PWD which could be connected to power, water and sewerage systems was available for as little as $21,000.
But the meeting heard most of the cost would involve a full reconstruction of the amenities area, which had not been upgraded since it was built.
Councillors were told the PCYC was a heavily used facility, catering not only for local residents and visiting school and sports groups but also tourists patronising the annual Murgon Country Music Muster and the Murgon Show.
A long debate about where the money could be found resulted in a motion from Cr Kirstie Schumacher that the full cost of the project be drawn from Round 4 of the Council’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) grant funding, noting that under the LRCI’s conditions work on the project could not begin until July 1.
That motion was carried 6 to 1, with Cr Jane Erkens opposed saying the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Or, could $660,000 fund two comfortable 3 bedroom homes to help alleviate the lack of housing in the region?
Is there another way to stop a leaking pipe? Why not leave the water pipe embedded in the wall, cut off the water supply to it, and redesign around it to leave the wall standing? It’s been there for 40 years already.
Could this be another project with cost blowouts? Looks like it.