{"id":214470,"date":"2018-07-26T19:34:01","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T09:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=214470"},"modified":"2020-07-29T10:30:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T00:30:14","slug":"council-may-resubmit-cbd-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/07\/26\/council-may-resubmit-cbd-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Council May Resubmit CBD Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FLASHBACK: A burst water main in Kingaroy Street caused extensive damage to footpaths in 2016 … most of the infrastructure underneath Kingaroy’s CBD is nearing the end of its working life<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell (Photo: SBRC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July 26, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

The South Burnett Regional Council may resubmit its application for a $2 million contribution towards Kingaroy’s CBD upgrade project to the next round of the Building Better Regions fund.<\/p>\n

South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell said he was aware the Federal Government had committed a further $200 million in this year’s Federal Budget to deliver a third round of the program.<\/p>\n

The Mayor said since a large portion of the CBD upgrade work would involve replacing ageing underground infrastructure, he believed this met the program’s guidelines.<\/p>\n

But he said it was up to the Council as a whole to sit down and examine all possible options.<\/p>\n

If Councillors agreed when applications for the next round opened later this year, the Council would re-apply.<\/p>\n

The Mayor emphasised that while roads remained the Council’s top priority, they weren’t the only priority issue that had to be attended to.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Most of the South Burnett’s critical infrastructure was built about 60 to 70 years ago and it’s all nearing the end of its working life,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In the past few years we’ve spent tens of millions of dollars replacing bridges, carrying out major upgrades to our water treatment plants and building a new waste water treatment plant.<\/p>\n

“But there’s still a lot that remains to be done.”<\/p>\n

The Mayor said he acknowledged the Kingaroy Chamber Of Commerce wanted to see a start made on the CBD upgrade.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And Council had already drawn down a $2 million loan facility in anticipation of receiving grant funding.<\/p>\n

However, any decision on where to spend the money would need to be decided by all Councillors, not just him.<\/p>\n

“We need to look at everything that’s on our plates to determine where funds can be best applied,” the Mayor said.<\/p>\n

But if Councillors agreed to proceed on the Kingaroy project, his view was the funds could be best spent improving the CBD’s car parking facilities.<\/p>\n

This would include adding RV parking spots to encourage passing caravanners to shop in the town.<\/p>\n