GOULBURN Mulwaree Council has received “nothing but compliments” since first beginning its CBD Beautification project, General Manager Warwick Bennett says.
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About 30 per cent of the works are now complete.
“We’ve got a few more trees to plant in the areas we’ve undertaken and then the next area we will be doing from September, October to November will be the Montague to Verner streets on the east side,” Mr Bennett said.
“Starting probably in February-March next year we will complete Montague to Clifford street on the west side.”
Relaying of the CBD side-walk paving has made up the bulk of the changes. Sydney based company Golden Star Pty Ltd was awarded the tender to complete the first two blocks, Clifford to Market sts on the east and Montague to Verner sts on the west.
Street furniture, while yet to be purchased, will also be installed in the make-over.
“We haven’t sourced (the street furniture) but we certainly know what we want,” Mr Bennett said.
“I’m really quite excited by it. I think the work has really finalised the town. We’ve had nothing but compliments not only from locals but also from people visiting. It’s changed the whole look and feel of the City and it’s really exciting.”
He said despite previous reports published by the Post, Council was still working to budget.
In May it was reported a cracked concrete slab on the Verner to Montague St stretch was “partly to blame” for a near $400,000 blowout.
Operations director Matt O’Rourke confirmed during a Council meeting the cost for Stage One had risen from $400,000 to an estimated at $780,000.
But, Mr Bennett said it was simply money pulled from forward budgetary allocations for the project.
“We are still on budget. We’ve brought a lot of work forward because we are working closely with Essential Energy but over the life of the project, over the four years, we are still in budget,” he said.
“I want to make it very clear to the community that there are no budget blowouts and there won’t be a budget blowout on my watch.”
Council had initially allocated $400,000 this year for the CBD beautification and $1m annually over the ensuing three years for the works.