{"id":809,"date":"2022-03-11T15:36:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T04:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/?p=809"},"modified":"2022-03-11T15:36:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T04:36:16","slug":"council-reveals-election-wishlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/2022\/03\/11\/council-reveals-election-wishlist\/","title":{"rendered":"COUNCIL REVEALS ELECTION WISHLIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ARARAT Rural City Council has identified seven priority projects it would like funded as part of election commitments from the major parties.<\/p>\n<p>With a federal and state election due this year, Council\u2019s CEO Tim Harrison said he and his team will be working hard to achieve commitments from both sides.<\/p>\n<p>He said 2022 was an ideal opportunity to get funding commitments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t get a double election year very often and it is the perfect time for us to get commitments to benefit our communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got politicians who want to get elected and we\u2019ve got to take full advantage of, dare I say, pork barrelling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr Harrison said council officers have been working on a \u201cwish list\u201d or priority projects requiring funding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we have tried to do is keep the wish list practical and short so that it is understandable to politicians and achievable. There\u2019s nothing worse than going forward with 40 projects and maybe getting two funded because they (the politicians) couldn\u2019t understand what you\u2019re trying to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been pretty clear, we have about half a dozen projects on the books, pretty high value projects but ones we think we can achieve,\u201d Dr Harrison said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The projects council hopes to receive funding commitments for include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The reconstruction of Mt William Road. Council describes Mt William Road a \u201clocal road of regional significance\u201d because it is used to transport grain to the Lakaput grain storage facility. Council hopes to get a commitment of $3 million from both the state and federal governments and will put $2 million of ratepayers money towards the $8 million project.<\/li>\n<li>Improved telecommunications for Tatyoon and Maroona. Council is seeking between $800,000 and $1 million from either the state or federal governments to instal a new tower servicing these communities.<\/li>\n<li>A north-south heavy vehicle route. Council is seeking $700,000 from the state government to fund a study to identify an appropriate route and design work. A north-south heavy vehicle route would take about 800 truck movements out of Ararat township every day.<\/li>\n<li>$6 million to develop a manufacturing park. The park would be established around the proposed biomass energy project with an emphasis on value adding and diversifying the manufacture of agricultural products.<\/li>\n<li>$15 million to redevelop the A&amp;J McDonald Centre into a regional health and social services hub housing Grampians Community Health and other agencies.<\/li>\n<li>Funding to redevelop Willaura Hospital.<\/li>\n<li>Funding for an urgent care centre in Ararat, including a doctor on duty 24 hours a day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Dr Harrison said he was confident all of the projects will stack up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are all practical, necessary projects that will deliver better outcomes for different communities. I\u2019m confident we can achieve funding for most if not all of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ARARAT Rural City Council has identified seven priority projects it would like funded as part of election commitments from the major parties.<br \/>\nWith a federal and state election due this year, Council\u2019s CEO Tim Harrison said he and his team will be working hard to achieve commitments from both sides.<br \/>\nHe said 2022 was an ideal opportunity to get funding commitments.<br \/>\n\u201cWe don\u2019t get a double election year very often and it is the perfect time for us to get commitments to benefit our communities,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got politicians who want to get elected and we\u2019ve got to take full advantage of, dare I say, pork barrelling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Jo-Armstrong-and-Pete-Armstrong-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-d3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}