Maranoa MP David Littleproud today announced that the Ballandean Football Club and Swan Creek School of Arts Hall will share almost $30,000 in Federal Government funding under Round 7 of the Stronger Communities Programme.
The Ballandean Football Club will replace clubhouse lighting and install a hot water system for change rooms with their $18,500 grant. The new lights will be more energy efficient thus reducing the club’s energy costs and keeping down membership fees.
Mr Littleproud said that this in turn helps encourage more people to join the club and participate in community sport.
“With the club house used by several other community groups including the Ballandean primary school and rural fire brigade, better facilities will provide benefits to a large percentage of the local community.”
The Swan Creek School of Arts Hall will receive an $11,360 facelift with painting of the hall’s exterior and a new steel kitchen bench. Mr Littleproud sees that the upgrade will make the hall more attractive for hire, in turn injecting more funds for future upgrades.
“The hall is already used for social events on a regular basis, which helps keep the close-knit community together, and able to network and share the burden of the effects that years of unrelenting drought levelled at them.”
“I’m a firm believer in bringing people together and improving community services across Maranoa because it has a positive flow-on effect on our quality of life and how we support each other – these upgrades for the Southern Downs region reflect this.
“Regional communities are the heart of this country and I want to make sure that small capital projects are funded and the community gets exactly what it needs.”
Round 7 of the Stronger Communities Programme delivered $150,000 in Federal Government funding to Maranoa community groups – fourteen projects across Maranoa were funded in this round.
Project grants range from $2500 to $20,000 to help bolster rural communities.
