From left: Springvale Recreation Club directors Marion McInnes and Fred Cunningham with the club’s Work for the Dole Program assistant supervisor Brian Govan at the Newcomen Reserve facility that will be renovated by the City of Greater Dandenong.By Shaun Inguanzo
THE Springvale Recreation Club hopes a $400,000 renovation of Newcomen Reserve will not render the club homeless.
City of Greater Dandenong Council last week gave the club notice to pack its bags and move from the place it has called home for more than 90 years because it had failed to maintain the venue and it was now unsafe to use.
The clubrooms, which once hosted the Springvale Football Club and now hosts Springvale Districts Football Club and Springvale Cricket Club, have become run down and are in need of urgent repair.
Keysborough South Ward councillor Peter Brown said $100,000 was put aside in the current budget and a further $300,000 in next year’s budget for the renovation of the facilities.
City of Greater Dandenong sport and leisure manager Lynette While would not detail the full extent of problems with the building.
“As with any building refurbishment, a full assessment of the building condition is undertaken at the outset,” she said.
“The condition assessment is not yet complete.”
But Cr Brown revealed that council officers had found problems with roofing, including asbestos and electrical wiring issues, due to a lack of maintenance, that posed community safety concerns.
The City of Greater Dandenong owns the titles to the land on Newcomen Reserve, but the existing building was built with community donations by the Springvale Recreation Club (SRC).
Club director Fred Cunningham told Star the building had not been maintained because of a decline in membership caused by the loss of poker machines and the Springvale Football Club moving to Casey Fields in Cranbourne.
He said the SRC built the venue in 1983 after raising $300,000 in community donations.
Mr Cunningham said the SRC should therefore not be left out in the cold when the new venue, to be operated by the council, was completed.
He said the SRC ran a Work for the Dole program, teaching dole recipients administration skills, and he hoped that after the renovations it could continue being run at the Newcomen Reserve building.
“They’ve (council officers) given us a promise that while the renovations happen the program will be relocated,” Mr Cunningham said.
“I just hope that they continue to let us come back – we don’t want to be homeless.”
Aside from the club’s concerns, Mr Cunningham said the SRC was grateful that the council had allocated $400,000 to restore the building it had worked for 25 years to make a community place.
Cr Brown said he would try to move that the council put the tender out earlier than expected so the renovations could happen quickly, causing as little inconvenience as possible to community groups.
“I’ve got a notice motion that the renovation should actually go out to tender as soon as possible,” he said.
The sporting clubs will use the smaller Keith Marriot building at Newcomen Reserve while renovations are undertaken.
