By CASEY NEILL
The builder that will make Tatterson Park’s new pavilion a reality has been chosen.
At their Monday 27 June meeting, Greater Dandenong councillors unanimously agreed to pay Ireland Brown Constructions a $9,302,909 lump sum to complete the project.
It will include eight change rooms, a function room, community meeting rooms and a 500-seat grandstand.
The Dandenong City and Thunder soccer clubs and the Dandenong Stingrays AFL side are among the reserve’s users and portable change rooms are on-site at the moment to meet demand.
The council’s sport and recreation co-ordinator Sue Appleton said the project was five years or more in the making.
She said construction would start in July and should wrap up by the end of next year, and that groups were already asking about using the new spaces.
Councillor Jim Memeti said the community was looking forward to seeing something permanently built at the reserve, and he was looking forward to the synthetic soccer pitch coming in the project’s next stage.
“Soccer is growing really well in our city – we have more teams than any other municipality,” he said.
“This synthetic pitch will help them train and play.”
Cr Roz Blades said the progress was nice to see.
“I was the mayor that turned the sod on a completely empty block of land,” she said.
The council report on awarding the contract said Ireland Brown Constructions had “a strong history of performance within the construction industry for this level of project”.
“The preferred tenderer has previously delivered design and construct contracts of a similar size and nature as council’s project,” it said.
The Journal reported in March that the State Government contributed a $650,000 Community Sports Infrastructure Fund grant to the project, in addition to Federal Government funding and the council’s cash.
