Our court lighting-fencing project takes off from 24 September to 8 October, thanks to a grant from the Queensland Government Get Playing Places and Spaces program, designed to enable participation in sport & recreation. We’ve been awarded a total of $145, 056 (max is $150,000). Our club will be able to remain financially-healthy despite the size and cost of this project because we’ve had some big wins on two fronts – one with GST-registration (saving $14,000) and secondly, a bonus one-off exemption from our 20% contribution($29,000), due to cyclone damage. In total we save $43,000 – of what we’d normally have had to contribute towards this project in any other year, which would have left a massive hole in our budget.
Bring it on. It is with much relief we farewell our old lights which are becoming very challenging to play under, and our fence, built in 1981. We all look forward to some great matches under the new LED lights and we’ll have an ‘official opening’ event to celebrate the building of our new facilities later in the year.
Thank you to the Queensland Government for this wonderful opportunity for our club, and thank you to Tennis Qld (Mick Blomer) for their support and management of the project. Also the Department of Sport & Recreation locally, for their grants-advice and help administering the grant. This much-needed overhaul will set the club up for the next 25-30 years & will now allow us to put aside funds for court-resurfacing in 2021.
The contractor is Centre Court Constructions and we look forward to their work transforming our club.
