Dear Parents, Players, Members and Supporters,
The Club is excited to announce the next steps for the Mentone Reserve Building Project. The announcement is incredibly important to the Club when you consider that the grandstand and social room building was built in 1928, had change room extensions built in 1963 and the Corboy Pavilion was built by Club members in 2003.
The Club has been in solid negotiations with the City of Kingston following on from the $1M commitment made by the Victorian Government in 2014 which was the catalyst to get the project onto the list and to gain an outcome.
The Club desperately needs to raise more funds so new facilities will allow us to grow and assist us to ramp up our coaching programs and just an important, assist us to look after our players welfare off the field.
The project finally goes before council on Monday 25th September where, once it is officially supported, it will move into community consultation mode whilst the plans are drawn up and it goes out to tender.Kingston council meets at 7.00pm this Monday at their offices in Nepean Highway Cheltenham. You are most welcome to attend and listen whilst the proposal is debated and voted on.
In a nutshell:
- The Corboy Pavilion will be replaced with a much larger building and relocated out onto Remo Street which will become a closed road.
- 4 changerooms, two umpires rooms to cater for male / female and a more functioning football area for match day activities.
- Social area upstairs with a covered balcony.
- The Soppert Pavilion grandstand will be totally renovated with lock up stairs.
- The current social room will be updated as operations offices for football, cricket, netball and basketball plus meeting rooms and a merchandise room for all clubs to share.
- There will also be a bridge connecting the grandstand with the new building.
- In future years we will be advocating for the Masterplan to be implemented which will include multipurpose courts with lights located on number 7 and 9 Remo Street, the playing oval being widened and lengthened and car parking on numbers 1 and 3 Remo Street.
- The Victorian government has indicated that they are keen to assist in future years to see that the Masterplan is implemented.
In other news, the Victorian Government has also allocated two amounts of $100K to the Southern Road Reserve towards irrigation and drainage works plus renovating the toilet / shower areas to make them female friendly. Kingston council will be contributing between $200K and $300K and the works will commence at the conclusion of the 2018 season.
Regards,
Peter Davis
Board Secretary
0417357634