Council has released its draft operational plan budget, which was discussed at the April 24 meeting.

Chief financial officer Richard Mooney said $219 million would be spent over the next four years on a range of capital works.

It’s proposed cash expenditure budget for 2018/19 was $130,673,000.

This represented an increase of 11.9 per cent on the cash expenditure budget for the 2017/18 financial year. 

The draft budget suggests spending $5,259,850 on building works in the coming financial year.

This includes $4,593,500 on refurbishing the Civic Centre and $150,000 on the Bowral Memorial Hall refurbishment.

It is expected that $18,294,804 will be spent on roads, bridges and footpaths across the shire.

According to the draft budget, there will be $4,300,000 spent on the Station Street upgrade in the 2018/19 financial year.

The Kirkham Road renewal would receive $4,771,695 and $1,405,623 would be spent on the local roads resealing program.

There would be $1,350,000 spent on replacing the Wallagunda/Barrengary Creek bridge on Belmore Falls Road.

In the coming financial year, the draft budget proposed spending $264,000 on stage one of the Moss Vale Cemetery masterplan and $700,000 on improvements at Bowral Cemetery.

Mr Mooney said over the next four years $219 million would be “invested in infrastructure renewal and improvement projects.”

From this, $107 million would be directed to water and sewer infrastructure improvements which would include $62 million towards the upgrade of the Bowral and Moss Vale treatment plants.

It was proposed $59 million be allocated towards roads, bridges and footpaths, $21 million go towards community buildings and recreation areas and $17 million be directed towards stormwater drainage improvements.

In the coming financial year, it was proposed two million be spent upgrading the Bowral treatment plant while one million would go towards an inlet bypass at the Mittagong treatment plant and $250,000 be spent on the Mittagong sewerage depot upgrade.

Funds for an upgrade at the Moss Vale sewerage treatment plant are allocated in 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years.

“Central to the development of this four year capital works program was this council’s commitment to delivering significant infrastructure projects and improving community assets,” Mr Mooney said.

As part of the draft budget, Mr Mooney said there was a 3.05 per cent increase in sewer access charges that would help fund the proposed upgrades.

A report presented to council said the proposed fees and charges for 2018/19 had generally increased by 2.5 per cent.

There were however, no proposed changes to waste management charges or water fund charges.

The draft budget also proposed money be spent on the shire’s pools.

Bowral Pool would have $225,000 spent on it including the kiosk, amenities, the plant room and equipment renewal.

Meanwhile $50,000 has been allocated for Mittagong Pool and $19,000 for Bundanoon Pool.

Eridge Park could be another winner in this year’s budget. According to the draft budget it will receive $294,850.

This would include lighting renewal, fence, storage and tree renewal and velodrome resurfacing.

There would also be $55,060 spent on a Tulip Time relocation feasibility study.

Money has also been scheduled for streetscape improvements at the northern entrance to Bowral ($10,300).

It was proposed in the draft budget to allocate $200,000 for an apprentice and traineeship program.

There are also plenty of environmental projects scheduled to take place in the coming financial year, funded by the Environment Levy.

These include environmental weed management ($480,000), vegetation conservation ($147,000), rivers and streams program ($120,000) and  landcare and bushcare ($47,000).

Some of the projects listed in the budget are proposed to be partly supported by Special Rates Variation funding.

Mr Mooney said council proposed to borrow $48 million over the course of the next four years.

This money will be used as part of the funding for a range of major works including:

He said it was expected council would be able to fully fund its infrastructure maintenance program by 2019/20.

There remains 103 projects on council’s unfunded  projects and services list.

Cr Duncan Gair praised the staff for the proposed budget.

“It is a huge infrastructure program that has been set. It’s unprecedented to see this sort of money being put to the community,” he said.

Councillors voted to put the draft budget on public exhibition from April 27 until May 24.

Cr Ian Scandrett was the only dissenting vote.