After a year of mostly bad news, the Cobar Services Club is celebrating this week after receiving a grant of $100,000 to help upgrade the club’s facilities.
Services Club secretary/manager Linda Carter said the grant from the Department of Regional NSW is very welcome but has been a long time coming.
“We had applied for a grant to upgrade some areas of our kitchens and restaurant back in 2018,” Mrs Carter said.
“I wanted a million dollars, you know you should always aim high but this $100,000 will still go a long way towards what we want to do.”
Mrs Carter said she was pleased the Minister for Agriculture and Minister of Western NSW Adam Marshall and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro both could see the value that a Returned Services Club provides to its community.
Over the past 10 years the club has experienced ongoing financial troubles after battling its way back from being placed under administration in August 2010 by the then-board of directors.
Since taking over as secretary/manager in 2013, Mrs Carter has been instrumental in helping the club get back on its feet. She introduced a raft of cost saving measures and the club started to make some money.
That was until July 2018 when the club had experienced an increase in operating costs and a dramatic loss of income. Since then the club has continued to fight a tough financial battle to keep the doors open.
Mrs Carter said with this grant and some other funds the club had put away for renovations, they will be able to replace the ceiling and flooring and buy new furniture for their restaurant area.
She said they will also be able to upgrade the main kitchen and catering kitchen. (The catering kitchen is pretty much the original kitchen and has only had some minor upgrades over the years.)
“It’s not very functional,” Mrs Carter said.
It’s hoped that by investing in upgrading the catering kitchen, it will help to make the club more viable. She said it should bring them more business with functions, corporate events and weddings now able to be catered for.
She said things are now very much looking up for the club. “Post-COVID we’ve done very well, with grant funding and an increase in business since we’ve opened again.
“The club’s now in the best financial position we’ve been in since I’ve been here. “I’m very optimistic in what this grant can do for the club.
“Rest assured we’ll spend the money very wisely and do what we can to stretch it as far as it can go,” Mrs Carter said.
