The second in a series of three Town Hall Working Group meetings was held on Tuesday night at the Ward Oval Pavillion.
Cobar Shire Council Mayor Jarrod Marsden called for the meetings in response to a public outcry last November after the Council voted to look at demolishing the Town Hall building.
This week’s second meeting drilled down on the proposed usage ideas for the hall which were gathered at the first meeting on
December 1.
That first session gave residents an overview of Council’s situation with regards to the Town Hall’s future as well as some background information as to why the Councillors had made the decision to demolish the building.
All of the 40 suggestions received from the first meeting were listed and included: a gym, wedding reception/birthday venue, group accommodation, boutique distillery, elections venue, travelling art exhibitions, art and craft workshop space, small theatre, education space, co-working space, discos/formals, exhibition and convention space, publishing house, indoor climbing centre, pop up restaurant, markets, and a café.
Discussion took place and a number of ideas were dismissed by the group of 12 attendees at the meeting.
Two further ideas were submitted – a mental health/wellness hub with commercial and community spaces and leasing it to an interested church group that would carry out the necessary repair work themselves to bring the building up to code.
The attendees were requested to choose their top two ideas to move forward with.
These ideas will be further workshopped at the next public meeting prior to being presented to the March Ordinary Council Meeting.
