More than $5M to be spent on industrial area

Cobar Shire Council’s plans to upgrade the industrial area will be unveiled at com-munity consultation meetings next month.
Council has been granted close to $5.5 mil-lion from the NSW Government’s Resources for Regions program to upgrade civil services (roads and stormwater) to the existing industri-al area in east Cobar.
Cr Janine Lea-Barrett has been pushing for some time for improvements to be made to the industrial area and is pleased that work is to now finally go ahead.
“I am excited the next round of funding will have the industrial estate upgraded, including drainage and water management, and moving ahead after the initial engineering and design phase completion.
“I have been advocating the improvements to the estate since being elected in 2016,” Cr Lea-Barrett said.
“The industrial area of the town brings ongo-ing employment and a way for the mines to ‘shop local’.
“Well done to all involved, after five years in the making.”
Council’s general manager Peter Vlatko said many business people and residents who live in the area would welcome the planned upgrades, particularly those who have been affected by stormwater flooding in the past.
“We have a preliminary design that will en-sure that stormwater will drain properly.
“We’re inviting businesses and residents to come and have a look because there is still time to have input and, if needed, vary the design which will ensure that we get it right,” Mr Vlatko said.
“It’s important that businesses and residents know exactly what’s going to happen and to understand the project. “Not only do we want them to have an input but for them to also know how they may be affected by the work.”
Mr Vlatko said with improvements to roads and the installation of new kerb and guttering, he hoped business owners and residents might also consider making investments, such as installing a new concrete driveway at their own premises.
He said it’s an opportunity for businesses and homeowners to work in conjunction with coun-cil for the project. Mr Vlatko said the work will be tendered out, however the project will be overseen by council’s new roads engineer, Urmi Thakur.
Ms Thakur has a number of years of project management experience through her previous role with VicRoads, working on major metro roads and highways.
She also has experience in stormwater drain design.
Ms Thakur is hoping the work will get un-derway in May and estimates it will take ap-proximately a year to complete.
She said they plan to concurrently do Stage 1 (which encompasses Campbell Street and part of Old Bourke Road and Dunstan Street) and Stage 2 (Government Rd, Cornish, Hart-man, and Gibbes streets as well as two further blocks in Old Bourke Rd and one more block in Dunstan St).
Council however does not have funding to carry out work for Stage 3—the area further to the east that is encompassed by Dapville, Wrightville and Lavinia streets and Brick-works Road.
“There will be disturbances with the con-struction, of course, but we will try to mini-mise it as much as we can,” Ms Thakur said.
She said business owners and residents will be consulted throughout the work, particularly with regard to traffic management and access to their properties.
“We can try to plan around their needs,” she said.
Council had previously pursued the idea of building a new industrial area on Bourke Road.
Mr Vlatko said council had received $4 million worth of funding for the project how-ever when tenders came back, the work was valued at $12 million.
“The other new industrial area idea has been parked,” he said.
“There was no way we could start that.”
That funding wasn’t however lost as council was successful in having the funding trans-ferred to the Ward Oval upgrade project.
See council’s advertisement on this page for times and dates of the community consulta-tion meetings.