JEFF Floyd will be stepping down as president of Phillip Island Community and Learning Centre (PICAL) at their upcoming AGM next week.

During his time as president, Jeff has been instrumental in guiding PICAL during the pandemic and their transition to Warley Avenue in what has been one of the most challenging periods for the organisation.

“I’ve done three years during a pretty interesting time so I thought it was time for someone else to have a crack,” he told the Sentinel-Times.

“So I won’t be standing again for president and we’ve called for nominations.

“It’s been really tough on our funding (this period) but we’re pretty well settled in at Warley Avenue and we’ll be back to normal soon.”

Due to the construction of the Phillip Island Community Hospital at Church Street in Cowes, PICAL was forced to relocate with their new site officially opened earlier this year.

Their AGM will be held in-person at 16 Warley Avenue, Cowes, on Thursday, April 20, at 4pm and via Zoom for anyone wishing to join remotely.

Community Garden

Due to PICAL’s transition, unfortunately their community garden was unable to be located at their current site and is being developed at Blue Gum Reserve.

According to Bass Coast Shire, their new garden will be completed by May this year.

The garden was used to supply their food relief program, which Mr Floyd is looking forward to resuming.

“That’s something we’re looking to keep going and our cooking team use the produce from the garden to also cook meals for the relief program,” he said.

“We’re using a quarter of it (garden) currently, but we can’t use it all until its finished.

“But when it’s open, it will be an opportunity to rev up community interest it and get more volunteers involved.”

However, Mr Floyd noted the community garden may not be fully operational for quite some time after its completion in May.

Council has been working with the garden volunteers and were expecting the shed and accessible toilet to be installed by the end of March/early April 2023.

From there, the perimeter fencing, some pathways and water tanks will be installed.

Overall, it will consist of:

• a main shed for storage of equipment

• Coels shed (relocated to be used for workshops)

• tool storage shed

• water tanks

• garden beds (including wheelchair accessible beds)

• accessible toilet

• accessible carpark

• perimeter fencing (utilising recycled timber from the Cowes Jetty)

• pergola, seating and produce.

The total project cost was $365,343 funded by Council contribution of $239,343, RSL contribution $106,000 and PICAL grant from Bendigo Bank at $20,000.