Tiny Towns century celebrated in Loch
COMMUNITY members are encouraged to keep their eyes open for the announcement of a future round of grants through the Tiny Towns Fund, with Regional Development Minister Michaela Settle and State Labor MP Tom McIntosh in Loch to celebrate the delivery of more than 100 projects statewide through the initiative.
They met Loch Memorial Reserve committee members Frank and Paula Springer at the reserve’s playground that was renewed with the assistance of a $25,000 Tiny Towns grant, the couple expressing their appreciation for that help and outlining plans to apply for a future round of the program to fund the intended installation of fitness equipment near the playground.
“The beauty of that is parents can watch their children play here and do their own fitness thing, so it keeps them all together,” Mr Springer said of the benefits of that future project.
Mr McIntosh remarked that he has seen the playground swarming with kids, clearly pleased with the benefits the Tiny Towns Fund can provide, Mr Springer mentioning that the replaced playground had reached the point of being unsafe.
Ms Settle spoke of the value the program provides in supporting projects that don’t fit into requirements for various other grants.
“People speak about how good the process is with Tiny Towns,” she said, noting they appreciate being able to talk directly with a representative of Regional Development Victoria.
“One of the great things about Tiny Towns (funding) is it’s driven by community,” Ms Settle said, the program’s guidelines kept broad to allow flexibility.
Tiny Towns are those with a population up to 5,000 people.
Completed projects through-out regional Victoria include town hall upgrades, new public spaces, arts and cultural activities, town activations and tourism attractions.
Across Gippsland, the Tiny Towns Fund has invested more than $517,000 in 27 projects.
The Nyora Football Netball Club is one of the organisations to have benefited locally, with more than $11,000 contributed to the establishment of its new male and female umpire changerooms.
Round three of grants through the Tiny Towns Fund has closed, with processing taking place, and a new round yet to be announced.
