Redeveloping Florence Clark Park is on the agenda for Cloncurry Shire Council.
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At their meeting on Wednesday councillors heard from CA Architects who were in town to do community consultation on the Scarr St facility.
Ideas under consideration include a water and a skate park and Mayor Greg Campbell said the park was an important place in the middle of town.
“It backs on to the pool and it is a central point in Cloncurry,” Cr Campbell said.
“It’s very important for locals, you’ll see the kids running around there playing touch in the afternoon and it is important too for visitors to get out and stretch their legs.”
Cr Campbell said they now had the opportunity to make it fantastic for everyone in the community and make it a family-friendly active park.
“Because of the proximity to the pool, we’d like to work in a water park and where the current skate park is on an old basketball court, we’d like to make it more user friendly with a track on the outside and traffic signals so police can teach the kids the road rules.”
Cr Campbell said it fitted in with the council goal of having a more active and healthy community.
“It’s about bring families and kids together and being active is part of that,” he said.
CA Architects held open sessions at the Shire Hall Tuesday and Wednesday to hear from the community what they wanted to see happen to the Park.
The Architects will come back to Council by August 8 on a possible design and costings.
Cr Campbell said Council would fund the park upgrades though they also had applications in for state government funding and hoped to also get some mining money to help out.
The Council meeting also held a discussion on local holidays for 2019.
The Council approved the public holiday for Cloncurry Show Day on Friday June 14, 2019.
However it turned down a request from the Cloncurry Merry Muster Festival to declare the Friday of Muster week (August 2, 2019) a “bank holiday” although it will remain for this year.
Councillors Damien McGee and Dane Swalling both expressed concerns about the cost of such a holiday saying it would cost the town at least $100,000 with no idea of whether there would be a return on that investment.
Council resolved to ask the Muster committee to come up with a business case to support the application for a bank holiday in future years.
The Council also heard the Muster parade has been moved from the Thursday to the Friday night of Muster week from this year onwards.
The Council also agreed to enforce road closures in town for the first ever Beat the Heat festival in September.
Cr Campbell said this festival would happen in alternative years from Winton’s Outback Festival as a way of drawing visitors into town with a street parade, the September races and reunion events.
“It’s a bit like the C150 Festival but concentrated into four days rather than a week,” he said.
The Beat the Heat festival will take place September 6-9.