City of Ballarat councillors are set to decide whether to award tenders for two of the city's largest sports infrastructure projects at Wednesday night's council meeting.
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Council will decide whether to award tenders for the completion of the $6.35 million stage two Mars Stadium upgrade and the construction of a new $3.5 million pavilion at Alfredton Recreation Reserve.
The new Alfredton Recreation Reserve pavilion will provide a new home for three clubs, the Ballarat Football Netball Club, Ballarat-Redan Cricket Club and Ballarat Memorial Sports Bowls Club with the current rooms not meeting the AFL requirements for local-level facilities.
Under the project, council plans to demolish the existing change rooms and construct a new pavilion to replace the existing football, netball and cricket rooms which will be shared by the clubs and will be female-friendly.
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Council officers have recommended council award the $3.5 million tender to Ballarat builder CiQ Construction Management.
The project is fully-funded by the state government through its Local Sports Grants program.
While the pavilion is an important upgrade for the reserve, some of the user groups are apprehensive about the project, especially the demolition of existing buildings, and their uncertainty of its end result.
Ballarat Football Netball Club vice-president Craig Lightfoot said it did not support the demolition of existing buildings.
"If the final design isn't the one that was proposed in initially by the football netball club and the other parties, then we certainly won't be in favour of it and that certainly wasn't what was promised by the state government, who were funding the vast majority of this as well," he said.
"Certainly, the new pavilion is needed, quite clearly, but demolition of the old change rooms is complete and utter nonsense and we've been really strongly advocating with the City of Ballarat that shouldn't happen and that we should be able to repurpose the existing rooms for things like storage facilities.
"We've been told what the final detail is supposed to be, but we still don't know if that's indeed what the awarded tender is going to build and until we see that, we really can't necessarily be in favour of it."
City of Ballarat chief executive Evan King said the works would benefit all three clubs that use Alfredton Recreation Reserve.
"That's a really big project and a really important project there and it will be a multi-use facility in the end," he said.
"Ballarat-Redan Cricket Club operates out of a very old building and then the Ballarat Football Netball Club change rooms are on the other side of the oval and are beyond their useful date."
Meanwhile, council will also vote whether to award a $1.7 million tender to Ballarat builder H.Troon to upgrade Mars Stadium's gate one entrance and build a concessions area, camera platform behind the goals and improve accessible seating in the eastern and western stands.
The work is the final part of the stadium's stage two upgrade which also included building additional fully-accessible permanent toilets to reduce the need for temporary toilets on match days and improved spectator standing areas with formalised terracing, and ensuring the existing change room facilities were female friendly.
Some of those works have already commenced and their progress can be seen from Creswick Road.
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