Court rebuild to start

Ararat district contractor SHS Civil is scheduled to start work on new $430,000 netball courts at Ararat’s Alexandra Oval in October.

Ararat Rural City Council announced the timetable after confirming the tender for the works program.

Chief executive Tim Harrison said the council was pleased to announce the tender for the construction of the courts had been awarded to an Ararat-based business.

Dr Harrison said netball court construction would mark the start of on-ground work on an Alexandra Active Corridor Project, with funding through the State Government’s Female Friendly Facilities Fund.

“It’s

fantastic to see local businesses submitting competitive tenders that allow the council to support our own economic growth,” he said.

“Awarding tenders to local business has a flow-on effect to other local companies, so we are really pleased to have SHS Civil on board.”

SHS Civil managers Jacob and Lachie Hamilton said they were pleased the business had been the successful tenderer.

“It’s great to see the council supporting local, and I encourage other local businesses to tender for work with the organisation,” Jacob Hamilton said.

“SHS Civil has a strong connection to the local football club too, so it’s great that we are able to work on this project.”

The council has recently adopted a revised procurement policy that gives Ararat district businesses a five percent weighting for all tenders.

Dr Harrison said the netball-court work would include demolition of a toilet block, removal of a large tree and part of a hedge, which would be replanted on a slightly different alignment.

He said two netball courts would be built along with player and scoring shelters, storage sheds for home-team equipment, and a terraced area to the north for seating.

He added the area would be fully fenced and the courts would have a synthetic surface. Specialist contractor Match Point will install the surface.

Dr Harrison said the hope was that work would start in October, weather dependent, after the end of the 2019 football and netball seasons.