YARRAWONGA gala ball and dance weekend organisers fear for the event’s future with Moira Shire’s decision to demolish the community hall to make way for an upgraded library.
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The three-day event, which has been running for nearly two decades, uses the kitchen in the community hall located at the rear of the shire hall where dancing takes place.
Jeanette Wilson said the community hall kitchen and space for lunch and supper was essential to the smooth operation of the event and hoped Moira Shire would re-consider its recent decision.
“It is going to take a massive action, but they haven’t got any grants to do any of this work yet,” she said.
“The shire hall is a wonderful venue for dancing, but for the dance weekend it is going to limit very much the activity which brings a lot of people from out of town.
“Council is unwilling to buy land to build a new library, which is very short-sighted.
“Consultants don’t like community meetings because people might say things they don’t like.”
The shire hall is also the venue for two other dance competition weekends during the year also requiring the community hall.
Yarrawonga Lions organises the dance weekend which has attracted visitors from Merimbula, Warrnambool, Canberra, Dubbo and Kilmore.
“If we haven’t got the kitchen and dining facilities in the community hall the only way we can think about running it is it will have to be a BYO supper which isn’t practical either,” Lions president Dennis Griffiths said.
“I don’t think too many councillors have been and had a look what goes, particularly ones from out of town.”
Yarrawonga-based councillor, Peter Mansfield, who attended the dance event, defended council’s actions by confirming a three-month community consultation on three options for a new library took place.
“We received over 200 submissions and the overwhelming majority of those (75 per cent) favoured option A, the demolition of the old kindergarten and community hall,” he said.
“This event will possibly need to make alternative arrangements for their supper which is once a year.
“The alternative arrangements could be a marquee on the vacant block between the Royal Mail Hotel and shire hall."