Record number of Colac Otway grants handed out this year

A RECORD number of community groups have received grants from the Colac Otway Shire Council this year after a further $68,839 was awarded to 12 applicants last month.

Councillors endorsed the new grant recipients under round two of its new Community Grants Program. It follows round one grants announced in June when more than $230,000 was awarded to 77 applicants.

Grants in the latest round range from $10,000 to the Apollo Bay Scouts for start-up assets for the group to $2,000 to the Colac and District Cricket Association to purchase iPads for electronic scoring.

Shire mayor Joe McCracken said a number of grants in category 2 (Community Events & Support Program), 3 (Small Grants Program) and 4 (Building Façade Improvement Program) had also been awarded recently under delegation with less than $4,000 remaining of the program’s $317,400 budget to be finalised soon.

Cr McCracken said officers were finalising the allocation of the remaining program budget and once that was done exactly 100 community groups would have received grants this year – more than any other year.

“By anyone’s assessment, our new Grants Program has been an outstanding success this year and as a Council we are rapt with the number of applicants – and that we’ve been able to fund the vast majority.

“The 12 Community Grants approved last night will assist in improving economic and community development across the Shire for community groups, progress associations, sporting clubs, arts groups and environmental working groups.

“It’s once again really pleasing that a lot of the grants are going to our small towns. Last night, $51,319 of the $68,839 allocated went to community projects in small towns.”