Member for Oxley, Andrew Stoner, announced the Kalang Hall committee secured $3600 to repair the tennis courts and a tidy $17,900 has been made available to provide and upgrade the power supply to the Dorrigo Showground.

It’s all part of a $12 million Public Reserves Management Fund Program which Mr Stoner said aimed to add value to the shire’s public assets.

“Showgrounds, community halls and reserves are the social and economic focal point for many of our local’s and this funding will allow community trust managers to carry out improvements that will bring greater social and economic benefits,” he said.

The Kalang Hall’s secretary and treasurer Debbie Ball couldn’t agree more with those sentiments and she told the Courier-Sun why the grant was important and how the money would be used to upgrade the decade old tennis courts.

“The Kalang courts are used all the time and it’s an important way in which Kalang’s community, both the young and old, can participate in a healthy activity,” Debbie said.

“Although a group of volunteers maintain the area throughout the year, whether it be brush-cutting or all-day working bees, after more than a decade the court surface is cracking and the building needs a new coat of paint - this is what the funding will be used for,” she said.

Also excited was the secretary for the Dorrigo Showground, David Scott. He said the large sum of money was welcome news for the trust committee and he described what it’ll mean for the local community.

“The Dorrigo Showground is the largest infrastructure on the plateau, so this is really great news for everyone,” David said.

“We do have power on-site, but we applied for the funds to fix-up the dated and dangerous power supply currently in the main pavilion - it’s 1950’s technology, so we badly need a safer system.

“And not only will that happen now but the showground’s trust committee have a policy to only use local tradespersons – so this is a win, win for Dorrigo,” he said.

All going well, David told the Courier-Sun the power upgrade would be completed within six months “depending on the availability of local electricians”.

For other groups interested in scoring state government funds for local projects, Debbie has some welcome news and advice: “the online process was a simple application through the NSW Lands Department” and it was important to keep “eyes open for funding opportunities”.

Meanwhile Davis said it was important to “follow the process carefully and make sure you do the right thing at every stage”.