Library tender awarded

Published on 21 February 2022

At an unscheduled meeting of Council, held earlier this month, Councillors voted to award the tender for the Yarrawonga Library and approve an extra $1.2 million in cash reserves to complete this much needed project.

Mayor Libro Mustica said the awarding of the tender plus the extra funding along with a $1 million grant for the State Government’s Living Libraries Program and $3.75 million from the Community Infrastructure Loans Scheme means the project is now shovel ready and will be a jewel in the crown of the Yarrawonga shopping precinct.

“This project will transform the Town Hall site into a vibrant community precinct, with not only a state of the art library, but a Customer Service Centre, meeting spaces, and a kitchen to service major events at the town hall,” Cr Mustica said.

“The current Yarrawonga Library has the smallest public access floor space of all Goulburn Valley libraries despite the fact in 2020/21 Yarrawonga generated more visits than the Shepparton Library.

“There are more than 3,000 active members of the Yarrawonga Library and pre-COVID statistics indicate 46,000 visits per annum resulting in 49,500 loans.”

As well as library users, Cr Mustica said Council had been working closely with user groups of the Town Hall and old Community Hall to incorporate, where possible, the services and facilities they would need into the final plans for the new building.

“I am confident we will achieve a wonderful civic precinct development that will reinvigorate Yarrawonga’s most prominent public building and serve the whole community for many years to come,” he said.

“We understand and acknowledge there are still a small group of community members who are against this development, however the vast majority of people we have surveyed, spoken to and heard directly from are fully in favour of the library project.

“It is such an exciting development and I can’t wait to see it completed.”