AS PART of the Federal government's $1.8 billion program for road and community projects nationally, local governments throughout the State have received grants to help boost local jobs and economies affected by COVID-19.
As featured in an article in last week's Farm Weekly, the package, which includes the establishment of a $500 million Local Road and Community Infrastructure Program, has brought forward the 2020-21 Financial Assistant Grant payments.
Federal member for O'Connor Rick Wilson told Farm Weekly the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program grants could be used for a wide range of projects and would help take the pressure off local government budgets.
"Across my electorate there are 38 local government authorities that have received anywhere between $1.8m down to $182,00 for some of the smaller shires," Mr Wilson said.
"If the shires invest this money wisely in projects that are labour intensive as opposed to capital intensive, I think we will see jobs retained and at the moment retaining jobs is probably just as important as creating jobs."
Rather than putting the money towards intensive road projects, which often require major investment, Mr Wilson said the grants would be better spent on small community infrastructure projects.
"There are other road funding programs local governments can use instead as roads are horrendously expensive," Mr Wilson said.
"Even the Shire of Esperance which received $1.86m - to bitumise a road that amount might only get you 2-3 kilometres.
"I would prefer to see this money spent on footpaths, public toilets, carparks and playgrounds - the types of projects shires can complete with the equipment they already have so that the money goes as far as possible to keep people in work."
The Shire of Wagin, which received about $350,000 through the program, was developing a list of priority projects at the time of writing.
Wagin Shire president Phillip Blight said it was likely a portion of the funding would be allocated to developing an open space around the shire library building as a functional facility for locals and visitors to park, utilise amenities and access businesses in town centre.
"We are also thinking about doing a project around expanding our concrete footpath and curbing network," Mr Blight said.
"What we've found over the years is if we've had a funding shortfall in our budget one of the first things we've diverted funds away from has been our footpath program, so we are pretty keen to try to catch up on that.
"The beauty of that program is the work would be completed by local contractors or we would hire a few casuals into the shire's workforce, so it would be a win for our local economy."
With only 12 months to spend the funds, Mr Blight said the Wagin Shire needed to promptly decide in which projects to invest the money, to avoid losing the grant.
"You only have a few shovel-ready projects in your cupboard at any one time, so we have been exploring our options to see which will get the best bang for the buck and benefit our local economy," Mr Blight said.
