The new pavilion at the Katherine showgrounds has been scaled back to reduce costs.
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Katherine Town Council will be asked at its final meeting of the year, this Tuesday night, to approve a smaller scale building to replace the Don Dale pavilion at the sportsgrounds.
The demolition of the pavilion and ovals upgrade at the sportsgrounds were placed on hold back in August because of a blowout in costs.
Council has voted to bring the sportsground project to a temporary halt after it was asked to contribute a further $1.6 million to the now $7.13 million project.
Instead of the $1.6 million, on Tuesday night it will be asked to contribute a further $800,000, to see the project completed.
The upgrade of Oval No. 2 has been carved off the overall sportsgrounds project to allow it to continue.
When the NT Government support for the sportsground upgrade was first announced it was costed at $4.4m.
A further $200,000 was promised by the Federal Government and council agreed to spend $200,000 from its own reserves to fix the No. 2 oval after the costs rose to $5.5m.
The Don Dale pavilion, built in the late 1980's, was slated for demolition in October, making way for a new multi-functional facility.
Sportsground users were given their first glimpse of what the new facility would look like in May of this year, and were told by the architects in charge of the design, the original building "was not worth saving".
The upgrade plans came almost a year after Katherine received $6.4 million from the NT Government to improve Katherine's sporting and entertainment facilities, which included upgrading the Showgrounds.
And Katherine MLA Sandra Nelson promised $250,000 to transform the pavilion into a community centre as part of her 2016 election campaign.
Hames Sharley Architects was awarded the contract for the design and consultation work earlier this year at a cost of almost $300,000.
Council has been told its officers "undertook further scoping of the project to reduce the cost and in turn reduce the requested council contribution without affecting the functionality of the building.
The proposed amendments to the project include:
- . Lowering the building height;
- . Reduction of the roof overhang;
- . Removal of the centralised raised roof;
- . Removal of the covered walkways (east and west ends of buildings);
- . Removal of BBQ
- . Removal of mechanical exhaust system (future project);
- . Replacement of stackable glass doors to community centre with fixed glass panels with two hinged opening single doors; and
- . Removal of carpark constructions (future project).
The redesigned building was presented to the Sportsgrounds User Group last month which gave its support for the project to progress.
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