THE Country Women’s Association Broken Hill branch has been granted a 12 month lease of the Alma Institute.
The CWA Broken Hill branch has been operating out of the Fred Jobson Centre on Patton Street for some 18 months.
Treasurer of CWA BH, Pam Tucker said the lease is through Crown Lands, initially for 12 months, with plans to secure it for the long term.
“Council will help us with that,” Mrs Tucker said.
“We are more than happy to work with Council to get grants and we might be able to apply to Crown Lands to get grants.”
Mrs Tucker said it was “incredibly exciting” to have the lease and a new home.
“We’ve been at the Fred Jobson Centre as a caretaker, it came to us with Patton Village dissolving.
“We approached Council to see if we could use it. And we’ve been caretaker of the lovely building.
“It’s a really warm building with lost of love.”
Council approached the CWA to see if they would be interested in relocating, so that Playtime Preschool might be able to expand into the centre.
“The most important thing is childcare, we know how important it is to Broken Hill,” Mrs Tucker said.
“Council were wonderful, they had no obligation to find us anywhere else to go.
“But they impressed us so much in the dealings we had with them.
“Their responsibility to us and working towards a resolution – they presented us with a couple of different options.
“But the Alma Institute next door seemed to be the best.
“We will be the carers of that building and there will be lots of opportunity for the community to access it.”
Mrs Tucker said the CWA put forward a wish list for what they wanted with the building.
“There needs to be painting and carpeting as well as air conditioning and a toilet,” she said. “It needs a lot of work. But there are great options, we could have an outdoor area overlooking the park.
“We are looking forward to developing it for us and for the community.
“It will be a home for the CWA and everyone’s home.”
During their time at the Fred Jobson Centre, the CWA also hosted the Quota Club, the Sewing Club, the tabletop gamers and other community groups.
“There will be plenty of room and lots of flexibility,” Mrs Tucker said.
Playtime Preschool are hopeful of securing grant funding of $1,700,000 to renovate and upgrade the existing preschool and also utilising space within the building currently occupied by the CWA.
The Alma Institute consists of five separate rooms and a verandah facing Patton Street.
The building is currently being utilised for storage while the new library is being constructed, as such the relocation of the CWA to the Alma institute will be timed to fit in with that project.
The finishes, fittings and services of the building are currently in poor condition and require refurbishment including kitchen facilities and toilets to bring up to current standards to be fit for purpose.
These upgrades would be funded by Council with grant funding sought where possible.
