Boyup Brook Football Club building to be upgraded to emergency evacuation centre

The Boyup Brook Football Club building will be upgraded to be used as an emergency evacuation centre after the shire council approved a budget amendment.

At a special council meeting on January 25, the council approved the contribution of $894,000 from the shire budget to be used alongside an $813,000 disaster ready fund grant that was provided by the National Emergency Management Agency, to upgrade the Boyup Brook Football Club building.

The upgrades to make the building effective as an emergency evacuation centre include refurbishing the bathrooms and change rooms to modern standards, installing air-conditioning and heating systems, improving accessibility and safety measures and storage space for supplies and equipment.

Alongside the building’s renovation, the council is preparing a recreation centre master plan to help accommodate the community in times of crisis while also catering to the needs and requirements of the sporting groups within the shire.

Shire president Richard Walker said the choice to use the football club building as the established point for evacuation was due to the site’s versatility and facilities.

“It’s very important that we have a fully functional emergency evacuation centre,” he said.

“Although we’ve got our town hall for that purpose, this will be a much more versatile and appropriate site, with the oval below it, and there are other benefits on the side, including improving an existing building.”

“The site is more suitable and we can have an open area with the sporting oval, and we can bring animals in and have emergency vehicles come to the site.”

He said the decision to approve the building via a special council meeting was due to the body for the disaster ready fund needing a decision in order for the fund to contribute half towards the upgrade.

“The funding will be approved now, and we couldn’t wait for a regular council meeting as the funding body needed an answer before our council meeting this month, and to commit to the community contribution toward the upgrades.”