Plans to demolish and rebuild clubhouse approved… now they just need $2 million
By Kirra Livingstone
THE Maleny Rangers are attempting to raise $2 million for a new clubhouse and change facilities after receiving final approvals from the Sunshine Coast Council. The move comes a week after the Youth Boys Division 3 won their grand final with club president, Richard Jones, saying players across the club deserved better facilities than the current building, which was built in the 1970s.
“The building we are in is just not meeting the requirements of Football Queensland for the changerooms and our facilities,” he said. “The current clubhouse was built over fifty years ago. We decided about 18 months to two years ago that we should plan to get a proper clubhouse and proper change rooms.
“We want our women players to feel comfortable at our club, and at the moment they have to get changed in the men’s toilets.” Richard is a building designer and another club volunteer is a town planner; so they worked together to create a design to submit to council for approval.
“We have both volunteered a lot of time to making this project happen, because we want to save as much money for the clubhouse, ” he said. “We are aiming to gain construction approvals by the end of the year and hire builders by next year.”
The new clubhouse’s design includes separate change rooms for men and women and the home and away teams, as well as environmentally friendly features. “There will be a proper commercial kitchen, and a first aid room which we don’t have right now,” he said. “We want to put rain water tanks in, and we are putting solar panels on to try and save on electricity bills. “We’ve designed it to blend in with the other buildings in the area.”
The Maleny Rangers committee is now looking to generate more funding for the project through receiving grants. “We made this design and went out for a state grant which we got from the sport and rec, it was $350,000, so it’s just a start,” Richard said.
“The issues we’ve found from the manufacturing reports is it’s going to be pushing towards $2 million.” kirra@gcnews.com.au