Council
2 October, 2024
Two grants awarded under September BAS
CORANGAMITE Shire Council approved two grants in the September round of the Business Assistance Scheme (BAS).
Shire coordinator economy wellbeing Samantha Fox said, as part of Grow and Prosper Corangamite, council has consolidated its approach to economic and community development, inclusive of arts, culture, tourism and the circular economy.
“The BAS enables council to support local businesses, big or small, community enterprises, creative industries and new businesses looking to establish in the municipality,” she said.
The two successful applications were:
Timboon’s Effluent Solutions Australia and Engineer It, $2945 for the installation of new signage to the building facing Bailey Street, Timboon; and
Camperdown Nursery and Mart, $2000 to hold a night market.
Ms Fox said the BAS was an ongoing grant and business support scheme which was open for applications year-round.
“Council officers work with applicants to enable applications to be grant ready,” she said.
“Applications are assessed against the relevant stream criteria and evaluated by an assessment panel.
“Applications are assessed to ensure they meet all assessment criteria and align with the objectives of the program and, if so, are recommended for approval.”
Council’s 2024/25 adopted budget includes an allocation of $90,000 for the BAS with a remaining budget of $86,000.
Councillor Ruth Gstrein moved the motion, saying both applications met the criteria set out under the BAS for funding.
“This is a really good business assistance scheme, with the number of fields and different streams that people can apply for,” she said.
“We’ve got two really good applications here from Effluent Solutions Australia and Camperdown Nursery and Mart.”
Cr Nick Cole seconded the motion.
“The good thing about these is one’s a new business and one is another business trying out something a little bit different to keep things ticking along and hopefully going ahead,” he said,
“It’s always good to try and get these sorts of things out if they work well and good.”
Cr Gstrein said part of the motion included authorizing the chief executive officer (CEO) to approve grant applications received and assessed during the caretaker period, which started recently.
“I’m pleased to move that we authorize the CEO to approve applications during caretaker period, which can be a period of about a couple of months and we don’t want to hold businesses up by not being able to get their scheme applications assessed,” she said.
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