Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall pictured with Upper Horton Sports Ground trustees. Pictured from left is Baydon McDoull, Nick Kelly, Adam Marshall MP, Barry Madden, Philip Steigen, Norm Armstrong.
THE canteen at the Upper Horton Sports Ground will soon receive a major facelift thanks to a $35,000 grant from the NSW Government through its Public Reserve Management Fund, Member for Northern Tablelands announced today.
Mr Marshall was in Upper Horton last week and called in to the grounds to meet with the sportsground trustees and discuss their upgrade plans.
“I’m delighted to see such a hardworking group of locals secure these funds to upgrade what is a very well-used community facility,” Mr Marshall said.
“Improvements to be undertaken include the installation of new benches and cupboards; the kitchen will be completely enclosed and for the first time they will have running water in the canteen
“An enclosed barbeque annex will also be added, which is good news for the volunteer cooks, who have to date been dealing with the elements while manning the plate.
“The trustees have had quite a few concerns about health and safety issues so I was more than pleased to be able to work with the trustees to secure this grant.
“The sports ground is a great community asset – they host many events during the year but their two major events are held at the height of summer, the New Year’s campdraft and rodeo and in the depth of winter, another campdraft.
“So just being able to put a roof over the barbeque, enclosing the canteen and putting in running water will make the place more user friendly, improve health and safety issues and provide a more comfortable environment for volunteers using the canteen.”
Upper Horton Sports Ground Trust secretary Penny Armstrong said the upgrade to the facility would allow them to make improvements on what they could prepare in the kitchen.
“We’ve been a bit limited in what we can sell in the canteen; fast food was the only option now with this wonderful new facility, we won’t know ourselves, we can now prepare fresh food.
“People running events at the grounds tend to avoid using the canteen for obvious reasons so this upgrade is so very welcome.
“The people who man the barbeque put up with some pretty awful conditions so they are very happy to hear we will be putting up an annex for them – next thing is they will want a flat screen television to watch the cricket.”