The funding commitment through the Community Development Grants (CDG) program was made by the Coalition Government during the Federal election campaign and was confirmed in a letter to the City of Armadale last week.
Mayor Henry Zelones said he had campaigned for the project since the early 1990s and was pleased to see it was finally going to be a reality while he was mayor.
“Federal programs like the CDG are vital to delivering essential infrastructure in growth areas such as Armadale,” Cr Zelones said.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWALSO READ: Armadale support for grass verges
“This is the reason we are continually advocating on behalf of our community.
“Every dollar delivered to Armadale from a Federal or State budget is a dollar less we have to recover from ratepayers.”
Armadale chief executive Ray Tame said the real value of the announcement was that it would release some $16 million in loan borrowings from the City’s long-term financial plan.
“There are other projects needed within the next decade that we have not been able to fund,” he said.
“This will somewhat ease the financial pressure on future ratepayers.”
The Aquatic Centre project has been on the City’s long term financial plan for many years, with more than $4.5 million in preparatory work already completed.
The City had been seeking Federal funding for the project under the National Stronger Regions Fund program.
In May the council committed to the first $1 million of expenditure to complete design and documentation, ensuring the project was shovel-ready should funding be successful.
“This announcement means the construction of an all-year-round heated indoor aquatic centre, originally scheduled for 2019-20, should now be completed by the end of 2018,” Cr Zelones said.