Within 12 months, a project which has taken almost four decades will be complete, its proponents say.
• 'Fantastic' grant of $3000 to help install seats at Sunnyvale
Stage three of the Sunnyvale Sports Centre would be completed by this time next year, adding two squash courts and a hospitality area, replacing the gym floor and renovating existing facilities at the centre, Green Island Combined Sports Bodies working party member Graeme Wyllie said.
Stage three was meant to be done with the rest of the centre 38 years ago, but after the Green Island Borough Council folded into the Dunedin City Council the project became a ''small fish in a big pond''.
However, a $150,000 grant from the Otago Community Trust meant the project could be completed, Mr Wyllie said.
''It's sort of like, in a positive way, the final nail,'' he said, of the grant.
''It means the development is going to proceed.''
The development was estimated to cost $1.4 million but that was a year old and would probably be revised up, he said.
It was hoped community support would get the project over the line.
The working party was asking for people in the community to give $100, as $10 a month for 10 months, and businesses to give $1000 to go towards the cost of the development.
''We are looking for the community to get in behind us,'' he said.
''It's a big, big project.''
The engineer's drawings would be completed by the end of this month and at that point ''we can go get it fully costed, quantified and apply for consent''.
Work would start later this year.
