Alpine Shire Council is continuing to progress plans for the multi-million dollar expansion of childcare and kindergarten services in Myrtleford. Council chief executive officer Will Jeremy informed councillors at last week's monthly meeting that he had approved under delegation a contract worth $186,500 for Spaces Pty Ltd from St Kilda, to consult for the $9.639 million renovations to the Mountain View Children's Centre in Myrtleford (MVCC), which was announced in late July this year. Mr Jeremy said council has $2.53m allocated in its adopted 2026/27 budget to progress the MVCC upgrade in Myrtleford, funded by a grant from the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA), with an amount of $190,000 allocated for the scope of the awarded contract to progress the design documentation to ‘for construction’ status. Planning and final design of the new centre is already progressing, with council still aiming to commence construction in February 2027 and complete the facility by mid-2028. Under the state government funded project, the new centre will be built adjacent to the existing centre (to be demolished) and will significantly increase childcare and kindergarten capacity, growing from the current 97 places to 160 places, including 66 long day care places, 47 sessional kindergarten places and 47 integrated kindergarten places. Alpine Children’s Services will continue to operate the centre. During last week's meeting councillors also discussed a public petition with 78 signatories which raised concerns over Alpine Children's Services remaining the sole long day care provider in the Alpine Shire, and significant fee increases imposed earlier this year. Cr Peter Smith said council fully understood the cost of living situation. "I'd like to contact the [ACS] board and find a way to make it more cost-effective for the average family," he said. "We've got a responsibility to try and work with this board and [figure out] how we can help them, or just have a briefing from them to know they are listening to the complaints and frustrations of our residents and our families." Alpine Shire CEO Will Jeremy said he was very happy to help councillors write to the ACS board "to seek some clarity", while noting he had received positive feedback about the service overall.
