Manager Nicole Coleman at Toodyay Community Resource Centre.
By Michael Sinclair-Jones
TOODYAY councillors were holding an emergency meeting at the start of this month in a last-minute bid to prevent the permanent closure of the town’s cash-strapped community resource centre.
The centre shut its doors for a week at the end of last month, warning that it may not have enough money to re-open.
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It faces a $30,000 debt for unpaid wages after discovering – along with other similar not-for-profit organisations elsewhere– that staff had been underpaid under the wrong industrial award for at least four years.
Permanent closure would cost the jobs of three current resource centre employees.
Manager Nicole Coleman said six staff had been underpaid, with a potential $64,000 fine for each award breach.
As The Herald went to press, Toodyay shire councillors were meeting to consider an urgent report from Shire CEO Suzie Haslehurst on how to save the centre.
It is understood that one option may be for the centre to move from privately-owned rental space in Stirling Terrace to shire-owned premises elsewhere.
Toodyay Shire President Rosemary Madacsi said the council would consider all options to keep the centre open for continued use by the community.
