This article is from page 94 of the 2008-12-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 94 JPG
COUNTY Board secretary Pat Fit- zgerald has put it up to the clubs of the county to decide on the next move in relation to Cusack Park.
It was the clubs that 12 months ago voted overwhelmingly for the sell- ing of Cusack Park for development and building a new stadium on the outskirts of Ennis — now in light of planning permission setbacks they’re being asked whether it would be pru- dent to revert to the original 2003 blueprint for the redevelopment of Cusack Park.
This question on whether the county board, with the mandate of the clubs, should finally abandon all hopes of cashing in on the potential development value of the nine-acre Cusack Park site in Ennis, will be formally put before delegates to this Thursday’s convention in the Auburn Lodge Hotel.
“The decision that now faces the clubs is where to next,” Pat Fitzger- ald has said in his first annual report to a Clare GAA Convention as full- time secretary. “Cusack Park is in a dilapidated condition, badly in need of a facelift. Do we retrieve the plans proposed by former county chair- man, Fr Michael McNamara and in- vest substantial resources, anything up to €10 million, in upgrading Cu- sack Park or do we bide our time and try with a renewed bid in a few years
to relocate to a new greenfield site? I would welcome the views of the clubs on this.”
Fitzgerald’s move to hand the con-
troversial Cusack Park subject back to the clubs comes only two weeks after former county board vice- chairman, Michael Lee, claimed that
the clubs wanted the existing Cusack Park site to be redeveloped in the first place.
“Five years ago we had the man-
date of the clubs,” said Lee, “‘and that mandate was to redevelop Cusack Park and try and get ten acres close to Ennis to develop a state of the art facility for training, not a farm of land in Tulla as they have now.
“T, as chairman of the fundrais- ing committee, with county board chairman Fr Michael McNamara had secured charitable status for the development that would allow tax re- lief in relation to subscription for the development. We had a financial pro- gramme in place. We were hoping to get €750,000 in lottery funding and Munster Council and Central Coun- cil grants to slot in the project. If I had been elected chairman it would have been finished a long time ago. We were financially set up to do the job and had the mandate to do it, but that mandate was changed. A mis- take was made.
“It is still an ideal venue and can be for the next 20 years. Then the next generation can look into where they want to go with Cusack Park,’ Lee told