Residents can choose to cast a vote for between three and five of 28 nominated projects in the Upper Hunter electorate in the NSW Government's My Community Project program.

The Dungog Shire projects in the running are improvements to the historic James Theatre; a new rodeo area and bucking chutes at Gresford Showground, a beginner's mountain bike trail at Dungog Common and shade for three children's playgrounds along with a horse sports arena for Stroud.

Upper Hunter MP Michael Johnsen said the innovative program is putting the decision making back in the hands of community members to weigh in on their top picks for projects in the region.

"It's very east to vote, all you need is your Medicare card and a free MyServiceNSW account, which also provides quick access to a wide range of NSW Government services, such as the CTP Green Slip refund for eligible policyholders," said Mr Johnsen.

"You can also pop down to the local Service NSW centres at Muswellbrook and Singleton and also Service NSW Agencies that have a digital kiosk at Quirindi, Scone & Gloucester where friendly staff can help residents cast their vote," Mr. Johnsen said.

You can view eligible projects and vote online at mycommunityproject.service.nsw.gov.au or by visiting a Service NSW centre.

Voting ends on August 15 with successful projects to be announced from September 2019.

My Community Project is made possible by the NSW Generations Fund.

Here's a summary of the projects:

Install air-conditioning, lights, cooking facilities and wireless internet to the James Theatre to improve the range of events.

Better facilities to allow live concerts, catered functions and air conditioning of the concert space. This will complete the restoration of the theatre's facilities and allow a bigger range of cultural and community events to be held in Dungog.

James Theatre is entirely managed by volunteers, through Friends of the James Theatre Inc, which has delivered many other improvements over recent years. The Friends Committee will coordinate the improvements, in consultation with local tradespeople and Council.

The Dungog Shire is without shade-covered playgrounds. This project will provide shade covers to three of our most popular parks.

This project will provide shade cover to the playgrounds in three of our most popular parks - Dungog (Coronation Park), Clarence Town (School of Arts) and Paterson (Tucker Park). In doing so, this project will: . Enable safer play; Minimize health risks for all park users; Improve park amenity and utility; Promote outdoor play, active lifestyles; Enhance what are important community social hubs for all ages (kids, parents, grandparents and the like!).

The project will involve the installation of large shade covers over existing playgrounds in three of the districts most popular playgrounds. These shade covers will be installed by a contractor, with local schools providing colourful artwork on the structures themselves.

To develop six kilometres of world-class mountain bike trail for beginner riders in the Dungog Common.

It will increase the physical and mental wellbeing of our community, especially our youth. Mountain biking is an unstructured outdoor activity with no requirement for coaches, games or seasons which means it is a never-ending opportunity to build confidence and promote physical activity. A beginner trail will also attract visitors to the Dungog Shire, which will result in an increase in economic activity within the community.

Dungog would attract visitors from surrounding regions who would invest their money locally. An increase in visitors would see other business opportunities emerge and therefore an increase in employment opportunities for our youth. A healthy outdoor activity such as mountain biking will teach leadership and resilience and is a fully inclusive activity. There will be increased opportunities to host mountain biking events, workshops and festivals.

To Be able to purchase a new Rodeo Arena and replace the 30 year old unsafe arena and bucking chutes.

Provide a safer arena so spectators can get closer to the action and provide a safer atmosphere for the competitors riding in the event to prevent them from getting hurt by old equipment not operating properly.

We will still be able to hold a rodeo as the cost of hiring in the arena and the bucking chutes is very costly and with our own equipment we can then provide better entertainment and seating facility's and offer a live feed to a big screen and telecast our event on pay TV.

The equipment to be purchased would be still made portable and stored in a shed at the showground where then we can erect it for the event such as the Gresford Show in March and The Gresford Rodeo in August and would allow the Gresford Rodeo committee to hold more junior rodeo events, horse clinics and rodeo schools.

To build and provide a horse sports arena for all user groups to use instead of the sporting fields.

It will eliminate churn up of the current oval, which means that if there is a soccer match booked at the same time, we will be able to use both facilities on the same weekend. It will entice more people to hire and use our sporting arena for future national events, like tent pegging, horse shows and dog trials.

As Stroud is a small community it will give the town exposure and will bring an upturn in economy, when more people use the facilities. It will encourage more community members to be able to perfect their chosen sport, without running the risk of interfering with other events running at the same time.