Pool taskforce formed

By Paul Dunlop
PAKENHAM’S outdoor pool appears unlikely to open this summer, but a new taskforce has been formed in a bid to make sure it opens in the future.
Cardinia Shire mayor Bill Ronald said on Monday that the task of repairing the facility could be too great and the timetable too tight to enable the pool to be up and running during the early months of 2006.
Cr Ronald’s admission comes after the pool closed after it was declared unsafe a number of years ago was the focus of special council talks last week.
The mayor said there was a “fairly good chance” the pool would not be open this summer but was confident the facility will still be saved.
Cr Ronald said the new taskforce’s job was to plan for the reopening the pool.
“You don’t have to be Einstein to work out the community wants the pool open, it’s our job to open it,” Cr Ronald said.
The taskforce will be made up of Cardinia Shire councillors and members of the Save the Pakenham Pool committee.
Cr Ronald said he would chair the taskforce, which is to comprise Crs Bill Pearson, Ed Chatwin and Kate Lempriere along with SPP president Dot Murphy, Gloria O’Connor and Cheryl BillingSmith.
Their task will be to develop a plan to reopen the pool examining costs, health and safety issues and future community use.
A deadline for completion of the taskforce’s deliberations has been set for November 2006.
Consideration will also be given to establishing a special council committee to operate the Anderson Street facility.
The taskforce will make regular progress reports to the council in the first months of the new year.
Soon after he was reelected with a huge vote of support, Cr Ronald had said he hoped to have the facility reopen by Christmas.
Built in the early 1960s, the 50metre outdoor pool has been the subject of a longrunning debate in council and the community ever since it closed at the end of the 2001 summer.
But it remains to be seen how much it will take to reopen the facility with officers’ reports to council’s meeting painting a picture of a facility clearly feeling the effects of old age.
The pool was said to have major plant, service, amenity and site deficiencies, with consultants claiming there would be a ‘significant risk’ associated with the redevelopment of the facilities.
A 2002 assessment by architects Prior and Cheney put the cost of repairing the pool at over $700,000.
The Save the Pool group has argued it could be done for less than half that much. The cost of repairs has been a key issue throughout the debate, and will continue to be.
Cr Bill Pearson said he was confident the pool could be reopened for well under $300,000.
Cr Pearson also said it was unlikely the people would be swimming in it this summer but did not rule out a possible opening in March or April.
“I’m not really worried whether it opens this summer or not, the key thing is that we are going into this with a view to making it safe to reopen at an affordable price and that would be a marvellous result,” Cr Pearson said.
“Some people might say ‘Oh, we’ve got another committee’ but this one is deadly earnest about doing its job and we’ve already started.”