Despite strong opposition from Peter Epov, the changerooms at the Great Lakes Aquatic Centre will receive a major overhaul.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The facility is the most visited council operated pool in the Mid-Coast LGA (local government area).
Councillors agreed with a recommendation from MidCoast Council professional staff to use $300,000 from the Great Lakes Aquatic Centre financial reserve during this week's February ordinary meeting.
The matter was initially raised by Troy Fowler in March 2023, and supported by Cr Epov.
Cr Epov questioned the spend after claiming council had last year planned to close down inland pools.
"Looking at the report it said the current amenities are functional," he said.
"While they're functional we're going to spend $300,000 and possibly a lot more because when the quotes come in, and if they're going to be over $300,000, we will have to allocate more.
"Surely we should be looking at how we are going to address all of our pools and not necessarily splurging money at this particular time.
"It beggars belief that we would be spending money at this time when we haven't settled on what we're going to do on all our local swimming pools."
Paul De Szell reminded funding would be drawn from a reserve for this facility.
"Every year money is put aside for works at the Great Lakes Aquatic Centre; there is a specific reserve only for that specific facility.
"We are not proposing to take money away from other facilities just use money allocated for the facility which is subject in the report."
Mr De Szell also shared some funds to upgrade the Manning Aquatic Centre had been sourced from the the Great Lakes Aquatic Centre reserve.
Dheera Smith believed district school children who used larger swimming facilities for competitions before the state carnival would be disadvantaged.
We need to look at it from a regional perspective because there are many villages and towns that we represent, she said.
Bigger pools like Forster are used for events by winners from small schools to go there to compete in a much more professional way, she said.
"Saying it has everything to do with the inland pools is just once again raising the flag to the bull and putting it out to our constituents and making councillors look bad."
"There is only one pool indicated for closure and even for that pool the closure is not occurring until there is further consultation done with the community," deputy mayor, Alan Tickle said.
"The statement made there by Cr Epov was inaccurate."
"What a great win for the Forster customers in the YMCA," Cr Fowler said.
"They can now use the toilet facilities properly."