Future of

By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE’S swimmers face an uncertain future with rumours the outdoor pool might close and the high school saying it is struggling to maintain its 25-metre indoor pool.
The Shire of Yarra Ranges admitting that its strategy on council-owned pools has yet to be finalised has not helped the uncertainty.
Allan Rennick is one of two Healesville High School representatives on the joint use committee of management for the indoor pool. The 25-metre pool was built at the school in 1989 by the Rotary Club of Healesville as a community project.
He said the pool had a life of 25 years and that the school is struggling to maintain it.
“People think of it as a community facility funded by the shire but that’s not the case,” Mr Rennick said.
He said the shire contributes a small amount towards maintenance but that the committee has had to call again on Rotary to fund urgent maintenance works.
He said the committee had a budget that Rotary was helping with to see the pool through the next five years but the future after that was unclear.
“We need help from the shire to keep going until they decide how the town’s pool needs can be met and that could possibly be the building of a new facility in Queen’s Park,” Mr Rennick said.
“If the shire did made the decision to close the pool we as a community would want some sort of commitment to it being replaced in the short term, rather than the long term,” he said.
The president of Healesville Swimming Club, Jenny Kepert, said that any talk of closing the outdoor pool without having a firm plan in place for a new facility would not be popular.
She said there had been talk for years that the outdoor pool was not financially viable but said there was no incentive for the public to use it.
“The fees have doubled to what we paid the year before and as a club we just can’t afford it. And, it is not open when people want to use it,” Ms Kepert said.
“If we could train there from 6pm to 8pm that would be fantastic; why have a pool sitting there and not being used?”
She said management of the indoor pool was excellent in endeavouring to meet the needs of the swimming club and the public but were constrained because of the size of the facility.
“If they could come up with a decent plan for the future, which would need to include input from the community, and try to maintain what we have until that happens, I think people would be happy with that.
“If they were to shut the outdoor and are not supporting the indoor pool then we have nothing,” she said.
James Martin, Yarra Ranges community relations manager said as the strategy had not been finalised it was hard to speculate on what it might recommend.
He said, however, that most of the shire’s pools are at least 50 years old and many need big capital outlay to tackle a range of problems.
Cr Jeanette McRae said she was keen to hear from the community and planned to call a community meeting on the issue to gain a better understanding of what the community wants.
In the meantime, a meeting of community users of the Healesville indoor pool will be held at 6.30pm on Wednesday (14 March) at the pool to look at ways of supporting its operation.