Dive in for pool

By Kath Gannaway
THE man who dug the hole for the Warburton Pool 36 years ago said it would be a calamity if it were to close.
Dick Leath spoke very briefly, but got the whole-hearted support of the 70 or more people who gathered last week to save the Warburton Outdoor Pool from closure.
“I brought my machine up and dug the hole with Ted Chisholm. It cost very little to put this pool here and it would be a calamity if it closed down,” he said.
The Shire of Yarra Ranges advised earlier this month the pool would close this year because it was leaking about 2 million litres of water and it was not a problem which could be quickly, easily, or cheaply, fixed.
Warburton Tennis Club president Jane Stormer called the meeting to gauge community support for both keeping the pool open this summer and working to develop a plan for the future.
Ms Stormer said there were lessons to be learned from the Seville community’s experience.
“Seville are not having a pool now, they’re having a water feature.
“I don’t want to see Warburton put in a position where we had an aquatic centre, and we’re now having a water feature,” she said.
“We need to say that’s not an option we’re interested in,” she said.
Long-time resident Roger Malone accused the shire of not looking at all the options and said a membrane could be applied to prevent loss of water due to leakage for a “ballpark figure” of $100,000.
O’Shannassy Ward councillor Chris Templer fielded a barrage of questions from residents but was unable to tell them what they wanted to hear – that the pool would open this summer.
Cr Templer said he had organised a meeting with Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato, the local member for the Warburton area, mayor Len Cox and senior council officers, and that meeting had taken place on Friday.
Shire of Yarra Ranges community relations manager James Martin said as a result of that meeting council would establish a community reference group to assist with consultation issues round the future of the Warburton Pool and possible alternatives.
He said the shire had allocated $550,000 in this year’s budget to work with the community to identify and deliver on an agreed option.
“It is envisaged that over $500,000 of this funding will be available for design and construction.
“We expect broad community consultation will begin in late February early March.”
He refuted any suggestion the amount of water leakage was being exaggerated by the shire.
The 2 million litres lost from leakage at Warburton was estimated based on comparing water consumption at similar pools such as Lilydale using water consumption figures provided by Yarra Valley Water.
Last year Warburton had a consumption of 5,262,000 litres compared with Lilydale 3,530,000 litres. On the basis of water consumption per attendance Warburton consumes 1259 litres per person compared with Lilydale 263 litres per person.
The additional 2 million litres of water is over and above the amount lost through evaporation, showers and other means and highlights the fact that opening the pool this summer is simply untenable,” Mr Martin said.
Ms Stormer said the Warburton community needed to look at what it wanted from the pool and the site.
“This was built 36 years ago. What we might want for the next 36 years might be something different.
“We need a short-term plan for maintaining what we have now, and a longer term plan to look at what happens next,” she said.