By Jesse Graham
HEALESVILLE’S indoor pool is here to stay, after being thrown a $200,000 lifeline at Tuesday night’s Yarra Ranges Council meeting.
On Tuesday, 12 May, Yarra Ranges councillors voted unanimously to fund Healesville’s Jack Hort Memorial Indoor Pool to the tune of $40,000 per year for five years.
The decision came after 16 months of uncertainty about the pool’s future, with the Mail reporting last year that, without urgent financial assistance, the pool would close.
In April 2014, the pool received one-off funding of $39,063 from the council to fund its operational deficit, but long-term funding was to be decided at Tuesday’s meeting.
Ryrie Ward councillor, Fiona McAllister, said the decision would give the community certainty that the pool was staying open for business.
“It gives certainty and that’s something everyone’s needed for quite some time,” Cr McAllister said.
“Now, we can look at working to market it better and get more people there.”
Support the Healesville Indoor Pool (SHIP) member, Helen Campbell-Drury, said she was pleased with the result, and that the group would now be fundraising to install shower screens in the women’s change rooms and changing cubicles.
The indoor pool is based on Education Department land and run by the Healesville High School, but the school receives no additional funding for the pool from the department, meaning money for the deficit would have come out of the school’s money for educational programs.
For the full story on the meeting, see next week’s Mail.
The council’s Draft Budget for 2015-16 was also endorsed at the meeting. For a detailed break-down of the budget, see mail.starcommunity.com.au later today and next week’s Mail.
