By Derek Schlennstedt
THE Support Healesville Indoor Pool (SHIP) group will be holding a car boot sale on Saturday 26 November at Healesville High School to raise funds for the Jack Hort Memorial Indoor Pool.
The pool which has been struggling financially in recent years was closed over the October school holidays for well-needed maintenance work, requiring the replacement of pool tiles.
So far this year, the Jack Hort Memorial Indoor Pool has undergone a range of maintenance works, which were badly needed, according to manager Ross Ilsley.
“We’ve installed shower cubicles and changing cubicles in the ladies change-room, we have upgraded the hot water systems in both showers and very excitedly put a gas heater in the males change room; we also put a silicone coating over the roof, new signage in front of the building and a new street sign,” Ross said.
All of this he emphasises could not have been done without the help of the local community.
“It was built by the community and has basically survived because of the involvement from the community,” he said.
Along with the maintenance works of replacing many of the tiles in the pool, the swimming pool also received an X-ray which scanned the concrete shell of the pool for structural weak points.
“We found we had a few cracks in the pool which were then repaired while the pool was still drained, so structurally the pool has a very clean bill of health,” he said.
Although the recent maintenance is finished, Ross says there is still a long list of projects which need to be completed.
“We’re hoping to replace the roof as it occasionally leaks, the pool concourse also needs to be repainted, and we need to upgrade the pool filters.”
Helping to raise money for these projects, SHIP will be holding a car boot sale this Saturday, where there will be a range of paraphernalia available at bargain prices.
Helen Campbell-Drury founder of SHIP says that it’s important to support the local pool as it’s the only indoor pool Healesville has.
“We all use the pool and so we all need to do our bit to ensure that it remains open and functioning properly,” she said.
Helen invites everyone to come down on Saturday to take a look at the many items that will be for sale and suggests that people can also set up their own car boot sales with a $10 donation to SHIP.
“The more the merrier, everyone can come down and grab a bargain or they can give a 10 dollar donation to us and set up their own car boot sale,” she said.
The car boot sale will be held at Healesville High school on Saturday 26 November from 7am until noon.
