Concept plans given to council (#807)

Concept plans for the Denmark Aquatic Facility were presented to a special meeting of Councillors last Tuesday and DACCI hopes that Council will consider these at its next meeting on 12 June.

Earlier this year, Councillors had been advised that the plan which was the basis of the professional feasibility study could cost ratepayers as much as $1.15M annually.  Clearly this is beyond the community’s capacity to pay.  However, DACCI and the Shire’s Project Team have challenged this claim and produced alternative concept plans that reduce the annual cost to one quarter of this amount..

DACCI’s plans will be put to the community in the coming weeks but for now its enough to say that, by reducing the building footprint from 2,240m² to 1,146m² and avoiding duplication, the consultant’s $8.24M building cost the has been trimmed to $4.76M without any loss of functionality. 

We have also suggested a funding scenario based on the successful model used by the new facility at Pinjarra.  In that case the State government provided 40% of the $7.2M project cost and the Federal government chipped in 17% for hydrotherapy.  Alcoa made a $1M donation, $94k came from the community and the remainder was provided by a Shire loan.

DACCI’s funding plan assumes that we might be equally successful in our grant applications – and recognising the key role of corporate and private donations to community wellbeing we have asked Council consider establishing a Pool Reserve Fund to receive such contributions.  We have pledged an amount of $200k as a start-up and we invite those cheques to start rolling.

Once a decision to proceed has been made, the progression from dream to reality is likely to take at least two and a half years.  We’ve targeted the opening for Australia Day 2015. 

During this period we propose that ratepayers contribute to the Pool Reserve a sum equal to the annual subsidy that the facility will need once it becomes operational.  Our aim is to save (should this really be so old-fashioned?) at least $950k by the end of 2014.  It would cost the average ratepayer $1.50 per week, or $78pa as a special fixed rise in rates quarantined from all other Shire funds and reduce the size of the required Shire loan to $1.12M.  Our plan costs $83k pa to finance rather than the consultant’s $446k and we’ll argue that the proposed cash depreciation charge of $301k pa should be abandoned.  (These two items alone account for $747k of the original $1.12M).  Every dollar saved today is worth nearly two over the life of the loan.

Once the facility becomes operational, these quarantined contributions will continue and provide a subsidy just under $300k pa. This figure is based on the most pessimistic user generated revenue and is thus conservative.  The more realistic revenue forecast by the consultant would reduce this ratepayer subsidy to $1.05 a week.

Let’s get on with it!

Cyril Edwards, DACCI, denmarkpool@gmail.com and http://www.denmarkpool.blogspot.com.

Corrigin residents prepared to pay for pool benefits (#805)

A new year-round indoor hydrotherapy pool will shortly open in Corrigin – adding an extra dimension to its seasonal 50m outdoor swimming pool at a cost of roughly $1.4M.  That Shire recognises that the community understands the benefits and is prepared to pay.  Inevitably, rates must increase to cover the annual running costs of such facilities.  The trick is to keep the increase small by good design.

The average ratepayer in Corrigin contributed $1,670 to the 2011/12 Shire budget.  The Shire of Denmark has a population five times larger and in the same year the average rate was $1,119.  DACCI estimates that an increase of the order of 7%  (about $80 pa) would be sufficient to run a Denmark Aquatic Centre.

Any community of reasonable size should offer a range of services to meet the varying needs of its members. There are inevitably services which we don’t personally use, but which we happily support because we recognise their value to the community as a whole.   For example, the Youth Centre offers me no personal benefit, but I gladly support it via rates as I recognise its value to the community.

Some ratepayers will not use a pool, and some may be reluctant to pay higher rates to support one. If you are among them, DACCI encourages you to consider carefully the wealth of benefits that a pool would bring to your community, including some of the people most important to you – perhaps your children or grandchildren, your elderly parents, or your friends and their families.

There is huge community support for a pool. Tellingly, although the last Shire Community Needs and Customer Satisfaction Survey did not specifically ask about the need for a pool, it received 92 unsolicited comments supporting a pool – citing the benefits for children, schools, youth, adults, sportsmen, the unfit, the aged, those with injuries or mobility problems and the disabled. You will certainly know people in Denmark in at least one of those categories who would benefit from a pool in some way.

This comment sent to DACCI by Dr Lisa Clarke crystallizes the feelings of many pool supporters.

It is time for Denmark to recognize the fitness and health needs of all its citizens – a pool in Denmark would allow our aged citizens a chance for water fitness programs, it would allow our children to learn to swim without having a 100km round trip, it would allow our citizens with injuries to access water rehabilitation programs and the facility would become an important social and sporting hub for our whole community. The question should not be “Can we afford a pool in Denmark” but instead “Can we afford not to have a pool in Denmark?”

Hard to argue with, isn’t it?

Cyril Edwards, DACCI, denmarkpool@gmail.com and http://www.denmarkpool.blogspot.com.