Time to have your say on pool future

At last the pool referendum documents have been posted to ratepayers.

Both ratepayers and tenants need to be clear that Council seeks guidance on two questions.  First, it seeks your permission to invest a fixed amount each year into the existing Aquatic Facility Development Fund that is quarantined for pool use only.  This annual investment needs to be sizeable if it is to attract support from State and Federal agencies.  But it is a fixed dollar amount each year until the pool is built.  At $535k, it is equivalent to 11.45% of the current rates, but if rate increases follow trend, the percentage would be halved in ten years.

Once the pool becomes operational, the annual investment would become a subsidy to cover the gap between operating revenue and operating expenses.  DACCI’s modelling, backed by professional assessment of energy options, indicates that the subsidy should be considerably smaller than the sum needed in the initial investment stage.  Just how much smaller depends largely on patronage but we can see at least $70k savings in energy costs alone (Council’s numbers do not yet take this into account).  

These two propositions –the first to save, the second to support – are the core of the referendum.  But obviously, only one question needs to be asked – do you or do you not support a special rate increase for the pool. 

If you have not received a ballot paper, you still have a role.  If you support this visionary project you should let your landlord know.  You can also contact State and Federal politicians to help create momentum for funding.  Your letter will count.

WA Senator Dean Smith emphasised this point during a recent meeting with DACCI.   He is conversant with all the benefits a pool can bring to a community and is supportive of our resolve to apply for Federal funding.  We will meet with him again later this month.

Ray Colyer, the Liberal Party candidate for the State seat of Warren Blackwood has also met with the DACCI committee.  As mayor of Augusta Margaret River he has first hand experience of community pool operation.   He made the point that pools should be seen as community service obligations that Councils should strive to fulfil.

DACCI encourages ratepayers to have their say by voting in the Referendum, and all other residents to make their views known to their councillors and political representatives. 

Local architects, working with award winning and experienced pool designers, have offered a flowing contemporary building incorporating best practice environmentally sensitive design.  If realised, it will cater for community needs into the foreseeable future.  What’s more, when it does need to be replaced, our financial model provides a head start for the community of the day: it will have a reserve fund with a healthy balance of half the anticipated replacement cost.

For yourself, your children, your grandchildren and for your community, vote YES!

Cyril Edwards
Vice President, DACCI

Let it be ... vote YES

Vote may be a week away

Referendum papers will be distributed soon – possibly by 15 March.  When you receive them, you will have three weeks to return your ballot papers.  All ratepayers and residents must understand what is at stake.  This is not just about us today, it’s really about providing an exciting, well thought-out aquatic centre for current and future generations.

A YES vote will be an investment in a first class development that promises a dividend of improved fitness, health and social well-being for all ages and generations to come.  It will come at the cost of a ratepayer subsidy which is roughly the same as last year’s rate increase – but this time there’d be a more tangible outcome.  The funds that result will be quarantined and the annual subsidy will be a fixed dollar amount not a fixed percentage.

A NO vote cannot be reversed.  It will be the end of the project.  There can be no resurrection.

On a lighter note … Legend has it that when Archimedes suddenly saw the solution to a problem that had been bugging him for ages, he leaped from his bath and took to the streets naked, so excited by his discovery that he had forgotten to dress, crying ‘Eureka’ ("I have found it!"). 

My own Eureka moment came with my first glimpse of the Pixeltrix-Bollig concept plan for the redeveloped Denmark Leisure Centre.  There were no beautiful 3D impressions at that stage– just a site plan.  From that moment on, I knew that it would be a winner.  The architects had solved a problem that had bothered me for ages … i.e. “where to put the front door”?  Their solution, like all the best, was simple and elegant.

I’m talking swimming pools of course ... should the ‘main’ entry face the footy oval or the old drive-in movie site at the ‘back’?  Answer?  Strikingly simple … get rid of the front door!  That’s right - get rid of it by making the back door equally attractive!

The architects propose a compact central entrance lobby that affords equal importance to access from either side of the building.  With excellent sightlines over areas at risk, it allows staff to manage both wet and dry activities safely.

You saw the building from the northern side in the last Bulletin.  Entering from the south, visitors are drawn in via an outdoor patio (canopy not shown) spacious enough to allow school classes to assemble before entering through the large glass doors just visible in the shadows on the right of the patio.  Neat!

But enough about the design … these features, and many others, will be clarified in the material that we plan to distribute in the next three weeks. 

Since this will (probably) be my final article before the referendum papers are distributed, I have a one final message.

 

We hope that you will share in the vision and future of our community by voting YES in April. 

Cyril Edwards, Vice President, DACCI.