The Bright swimming pool
The privately owned & sub-standard indoor pool in Bright is heavily subsidised by the Alpine council, yet still it struggles to stay open.
Most candidates cautious about a new pool for Bright
Yesterday’s Border Mail ran a full-page feature on the 15 candidates for the Alpine council election in which all were asked 3 ‘multi-pronged’ questions on key issues involving tourism, the Bright visitor information centre, restrictions on lifestyle properties in rural areas and, the most contentious of all, “Should Alpine council pay for a public pool in Bright?”
Only two candidates, Cr Mario Vaccaro and his ‘running mate’, Ray (the goat man) Dyer, who are both from Myrtleford, gave a flat “NO” response to the pool question.
And only one candidate, Mt Beauty’s Cr Greg Lee, gave an unequivocal “YES”, which made me wonder if Greg was just trying to pick up some ‘cheap votes’ from the few hundred Bright pool-users group.
The rest (*) were mainly far more circumspect, stressing that the matter really got down to affordability. Quite a few agreed with my line that those in the Bright community who want the project to go ahead, first need to get themselves organised and start raising some funds to go towards it, otherwise the rest of the community would be unlikely to support the council spending a huge amount of money on a facility that may only be used by a small minority. The clear consensus was that the council should take a cautious approach.
In the meantime the pool, which closed in August when the owner filed for bankruptcy, has reopened and the mortgagee is advertising it for sale by tender. The council still has 5 years to go on its lease and may have an opportunity to INSIST that the next owner carries out the much promised upgrade.
A new pool would be years away - even if the council said “YES” today - so what I think needs to happen is for the next council to call some kind of ‘summit’ meeting where the major stakeholders and interested parties in the community would have the opportunity to commit to a concerted fund-raising drive that would go towards the upgrade OR towards a community fund for a future new pool.
Realistically, the only way a new pool will come about is via a combination of community, private, council and government funding.
(* Candidates Graham Cocks & Mark Steven declined to answer any of the Border Mail questions)
Promoting 'Beautiful Bright'.
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Have you guys had a look at yesterdays Border? According to candidates Mario Vaccaro and Ray Dyer, both of them appose any swimming facility in Bright. This position seems very inequitable to me as the other two main centres both have pools (if only Summer pools only). Does Mario and Ray really think that Bright residents should drive –on a permanent basis -to Myrtleford or Mt. Beauty to do their swimming?
The current situation – where we are providing a subsidy for having public access into a private operation- is certainly not ideal. In fact the facility is a disgrace. The demise of the Eddie Williams Empire has provided the Shire an opportunity to completely revamp the arrangements (providing us with a greater level of control on what goes on) as well as input into what improvements are made.
The view of the Shire Committee of Management that currently oversees the facility is that the Shire should be interested in the pool only. I strongly agree with this. – That is where the subsidy should go. We do not subsidise any gym/squash centre anywhere else, so why in Bright? At the moment all the dollars go to the operator and can be spent where they see fit.
In the short term we (the Shire) need to decide on what we can afford to offer any possible purchaser as a subsidy. Currently we have a $65,000 subsidy in this years budget. Last year the subsidy was around $90,000. The reason for the drop in subsidy was that we thought we were not getting value for money. If Bright residents need a pool, we need to be fair dinkum and offer a subsidy (with long strings attached) that will attract an investor to purchase the facility. We are kidding ourselves to think $K65 is enough attraction.
A subsidy of at least $K100 is the minimum we could offer to make the facility a goer. Studies of other simular facilities bear this out. Once the subsidy is established, we can attach conditions. Some suggestions:
* Focus entirely on the pool.
* Greater control over the pool operation. We already run Mt.Beauty and Myrtleford pools so working out these operational conditions would be easy. Items such as hours, pool supervision, water quality, toilet cleaning arrangements etc.
* Upgrading of the pool facility. All of the subsidy in the first couple of years needs to be spent on pool facilities. I have visited the pool many times, and have swum there as well. A few ideas I have developed for immediate capital works:
1. Remove a section of the roof over the pool and replace with a retractable plastic cover. This would make the pool into an indoor/outdoor facility…increasing its desireability for everone. I do not think the cost to do this would be excessive. Probably under $K15.
2. Replace remaining rusty ceiling.
3. Pull out the front wall and windows and replace with concertina floor to ceiling glass doors. Like the ones you see in restaurants. This would make it less claustrophobic and make the changes significant enough to create a “fresh start”
4. Expand the pool concourse thru the concentina doors out to the front street. This area would make a delightful seating area or play area for kids. Shade and fencing would be required.
5. Consider crèche and café facilities
6. Basic things like full paint job, jazzing up the exterior. Upgrading the reception area. Decent (Shire approved) signage……
* The Shire needs to consider other models of operation that would result in a better service delivery than the lousy one we have now. Some ideas:
1. The Shire lease the pool only – and run it like we do with our other facilities. The lessor could handle all reception duties, whilst the Shire handle pool supervision and water quality. Full modelling of this option is required
2. Joint venture to operate the pool facility with a purchaser
As for looking at a new pool on a green-fields site……….. that definitely requires a new blog topic.
Greg said: According to candidates Mario Vaccaro and Ray Dyer, both of them appose any swimming facility in Bright.
Well, in their defence, Greg, the question was “Should Alpine council pay for a public pool in Bright?”, meaning a NEW pool. Their “no” answers do not necessarily mean they oppose the continuation of the existing arrangements.
As for your suggestions on what should be done with the existing pool, they sound good in theory but I think you’re talking big dollars there. For instance, your $15,000 estimate on removing part of the roof and installing a retractable one is way too low. Add a zero perhaps? For $15,000 you’d only get a few skylights installed.
Before council jumps in and commits itself to your $100,000 per year subsidy PLUS the costs of providing “supervision”, etc, PLUS demanding this, that and the other improvements be made, wouldn’t it be better to see what contribution can be made by a community fundraising effort?
The pool is important to some people in Bright but we need to gauge the depth of community support before we ‘jump in at the deep end’. The same goes for a new facility.
It looks to me Ray, that you (to use another metaphor) are “sitting on the fence” way before you “jump into the deep water”. Is this the new, well behaved, conservative RD (the Bright Candidate, not the Myrtleford one) who is restrained and willing to listen to the community!!!
The Bright community (of which you are one!) needs to decide whether to go for:
Option A:
Patch up the existing facility as a short term measure, and plan for a new facility on a new site…say in 3-5 years Costing refer Option B
Option B:
“Cut our losses” on the existing site and put all our resources into a new site. Cost between $M3 and $M5. Annual running subsidy of approx. $200,000p.a.
Option C:
Improve the existing facility for the ongoing future.
My opinion is that option C is the best.
Maybe under your newly unveiled “Consultative” policy, you could campaign for a plebiscite to allow residents to decide. Alternatively let the newly elected council decide.
Greg, as I said above, The pool is important to some people in Bright but we need to gauge the depth of community support …. And we should do that BEFORE we jump in to your preferred option.
You might be missing a valuable extra source of funding (community fundraising) by just saying “OK, we’ll improve the pool AND payout $100,000 per year, etc.”
I’m not ‘fence sitting’, I’m advocating a common sense approach, which unfortunately has not been the way previous councils have gone about this issue.
Btw Greg, no votes in the opinion poll yet, I see. Or did you vote for Ray Dyer? Someone did.
The lack of interest in this topic poses the following questions:
1. Is the Bright pool an election issue?
2. How many Bright people care about a swimming pool?
3. Does anyone read this blog?
It is a shame that there appears to be little interest. Especially when the Shire has spent the following:
• Subsidy to Bright Sports Centre $101,000
• Bright river pool $9000
• Bright Toddler pool upgrade $33,000
• Feasability study(not yet done) $25,000
Total: $168,000
There has been an eerie quiet with all of this. No-one has spoken to me, or other Councillors to my knowledge.
Ring or email me…
Cr.Greg Lee, 40 Tawonga Cres, Mt. Beauty 0418 405 713 or gregl@alpineshire.vic.gov.au
Does anyone read this blog?
The blog averages about 450 visits per day, which is actually more than ART’s “visitalpine” website. Think about that!
But you’re right about the lack of interest in the pool issue. This particular post has only had 100 reads since going up early Friday morning – maybe that answers questions 1 & 2 for you as well.
Btw, the most popular topics over the past few weeks were:
“Vote for Ray” (which I had to archive due to a lot of non-complying comment) &
“My candidate’s statement”.
Not that it means anything.
Why can we not see the “non-complying” comment on “vote for Ray”. Has it been censored – as apposed to moderated?
Oh, nice try Greg!
FYI, all but one of the comments were supportive of my candidacy but, as quite a few didn’t have the author’s full name & locality, I removed (well, archived) the whole post, even though they’re not really ‘electoral comment’ per se in my opinion.
The ‘improperly authored’ comments (about 10 or 12 of them) were along the lines of “Good luck, Ray … you’ll have my vote”, sort of thing.
HOWEVER, some comments WERE properly authored, such as these:
Good luck Ray (Iain Hall, Mt Mee, Qld)
Good luck Ray! Hopefully your third failure will give you some closure. (Lee Rosser, Bright)
Whoa, there must have been a last minute rush of nominations, it looked for a while like you might not have a vote. Congratulations on the decision to run Ray. (Kieran Bennett, Wodonga)
Glad to hear you have nominated. It’ll be a bugger if you get in and all our “solving of the world’s problems” over the last few years gets archived away never to see the light of day again. Good luck Ray! (Greg Naylor, Whitfield)
So only one negative comment, but what else would I expect from Lee ‘Save Bright’ Rosser?
Hey Ray,
Are you the same Ray Dixon skipper of Dover Express at English Channel? Tried to judge you by your photograph, but in vain because last time i meet him was 22 years ago when he was my pilot. So incase you are the same let me know..Regards
No, it must be some other Ray Dixon, Rajesh. That sounds like it would have been a really interesting job though. Maybe do a Google search of the name, there are quite a few but not as hard to find as, say, “John Smith”. Cheers.
Hello Rajesh.. Was told of this web site and you were asking the other Ray Dixon if he was me. I’m the Ray Dixon that was your pilot when you swam the channel. Remember most of your swim as if it was last year…Will tell Corrie that I have sent you this message…We are living in Perth Western Australia…Moved here from Dover 20 years ago….Hope that you are well and life is good…If you see this message, contact me and we can talk about your swim and how things are going now…..Regards Ray Dixon
Hello “Ray”. I am Ray Dixon too but I am not you or the other Ray Dixon you refer to. Sorry, you got the wrong “channel”.
This is like “Find my family”. Or “Who do you think you are”.
Actually Rox, I’ve just realised that “Ray” is not talking to me – he’s talking to “Rajesh” who put his comment here (above) more than 2 years ago! Sorry “Ray”, this is not a ‘Friends Reunited’ website. Try the real one.