Council decides on governance of new Pahiatua pool

The site in Tyndall Street, Pahiatua, for the new Pahiatua pool.

In an hour-long debate during the first Tararua District Council meeting for the year, January 26, councillors examined the implications of a proposal to accept ownership, governance and management of a new Pahiatua Swimming Pool.

A huge and comprehensive report of more than 50 pages was presented to councillors by the Bush Aquatic Trust (BAT) and a further set of summaries and options were presented by Jessica McKenzie, TDC facilities manager, with Chris Chapman, infrastructure manager and CEO Bryan Nicholson providing technical guidance.

Explore Pahiatua Community chairwoman Louise Powick also spoke about the proposal to build the pool.

They heard from Louise Powick that the proposed pool will allow swimming for more than half the year instead of the current 12 weeks in summer. She highlighted the drownings statistics nationwide this summer saying, with the closure of most school pools, children are not being taught to swim and of particular danger in rivers.

She added that the pool would also cater for the older age groups with the likes of aqua-aerobics sessions and she said it would also cater for top local swimmers who have to go out of town to train.

Two options were presented to councillors:

Option One: Mixed Model where TDC provides the land and two grant streams to BAT who are the building owners, BAT takes responsibility to fundraise and build the facility, contract and manage an operator and maintain the asset.

Option Two: Mixed Model where TDC provides the land, takes ownership of the building once complete, and contracts the operator. BAT takes responsibility to fundraise and build the facility then work alongside TDC to help secure funding for asset renewals and operational costs.

The latter was favoured by BAT and ultimately so did the councillors, also unanimously accepting BAT's recommendations that:

• Council would budget for capital renewals of $146,000 annually

• TDC to contract an external operator for the management of the pool, and

• The existing community pool site is sold and the proceeds are passed onto BAT for operational expenditure for the first three years of operation.

After discussion, the councillors agreed with councillor John's recommendation that a report would be presented to council in due course to provide details of the key milestones, processes and stages involved in working with BAT to progress the proposed new Pahiatua Swimming Pool project.

The debate followed the presentation from the above speakers, the main concern being that the public should know passing Option Two was NOT a commitment by the TDC to build the pool, simply a readiness to accept ownership and governance once it was built.

Councillor Hull said the campaign to replace the pool has been a very long process and thanks to modern technology Pahiatua will get a far better pool than originally proposed for half the original quoted price.

Councillor Franklin said the pool fitted nicely into the council's requirement to have a policy supporting the four well-beings and BAT's track record for raising money for such as the Harvard restoration and the Wheels Park meant it stood a very good chance of raising the money.

Mayor Tracey Collis concluded that she was delighted to support the motion saying she admired the perseverance and passion of BAT and felt confident the children of Pahiatua in three years-time would not be still waiting for their new pool.