For an issue involving so much water, this one is incredibly messy.
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The council's need to source additional funds for our shire's swimming pools has had more twists than a water park slippery dip.
The push for a special rate variation to cover the cost of our pools in a "ringfenced" bucket of funds has been council's go-to position, shared with the public through a series of consultation workshops.
What was not outlined at any of those meetings was an existing SRV that's been collecting for a decade, which, in small part, is slated for the pools. Admittedly it's not much, but it's covered shade covers and minor improvements. Worth mentioning.
Now it turns out an SRV should be the last resort for a council seeking funds for capital works - that's according to council's own resourcing strategy document, an important guide that has ramifications for many other pieces of council policy. An SRV isn't even on the list of considerations for operational costs.
And who knows how far the dominoes will tumble if that underlying strategy needs amending.
So how did we get here?
The Bega Valley is home to eight public pools (that figure includes ocean pools that have council oversight), for a population of 34,000. Similar councils as grouped by the Your Council data breakdown are responsible for three. And that's in a coastal shire with free and ready access to a wide range of swimming spots.
Despite the apparent oversupply of swimming pools the sentiment is they are here to stay.
Council is already locked in to keeping all six public pools thanks to a resolution - and the public feedback that led to it - in 2017.
To keep those six pools - and indeed to improve them - council said it needs $2.03million a year. Admission fees and user programs account for $867,000 of that.
Mind the gap.