Swimming pool concerns heard
Privatisation of the school pool is to be seriously considered by the high school. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
Concerns about the early winter closure of the Golden Bay High School swimming pool due to heating issues have now been mitigated after interested parties agreed to sit down and discuss the facts.
The pool closed on 20 March. A letter to The GB Weekly (26/3), by swimming coach Bruce Dooley, advised that the pool would be closed after the final race day of the season on March 19, and described how swimmers braved icy water and were left shivering after the event. GBHS pool manager Stuart Machin says the letter pre-empted one he intended to write to interested stakeholders and main users, including pool key-holders and Golden Bay Swimming Club members, to initiate a discussion about meeting the costs of heating the pool.
“We usually heat it from the start of October through November and into early December, then start again around the third week of February. But this year we’ve become increasingly aware of the cost. Basically the school has been losing money, as well as the fact we haven’t had our usual specialised pool management staff to deal with the boiler. It became difficult to use the boiler to best effect to heat the pool, so we stopped doing it.”
The 30-metre pool costs an estimated $100 a day to heat at the beginning and end of the swimming season. Bruce Dooley suggests that a pool cover or business support may be the answer.
“That largely chlorine-free pool is one of the best you’d find anywhere. It’s such a shame to see such a great asset idle. It’d be great if we could get some help from the wider community to help keep it open longer each year. Maybe some businesses could be persuaded to help out in return for advertising profile.”
Stuart Machin agrees, but says there are issues to sort through before the right solution can be found. “Someone has to be employed to remove and put back the cover so they would have to work additional hours. We will all sit down for a meeting at the high school sometime soon. It’s an important matter but I feel there’s certainly no need to rush into this without getting everyone who uses the pool properly advised as to all the realities involved.”
One of the options that will be seriously considered by GBHS will be privatisation of the pool operation, an option that many other New Zealand schools have taken up in recent years or are currently considering.
“It’s only an option,” says Stuart, “if there’s someone out there who thinks they can make it pay.”
Gerard Hindmarsh
