The Clyde pool's days appear to be numbered and down in Roxburgh, fees incurred by the Roxburgh Community Board towards the development of a proposed new pool for the town are to be paid, but the project is on hold.
At a meeting in Roxburgh yesterday, the board approved payment of $16,941.10 to Christchurch company Joseph and Associates for work it had done on the project to date.
A public meeting on Wednesday night, seeking feedback on the future of the Clyde pool, was attended by 14 residents.
At the meeting Vincent Community Board chairwoman Clair Higginson said the facility would remain "mothballed" unless there was a big resurgence in support.
Getting the pool up to standard would cost about $700,000. That figure included repairs to the pool and a new filtration unit.
Repaying a loan for that work, plus pool operating expenses, would cost each Clyde ratepayer $122 a year, for the next 15 years, she said.
The Central Otago District Council's annual plan was open for submissions and that would be one of the final opportunities for the community to have its say on what should happen with the pool, Ms Higginson said.
Carol Haig, who served on the pool committee for 12 years, said the facility had only kept going as long as it had because of volunteer labour.
All small pools in the district were "struggling" to remain viable, Ms Higginson said.
Board member Tim Cadogan, also a former pool committee member, said the competition provided by Lake Dunstan and a heated pool complex 10 minutes' drive away in Alexandra had hit patronage at the Clyde pool.
"In the last full season at the Clyde pool, on one of the best days of the summer, I remember there were two families at the pool and about 30 or 40 families at the lake.
"The pontoon in the lake [near Clyde] is another big attraction."
Sally Bell, of Clyde, said keeping the pool going would be a huge expense for the town's 817 ratepayers.
"A lot of those ratepayers don't live here year round. Even though the campers love the pool, that's only two or three weeks a year there's lots of people at the pool. I don't believe enough Clyde residents will support it enough to justify spending that money [$700,000]."
The Roxburgh Community Board yesterday said the payment to Joseph and Associates included the cost of a presentation to the board in December last year, as well as other work done by its consultants on the project before it was parked last month.
In agreeing to pay the fees, the board asked that any intellectual property, such as ideas or plans, that had been developed for the proposed pool, be provided to the Central Otago District Council. The council would then make that information available to any community group wishing to take up responsibility for the new pool's development.
