A trust investigating options for a new Mosgiel pool urged councillors to give it an extra $20,000 to start the project.
The council had already allocated $30,000 in seed funding for the Taieri Community Facilities Trust to investigate the project, in conjunction with the council and the community.
However, the trust yesterday asked for $50,000, as well as staff resources, arguing that $30,000 would probably not be enough to do it justice.
Trust member Geoff Woodcock said having the trust involved in the project would ''save you a lot of money'' as it could ''multiply the investment of council'' through ''community fundraising''.
The trust would look at feasibility and funding models for a new pool and ''work tightly with council''.
The trust had already established a successful model with the Memorial Park playground, where it managed to take $200,000 of council funding and ''turn that into'' almost $900,000.
The situation with the current Mosgiel Pool was at ''crisis'' point and it was closed half of the year, forcing swimmers to drive into town.
Fellow trust member Teresa Christie said it would take advantage of the huge amount of enthusiasm in the community.
Councillors Chris Staynes and John Bezett questioned the trust's argument for an extra $20,000, with Cr Staynes pointing to a lack of budget attached to its submission.
Cr Bezett said he supported allocating $30,000, but said it was ''somewhat puzzling'' the trust was asking for an extra $20,000, given it seemed to have no idea how much its work was going to cost.
If it needed more funding at a later date, it could ask for it then.
Mr Woodcock said the pool was a significant project and ''not one we want to do half-heartedly''.
Cr Mike Lord, from the Taieri area, said he supported the project, noting it would lead to fewer people on the roads between Mosgiel and Dunedin, but was happy to pay targeted rates to get the project off the ground.
Mr Woodcock said the issue of targeted rates could be explored as part of its feasibility work, but personally he was against such a move as the project would benefit the whole of Dunedin.
Cr Lee Vandervis said he was concerned about ''inconsistencies'' in the trust's submission and asked if the ''same ratio'' of council to community funding as the playground project would apply in the case of the pool.
Mr Woodcock said there ''may not be the same ratio'', but there were still savings to be made for the council.
Cr Jinty MacTavish pointed out the council's financial situation meant another project would need to be dropped for it to fund the pool in the next 10 years.
