Appeal for pool

By Kath Gannaway
ROSS Ilsley is calling for a fair go for Healesville’s indoor pool.
Mr Ilsley, manager of the Jack Hort Memorial Indoor Swimming Pool, will deliver a petition signed by 1400 pool users to the Shire of Yarra Ranges this week in a desperate bid to ensure the immediate viability of the pool.
“We would like to receive ongoing funding at a level which is consistent with similar facilities within the Shire of Yarra Ranges,” he said.
Mr Ilsley said the pool has received the same amount, $10,000, from the shire each year since 1990 and is asking that it be increased to $25,000.
The pool was built on Education Department land at Healesville High School 17 years ago and financing maintenance and capital works has been an on-going battle for the school’s pool sub-committee and the Friends of the Pool group.
The Department of Education doesn’t provide funds in the school’s budget for the pool and the shire, while it has provided the $10,000 annual allocation and a $100,000 one-off grant for capital upgrades three years ago, says it is not a shire facility.
Mr Ilsley described the situation as “a mess” with a letter from the Minister for Sport and Recreation James Merlino in response to representations from Seymour MP Ben Hardman in January highlighting the problems the school faces in accessing the funds to keep the pool afloat.
Funding is available through the State Government’s Better Pool’s program but any application must be made through the shire.
As funds are limited under the program and with nine pools in their stable, many of them facing their own demise, the shire is reluctant to use its allocation for a pool which is not its asset.
“Where the High School pool has required capital attention, the council has funded it,” said Mark Doubleday, the shire’s manager for recreation services.
The shire must match any funding under the Better Pools Program with a 30 per cent contribution.
It’s a contribution Mr Ilsley says is, in his view, a legitimate call on ratepayers.
“We perform the same role in the community as any pool facility owned by the shire.
“There is a direct benefit back to the community as with the other pools but without the funding,” he said.
“We have people who depend on the pool for their mobility, young kids who are being taught to swim and schools who use this year-round. It would be a shame to lose it.”
Mr Merlino last week told the Mail funds were available and offered his department’s input into finding a solution to the problem.
“I encourage the Healesville High School to sit down with representatives from both my department and the Shire of Yarra Ranges to discuss how the pool can best serve the community and, in the process, potentially develop an application for future rounds of the (funding) program.” In the meantime Mr Ilsley will present his petition to Shire of Yarra Ranges councillors.