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Outdoor Pool Works in Full Swing

1 November 2017

Works are well underway on outdoor pools in the Southern Grampians Shire to ensure they will be open and ready for business with the arrival of the summer weather.

Southern Grampians Shire Council has invested over $300,000 to date on a series of works across all six outdoor pools, with a further investment of $200,000 allocated for this financial year.

Council Mayor Cr Mary-Ann Brown said Council had taken on board the feedback received at community meetings held earlier this year.

“Through extensive community consultation with community members and a thorough assessment of our pools by industry experts, we identified a number of high priority works and activities that needed to be complete before the 2017/18 pool season.

“Council are committed to doing what it takes to ensure pools are safe, open and reliable for our communities this pool season,” Cr Brown said.

The following works are in process of being completed at pools in Hamilton, Glenthompson, Coleraine, Balmoral, Penshurst and Dunkeld:

  • Pool shells drained, scrubbed and cleaned;
  • Leaks and damaged shells repaired;
  • Shells repainted;
  • Extensive concrete repairs to the concourse;
  • Pumps and plant, checked, serviced and replaced where required; and
  • Lawns cut and tidied.

Hamilton Outdoor Pool will be ready to be open this weekend (weather pending) and all other pools are expected to be open the second weekend in December. Council will advise the community if the planned works result in a delay in these openings.

“In addition to these works, we have trained and recruited more lifeguards to make sure we don’t run into the issues we have previously with pool closures due to staff shortages.

“We also adopted a revised pool policy at Council last week which we believe reflects the wants and needs of our communities and also meets our commitment to make sure pools are open when they are most needed,” Cr Brown said.

Details of Council’s new outdoor pool policy are as follows:

  • Opening hours across ALL pools 3:00pm – 7:00pm, seven days a week when forecast temperature is above 23 degrees for unheated pools and 21 degrees for heated pools;
  • During January and on weekends, when forecast temperature is above 35 degrees, pools will open from 12:00pm – 7:00pm;
  • Early morning swimming will be provided at Hamilton and Coleraine three days a week regardless of temperature;
  • Pools will be closed on Code Red days;
  • No unsupervised swimming will be permitted; and
  • Opening of the pools will be subject to the availability of lifeguards.

“I would like to acknowledge all the work by so many Council staff to get us to this point. From the community consultation and the works and maintenance schedule to the policy development and the lifeguard recruitment. It has been a busy eight months, but I believe the community will be really pleased with our efforts and we will provide a much improved service to our residents and visitors in 2017/18 season,” Cr Brown concluded.

The adopted pool policy and opening times for each pool are available at www.sthgrampians.vic.gov.au


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