Welcome to this week’s editorial . This week has seen a further focus by the community on the Eurobodalla Council and in particular the design and finances around the Mackay Park aquatic centre. What is becoming fast evident is that the Mayor is not keeping pace with the commentators and letter writers to Council informing her and her fellow Councillors that they are neither happy with the designs that have been offered to the public for comment nor are they impressed with the figures from the only business case publicly available that are being thrown around by the Mayor without any substantiation when questioned. The Mayor continues to dig her heels in and insist that the Batemans bay community SHALL ONLY have a 25m pool as a replacement for the 50m town pool they plan to remove.
Above: Yes, they can all fit under one roof without moving the Mini Golf
Either her staff advisors are failing to tell her that the Business Plan she quotes from has errors so large you can drive a truck through them or she simply doesn’t understand the significance of the disclaimer on that document that advises the numbers are general, in good faith and might require refinement. Her continued statement of “The extra 25-metres, the reality of the costs involved are a $6.5million extra build. When we’re looking at a $51million facility, that’s a substantial amount. Most importantly, it’s $300, 000 extra per year in running costs.” is derived from a business case that her own councillors have come to realise should not be quoted from as that document shows no calculation or evidence of calculation. Put up against recent constructed examples of pool complexes across NSW the figure being quoted by the Mayor simply isn’t standing up. What she also is failing to honestly advise the community is that Council decided back in 2013 to get rid of the 50m pool and have been steadily working toward doing so in a series of moves that included the purchase of the Bowling Club site. The final straw came when the last piece of Council’s manoeuvres was recently revealed with all of the proposed new community facilities to be packed into one building on the pool site that would enable council to sell off the Information Centre, the Community Hall, rid the precinct of the Mini Golf and sell off the bowling club site while using the State and Federal grants to build the new complex. Layer by layer this game plan has been revealed and the community are beginning to see it for what it is which is nothing but a money grab by council and an economic rationalisation of assets to remain “Fit for the Future” . Elsewhere the wheels of Council’s bus are beginning to wobble and the Mayor is beginning to be more like The Emperor’s New Clothes as the good citizens begin to learn and see what is going on behind the secret walls of her ’kingdom’. It will be interesting to see her ‘knights’ come back to the round table after their summer break as they return refreshed and informed having taken note of what the good citizens have been telling them. Some of the knights will hopefully go through with their intentions to mount a challenge to the rule of the Mayor and her Iron Fist general Manager with her entourage of courtiers. So look forward to a new year where the clock is now counting down to the next Mayoral election in eighteen months and the angst building in the ranks might actually see a champion or two rise up and oust the mayor, jousting her from her high horse in one parry after another should she stay on her course. Until next Lei
