ORANGE City councillors have again been kept in the dark over the opening date of the new aquatic centre.
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The facility was expected to be open by February, but a mid-March completion date for the 25-metre pool was confirmed by Orange City Council’s director of technical services Chris Devitt yesterday.
Earlier, councillor Glenn Taylor told the Central Western Daily he was “very disappointed” councillors had not been officially told about the second delay since the project began after the initial January completion date was put back.
“We found out about the [initial] later opening date through the front page of the paper,” he said.
Cr Taylor said there was “no way” the pool would be open by February with the council “struggling” to have the project finished before the end of March.
Wet weather and unplanned work to the existing children’s leisure pool had been the primary causes of delays, according to Mr Devitt.
“The main focus is to get it right ... but we would have preferred it to have been delivered sooner,” he said.
Mr Devitt said council staff had been constantly working with the project’s contractors to “keep them on schedule as much as possible” and had updated councillors on the project’s progress at the December council meeting.
While Cr Taylor said he was happy for work to be delayed if it ensured a quality facility, he believed council staff should have made more effort to notify councillors and ratepayers of setbacks.
“The community have the right to know because they are the ones who are paying for it,” he said.
“It’s not the fact that it’s delayed, it’s the fact that we were not being informed.”
Councillor Sam Romano told the Central Western Daily he was confident the project was still running to schedule and was unconcerned about the lack of information from council staff.
“My understanding is that it’s all running smoothly,” he said.
“It’s up to staff to let us know if they have any issues.”
Like Cr Taylor, Cr Reg Kidd said he did not expect the pool to be completed during February and was disappointed by the lack of communication from council staff.
“The lesson has to be learned to be more vigilant with contracts,” he said.
“It was brought to our attention by some ratepayers that nothing had happened [on site] for a couple of weeks.”
Mr Devitt said the work schedule was “part of the contractor’s decision” but the council would have the option to impose financial penalties if the project was not completed on time.
Councillor Chris Gryllis said he could not “see what the fuss was about” regarding the “minor issue” of the project’s delays.
“If it’s delayed by one or two or three months it doesn’t concern me at all,” he said.
“I want to see it done nice and proper.”
clare.colley@ruralpress.com