UNCERTAINTY surrounding the price tag for upgrades to Orange Ex-Services' Club's indoor pool has driven Orange City Council to concentrate on its own facility.
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Councillors decided on Tuesday night not to pursue further costings on capital works, opting instead to proceed with a feasibility study to expand Orange Aquatic Centre.
The club had offered the council a 10-year lease at $1 a year after it decided to close the facility in March.
Councillor Glenn Taylor said the community was waiting on the council's decision, particularly with the Orange Ex-Services' Club AGM on Wednesday night.
"I'm not suggesting the council doesn't follow due diligence with this, but I would put forward if this was a proposal put to a company, we would have made a determination by now," he said.
Asked how long the information would take to gather, community services director Scott Maunder said he needed a month as the club had not completed a detailed design for necessary upgrades and the filtration system was underground.
"The $378,000 figure they've quoted for capital costs could be significantly more," he said.
I believe we need to make a decision tonight and no longer consider buying the old Torana that needs a whole lot of body work and is going to cost us a lot to keep running.
- Councillor Joanne McRae
"We have all the information the Ex-Services' Club had available - I'm completely comfortable with the operating numbers, what I'm unable to satisfy to a degree I can commit to a report is the cost of the capital works."
Mr Maunder estimated obtaining the correct design and costings would set the council back between $15,000 and $20,000.
Councillor Tony Mileto believed the cost would blow out to $500,000.
"My understanding is there's over $100,000 in tiles without having them laid," he said.
Councillor Joanne McRae there was an imbalance given the pool would cost $2500 a week to operate and would only earn $788 a week in lane hire.
"Obviously the water has to be filtered the whole time and the heating needs to be maintained so on operational costs alone, I would have concerns of how council would be subsidising it," she said.
Cr McRae said seeking more costings was a waste of time and spending the money on the aquatic centre would mean the benefits could last longer than 10 years.
"I believe we need to make a decision tonight and no longer consider buying the old Torana that needs a whole lot of body work and is going to cost us a lot to keep running," she said.
Councillor Russell Turner said the council did not need "all that angst".
"There's all sorts of complications how we are going to manage running a facility at an enormous loss each year in a building that we don't own," he said.
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