June 20, 2018
The South Burnett Regional Council has received a State Government grant to enable it to assess the condition of its various property assets.
A Council spokesperson said the organisation had a “substantial” property portfolio which included community halls, libraries, museums, offices, depots and art galleries.
Council also owns multiple swimming pools and assets such as Ringsfield House and associated buildings in Nanango, and the Boondooma Homestead complex.
“This project is due for completion by December this year and once the data is received we will have a better understanding of our future maintenance and capital renewal expenditure for our assets,” Mayor Keith Campbell said.
“With swimming pools continuing to be a high-risk asset for Council requiring constant maintenance and compliance, provision has been made in the draft 2018-19 Budget to commence an investigation into the condition of the underground assets of our two oldest pool facilities in Kingaroy and Murgon.”
A Council spokesperson said “significant capital expenditure” on the region’s public swimming pools was going to be needed over the next few years once the condition assessment had been completed.
“Provisions have been made to allocate monies from the property budget this year and from the 2019-20 Budget towards future works on these facilities,” the spokesperson said.
Several of the region’s pool complexes have had significant work done on them in recent years.
A $1.1 million redevelopment of the Murgon Pool complex was officially opened in October 2015. This upgrade included the demolition of the former entry building, which had become structurally unsound, and the construction of a new kiosk, office, first aid room, change rooms, showers, toilets and shade cover.
At Wondai Pool, Council has installed a new roof, floodlights, depth markers and a pool hoist so far this year.
Kingaroy Pool has had unexpected closures in recent years.
Major repairs were carried out on the pool in 2015, including the installation of new diving blocks, the replacement of the wet deck edge moulds and the pool completely repainted with non-slip paint.
The pool was closed again in the 2016-17 summer while engineers investigated the cause of ongoing issues with leaks and maintaining proper chlorine levels in the pool.
The South Burnett Aquatic Centre in Nanango is the latest of the region’s pools, opened in September 2005. However, since then Council has invested significant funds on roof and other repairs.
The potential closure of some of the South Burnett’s pools was canvassed ahead of the 2013-14 Council Budget and then ruled out after negative public feedback.
Mayor Campbell stated recently Council had “never announced any intention to close Wondai Pool or any other pool” .
“What our new Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Plan proposes is we start collecting data on pool usage, pool running costs and likely future maintenance costs,” he said.
“We don’t have a lot of this information at the moment, and Council needs it to sensibly manage our pools in the future.”
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UPDATE 1: Council has supplied the financial details in regards to the survey. The total cost of the project will be $300,000. A grant of $180,000 was received under the Local Government Grants and Subsidies Program from the Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning. The project will begin in September and is due to be finalised by May 2019.
UPDATE 2: A Council spokesperson said it was anticipated the project would be completed by December 2018 however Council has until May 2019 under the funding agreement to complete the project. The actual completion date will depend on competing priorities during 2018-19.
