“I expect this to be the most watched council meeting of my time. It is certainly the biggest community debate of my time,” she said.
Campaspe shire councillors will vote on a recommendation to close the Tongala, Stanhope, Rushworth, Colbinabbin and Lockington pools at the end of this summer. A second part of the recommendation will be a vote on closing the Kyabram and Rochester pools at the end of the 2025 summer.
Cr Weller said the debate would not just be between councillors, with six community members allowed to present their case to the meeting.
Those people wanting to address the council were required to submit their intentions by noon on Monday in order to be heard on the pool recommendations.
Cr Weller said the meeting was due to be a face-to-face meeting of the nine councillors, unless something mandatory happened in regard to COVID-19 protocols.
She said she was unsure how the six speakers who would be allowed to address the council would be included in the meeting scenario.
“I am not sure how they are doing the speakers, because of the numbers in the room,” she said.
Cr Weller said the pool debate, which has been ongoing since 2016, would be an easier debate to have face to face, rather than online.
“When you go virtual it is really hard, very difficult to have a fluent debate,” she said.
The council recommendation in 2022 is significantly different to the suggested closures of 2016 and 2019, with this council group having to take into consideration a rather hefty financial windfall for its constituents if the recommendation of decommissioning the pools is passed through council.
The council’s decision is also complicated by the fact the pools have created so much debate in the community, with an online petition to save them already in place.
Cr Weller said the financial offer from the council for town facility plans would make the debate even more interesting.
Tongala, Stanhope, Rushworth and Lockington communities stand to receive more than $700,000 for a community facility (the equivalent of what it costs to operate these pools for five years) and at Colbinabbin the windfall would be more than $400,000.
But whether or not the community’s — or more precisely the councillors’ — consent for the proposal can be gained by the promise of funding will not be known until a vote is called for by Cr Weller.
This offer, for savings to be poured back into the respective communities if the pools are closed, was not on the table in 2016 and 2019.
Cr Weller said she hoped the communities could think outside the square when it came to the decision on the pools.
“It would be great to hear from the communities about what options are out there.
“This is a suggested offer, the council officer’s recommendation,” she said.
“It is up to the community to make sure they contact their councillors. It is a hard decision.’’
Cr Weller said she hoped community members would read the agenda on the council’s website and flag with their council representatives the direction in which they wanted to continue.
She admitted that on viewing the full report the pools’ financials ``just don’t add up’’.
“But that’s not what our communities are about,” Cr Weller said.
“As a councillor we need to listen to the communities.
“I think the debate will be really good.”
Cr Weller said the debate was made complicated for councillors because they shared a joint responsibility — to the council and to the community.
“Councillors can put a different recommendation forward,” Cr Weller said.
“It is clear the community considers these pools vital assets.
“I hope we see not only the passionate arguments, but also the considered arguments.”
Cr Weller said her email had become a “pool hotline” and she would be considering as much information and feedback as she could before the meeting.
She told The Free Press that councillors from the affected wards would no doubt have received plenty of feedback.
“This recommendation does not mean that communities cannot have a pool, it may just mean that the pool has a different look,” Cr Weller said.
“It will be pretty interesting to watch on.”
