In response to the letter from Jane Hanna in last week’s Grazier, Mayor Carol Oataway has prepared the following mayoral minute for the Council meeting yesterday.

“In order to provide transparency to the community of Hay, I would like to provide the following information: Council decided at its November 2024 meeting not to award a tender to build the hydrotherapy pool after quotes came in more than $500 000 over budget,' said Mrs Carol Oataway.

The Hydrotherapy Committee held grant funding of $692,524 and council held community raised funds of $320,000 that was quarantined for use to build the hydrotherapy pool.

In an effort to ensure the grant funding and community raised funding was still used to benefit the community, councillors engaged with the Hydrotherapy Pool Committee or a representative of the committee, on four separate occasions to explore and discuss options.

Unanimously, councillors decided that the best use of the funds was to incorporate a heating system into the new pool currently being built.

This would extend the swimming season by several months, allowing for therapy, exercise therapy, and learn-to-swim programs— delivering significant health and well-being benefits to a broader range of residents.

This was the proposal Council put to the Hydrotherapy Pool Committee.

Despite these efforts to negotiate, the Hydrotherapy Pool Committee remained firm in their position that the grant funding should only be used to construct a dedicated hydrotherapy pool.

The Hydrotherapy Pool Committee asked Council to provide the shortfall of $500,000 to build the hydrotherapy pool.

Furthermore, there was an expectation that Council would take on the ongoing financial responsibility of owning, maintaining, and operating the facility—an additional asset that would have imposed significant long-term costs on the community.

No clear or realistic plan on how the hydrotherapy pool was to be run or funded into the future was ever provided to council by the committee, despite their promises that they could run the facility through fundraising.

A stalemate was reached with the Hydrotherapy Pool Committee deciding to hand $692,594 back to the funding bodies.

Council has resolved to use the $320,000 of community raised funds in developing a heating system to be installed into the new pool build.

Council's priority has always been to ensure the best possible outcome for the people of Hay.

Having the new pools incorporate a heating system will provide enormous benefits for a wide range of users, including those requiring therapy, young children learning to swim, and the broader community wanting to stay active for longer each year.

It is incredibly disappointing that the grant funding could not be utilised for this purpose but it is wonderful that the money raised by the community for a dedicated heated pool is finally able to be used after over thirty years of fundraising.

Council remains committed to delivering infrastructure and facilities that provide the greatest benefit to the Hay community and will continue working towards sustainable and practical solutions to support health and well being initiatives.”