Bright pool ‘bankrupt’ … and closed

The privately owned Bright indoor pool is leased by the Alpine council ... well, sort-of

Council ’subsidy’ of $450,000 not enough for ‘Fast Eddie’ to stay open

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This is one hell of a cock-up. BUT we can’t blame the present council or administration. We’ve got former CEO Doug Sharp (who is now Wangaratta’s ‘problem) and the council headed by Mudgegonga beef farmer, and former mayor, Julie Carroll to thank for this right little mess.

At last night’s community forum, the Alpine council delivered the (not surprising) news that the owner of the Bright Indoor Swimming Centre, which is leased to the council under a rather strange agreement, has gone bankrupt, and that the centre is closed as of today. And there seems no prospect whatsoever of it re-opening as a public facility.

Putting aside the issue of whether or not the small permanent population of Bright has a ‘right’ to expect such a facility be provided by its council, what stands out here to me is that this problem should have been foreseen from the outset way back in 2003 when Mr Sharp and the then council came up with this highly questionable ‘arrangement’.

It was always going to fail. Here’s what happened.

Following the earlier closure of the same private facility back in 2002 a concerted campaign was conducted by some community members for the council to provide an over-the-top aquatic centre costing millions of dollars. However, a feasibility study completed by Melvin & Melvin at a cost of $20,000 told them (in no uncertain manner) that such an idea was … well, just plain stupid. The costs were prohibitive and the centre would be a huge loss maker. Forget it. Even a small outdoor facility would not be viable, the report said.

Enter ‘Fast’ Eddie Williams, who breezed into town from Sydney buying up properties left, right and centre - spending like there was no tomorrow. Eddy and one of the councillors (Andrew Randell, I believe) get together and come up with this brilliant ’solution’:

Eddy will buy the building (and why not he’s got so much money!) and then lease it to the council for $90,000 per year on a ten year lease. The council in turn will give Eddy a ‘management’ contract that appoints his company as the pool operator. Eddy gets all the revenue from memberships, entry fees etc. The council then has no financial involvement whatsoever … oh, apart from the fact it is effectively locked in to subsidising a little known ‘entrepreneur’ (with a penchant for buying expensive fast cars) to keep his clearly sub-standard facility open.

It has to be one of the dumbest deals ever done in this town. In fact I even question its legality. How can a council effectively hand over ratepayers money to a private business operator just to keep his doors open, even with guarantees, of which they had none? Oh sure, the council had ‘legal advice’ that the deal was all above board and those lawyers wouldn’t be wrong, would they?

So work it out. 5 years x $90,000 = $450,000 of ratepayers money handed over to ‘Fast Eddy’ and what did we get? A sub-standard facility that not many people used and now we’re back to square one.

The ‘good news’ is, according to the current CEO Ian Nicholls council is NOT liable to continue to pay rent on the closed facility, even though the lease does not expire until 2013. I hope the lawyers are right this time too.

The ‘bad news’ is, (aside from the fact the town has no pool) the council will spend another $25,000 on … you guessed it, another feasibility study on building a new pool.

Oh.