OBERON has been unsuccessful in gaining a grant through the Local Schools Working Together program for its proposed sporting facility.
The council was informed last week that their application had been unsuccessful, due to the fact that, in its current form, it was not competitive in the first round of funding.
It was also stated that the Local Schools Working Together program is seeking projects that can serve as demonstration projects. Oberon’s proposed partnership and project was assessed to be inconsistent with that aim.
However the council is still waiting to hear whether Oberon has been successful in procuring a grant for the facility through the Federal Government’s Regional and Local Community Infra-structure Program for the full value of the project.
The latest news on this program is that the Rudd Government has secured the passage of the $42 billion National Building and Jobs Plan which includes an additional $500 million for the Regional and Local Community Infra-structure Program.
The additional $500 million builds on the $300 million announced by the Prime Minister in November 2008 at the Australian Council of Local Government.
The additional funds have resulted in the announcement that councils, including Oberon Council, can submit new or revised applications for this grant.
Oberon's proposed plans for the proposed sporting facility, which were submitted in haste at the end of last year, are among 344 submissions already received for the program.
The council has until 4pm on Friday, March 6 to submit its new or revised submission, or to advise the department that they wish to continue with their existing application.
The council has already been questioned whether they will revise their plans, and if so, whether they will include enclosing the pool in their revised plans.
Brenda Lyon, who has been a strong supporter of enclosing the pool, questioned the council at Tuesday night's ordinary council meeting, as to whether it will include covering the pool in its plans now that they have the opportunity to revise them.
Mrs Lyon has spent the last 10 days conducting a survey within the Oberon community regarding their opinion of covering the pool.
Mrs Lyon said that 141 people answered the survey, and of those, 98 people have a total of 212 children that are taken out of town for swimming lessons.
Many of these respondents also said that they found this inconvenient.
A total of 135 of the respondents said they would use the pool year round if it was enclosed and open. Of these, 44 said they would use the pool weekly, 12 would use it three to four days a week, and 28 would use it more than four times a week.
Mrs Lyon said the survey also shows that 136 respondents said they know of other people who would utilise the pool if it was open throughout the year.
Mrs Lyon said that the survey shows that people are supportive of enclosing the pool and are willing to use it if it was enclosed and open most of the year.
Mrs Lyon said it is also evident that a great deal of money has gone out of Oberon for lessons, as parents obviously feel that learning to swim in a warm environment is important.
Mrs Lyon announced at the council meeting that she will be donating $1000 towards the enclosing of the pool.
Mayor Keith Sullivan said that despite the short amount of time allotted to make changes to the plans, the council intends to on amend its plans for the sporting facility.
Mr Sullivan said that there is a small window of opportunity to improve the plans to make them more attractive to the assessors for the program.
He said that if the council has the opportunity to amend the plans, which would include modifying text and utilising the architect to make changes to the plans in a very short amount of time, it intends to include covering the pool in the amended plans.
Mr Sullivan said that even if the council is unable to amend the plans within the restrictive time constraints, it still intends to cover the pool at a later stage of the development of the sporting facility.
Mr Sullivan said that staff are working on amending the plans and he is hopeful that there is enough time to make changes. "If we have the opportunity to modify the plans, we will," he said.
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