The workshop followed a visit to the pool site by the appointed designer for the Corowa Pool project, Stephen Johansson from Facility Design Group Wollongong.
Councillors from Federation Council, the wide ranging pool advisory committee members and council staff met with the Managing Director-Principal Architect-Project Manager Mr Johansson.
The purpose of the visit was to inform the design phase of the new swimming pool facility in the lead up to Federation Council seeking tenders for the construction of the long awaited community pool complex.
Federation Council Mayor Pat Bourke said the designer visit last week and site inspection provided council and the advisory committee with a great opportunity to inspect the site, identify the constraints and opportunities presented by existing surrounding amenities, and discuss the way forward with the project.
“Discussions including the best way to achieve efficient layout of the key elements of the project, being a 50m pool, a learn-to-swim, program pool and a splash pad were really valuable,” Mayor Bourke told The Free Press.
“The designer was able to show some past projects and how incorporating variable depths into the learn to swim program pool makes it possible to adapt that pool to a wide variety of uses including swimming lessons, lap swimming and adult exercise, serving the widest possible segments of the community.”
Mayor Bourke said a big focus of the workshop was around how heating of the water might be achieved, for example, evacuated tube solar, photovoltaic solar and heat pump alternatives, as well as the requirements to achieve these outcomes.
“As a result of our discussions the designer will now undertake further work before making a recommendation on the most appropriate design option for council,” he said.
“The designer will come back to council in the next few weeks with at least two design options for consideration and evaluation enabling council to provide direction on the way forward for resolving the concept design.”
Federation Council made the decision to endorse option four, which consists of a 50-metre pool, learn-to-swim pool and splash park at an ordinary meeting of council in May 2019.
Funding for a splash park was announced in October 2018 which secured the foundation for a $750,000 splash park to be built as part of the redevelopment of the pool complex.
“Since endorsing option four, council has been extremely proactive and investigated many options and models presented to them based on extensive community consultation,” Mayor Bourke said.
“Council has been assisted throughout this process by the Swimming Pool Advisory Committee which consists of councillors, pool users, youth council members and swimming club representatives.”
Mayor Bourke said that council is continuing to work as hard as it can, with the support of the steering committee to deliver a facility that is able to best meet the needs of many users.
“Given the life span of the new pool facility could be 60 years like the previous one, it is crucial that council explores all options with pool industry experts and key stakeholders to deliver a facility that will support the future growth of the Federation region,” he said.
“All parties are working really hard to ensure we achieve this.”
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