Jordans Crossing Gazette

community Bundanoon Community Pool – We deserve an UPGRADE The cicadas are singing. The mercury is rising. Bundanoon’s Community Pool is open. It must be summer! For more than fifty years summer has signalled the start of the short swimming season at Bundanoon Community Pool. Before our pool was built, swimming was a potentially dangerous business undertaken at risk at a local water hole or at the pleasure grounds at Leaver Park. The only municipal pool was all the way up at Mittagong. Following a number of drownings, the community began to lobby for a safer better supervised place to cool off. Undaunted by the lack of government funding, the then Bundanoon Community Development Association managed to raise £4000, which was deemed sufficient by Council to call for tenders. A fund was established to raise the additional monies needed, and many locals volunteered their services to aid in the project. The Randwick Lions Club contributed £300 and their President opened the Bundanoon Community Pool in 1960. When the pool was completed that summer, it was truly a thing of beauty – solidly built with the future in mind and people flocked to it. But in the early 1980s, public liability responsibilities compelled the community to gift the pool to the Wingecarribee Shire Council. Unfortunately, the pool is now open only at limited times. The obvious result of this is an overall lack of patronage… but it’s not due to a lack of interest! The explosion in housing development from Exeter to Tallong has led to a significantly younger demography in the Southern Villages. Our communities value health and fitness, the pool is a valuable community asset for all ages and should be available to be used to the fullest possible extent. Imagine if we had a pool that could be used all year round. If everyone in the area – locals and visitors alike – could enjoy the amenity of our pool beyond the unreasonably short period that it is currently open. Imagine if the pool had a retractable roof that kept the seasonal chills at bay? Under the auspices of the BCA, the Bundanoon Community Pool Committee have put together a proposal to do just this; to install a mobile, concertina, polycarbonate roof structure over the pool which would allow for use of the pool during all year round and in all weather. Bundanoon Community Pool NEEDS YOU! Council is undertaking a review of its four pools and anticipates a report for future operation at the end of 2018. The Committee needs your help to lobby Council about the importance of the pool to the Southern Villages. We need to get Council approval before we can begin the work to secure funding. There is Federal and State government funding available and there are opportunities for financial support from trust bodies as well. The Committee is undertaking a program of community action, including a rally, and linking with all schools from Tallong to Exeter and community groups that have confirmed their commitment to use the pool regularly if it opened reliably and consistently. Friends of Bundanoon Community Pool has been created, with our State and Federal representatives, Pru Goward MLA and Angus Taylor MP as Patrons. Join us at the pool on 3rd March and help secure an upgrade for our pool for future generations to enjoy. Add your voice to this campaign, sign the petition, and we will keep you informed of how you can ‘speak’ to Council to remind them: OUR POOL DESERVES AN UPGRADE! Have your say, take action and become a Friend of Bundanoon Community Pool. Visit bca.ans.au/Bundanoon-community- pool for pictures and full proposal. — Henk Janssen Convenor, Bundanoon Community Pool Sub-Committee S wim A ll Y ear Rally at the Pool Saturday 3 March, 2:00–4:00pm • Put it in your diary! • Sign the petition • Write to your local member • Post on social media December 2017 11 jcg www.bca.asn.au