Roxburgh residents have made a strong response to the proposed new swimming pool for the town. Of 73 submissions received, 38 were opposed, 34 in favour and one neutral.
Those in favour of the pool have supported an option under which one would be built and run by a trust, with an annual grant from the Roxburgh Community Board.
It could cost ratepayers up to $100 more a year.
Other options, which included a facility built and operated by a trust with no rates input, closing the existing pool and not replacing it, or keeping the present pool, were not supported by submitters.
Fourteen wish to present their submissions to the community board at its meeting on November 30.
The board has been working on several options to replace the wornout swimming facility after plans for a large complex were shelved because of cost.
The board resolved in September 2006 to build a swim centre in Roxburgh and agreed in principle to fund $100,000 of the capital cost of the building with money from the Horseshoe Bend fund and debt financing, if necessary.
A working party envisioned a 10.8m x 25m pool with six lanes, and a therapeutic pool of 13m x 13m, with zero rating costs other than the $37,000 which is now rated for the pool.
Central Otago District Council staff said the cost of that pool, would be $2.5 million, with operating costs estimated at $138,000 and that was considered to be far too high for ratepayers to support.
Options suggested by staff included buying a bus and transporting Roxburgh residents to Molyneux Aquatic Centre in Alexandra, or the Millers Flat pool, or a new pool in a reduced form.
A smaller four-lane 25m pool plus a learners-therapeutic pool, had been costed at just under $1.25 million, with operating costs of $93,000, in 2004, but board chairman Stephen Jeffery said in June those costs would have increased.
