Latest news about the Barraba pool

LETTER TO THE BARRABA COMMUNITY ABOUT THE POOL

 Dear Readers

My name’s Gary Johnson and I oversee the operation of Council’s swimming facilities. About this time last year, we were looking for a local person to take on the role of Barraba Pool Supervisor. Soon after we advertised the job, Miroslav Klacko was the successful applicant. For those who swam last summer, I’m sure you’ll agree that he’s proven to be a wonderful custodian of the facility. He’s also been a great addition to our wider pools team. His attention to detail, cleanliness, practicality and customer service have been nothing short of amazing. When Roy’s happy, I’m happy 😊

The Barraba Heated Pool has reopened after a short period of maintenance. We’ve altered the hours this winter to better suit our swimmers who enjoy the peace and quiet prior to the end of the school days, whilst still being available for swimming lessons after school. The pool will be open this winter from 1-5pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday. The pool is closed on Thursdays. This will allow Miro to attend meetings and continue to undertake his formal training in pool operation, plant rooms & water chemistry.

The most common question Miro and I get is; What’s happening with the waterslide? When buildings or structures are built, they meet the standards of the day. When the same structure needs a major upgrade, it’s required to meet the standards of now, not when it was built. This is one of the challenges.

The catch pool of the slide is situated on a patch of ground that has always suffered from poor drainage. After three wet seasons following the last drought, the catch pool decided it had had enough and split beyond repair. The pool doesn’t comply with current standards so we looked into installing a new, larger pool. A larger pool was only available in concrete and this proved to be financially unviable.  Given this and the safe operation of the slide while at Barraba, we now need to go back to our insurer and have a conversation about the possibility of replacing like for like. The stairway also doesn’t comply and needs a fair amount of work.

 We’ve also engaged a structural engineer to conduct a condition assessment on the fibreglass flume. This was

supposed to happen the other week but the weather beat us. This is to make sure that if we do consider spending a large sum on a new catch pool and stairway, that the fibreglass is also at a reasonable standard for longevity.

As you can appreciate, there aren’t many water slide specialists in our neck of the woods and getting them here is expensive. For this reason, we’re trying to use local services and expertise where we can, to get to a point where we can determine some options to move forward, and what the cost of those will be.

The slide hasn’t been forgotten, I apologise for how long it’s taking. I wish there was a simple fix.

A special thanks to the people I caught up with recently from About Barraba, The Claypan, Fuller Gallery and our own Customer Service Team. Always happy to catch up and provide an update on anything going on at the pool.

Thanks again.