Vote supports $10m hot pools upgrade

The $10 million redevelopment of the Mount Hot Pools remains on track after surviving a critical vote by Tauranga City Council yesterday.
A financial assessment of the project persuaded a narrow 6-5 majority of council to support a major upgrade of the Hot Pools and construction of a health spa next door.
However, construction of a cultural heritage centre to tell the story of Mauao will only happen if it can be separately funded from outside the council-owned pools management company, Tauranga City Aquatics.
The last signature from representatives of Tauranga Moana iwi has just been obtained for a memorandum of understanding in support of the cultural centre.
The deadline for the go-ahead of the cultural centre component of the project was June 30, with external funding pivotal on whether the new building fronting Adams Ave was one or two storeys.
Most councillors were persuaded by a financial assessment which showed that a major upgrade of the Hot Pools and construction of a health spa would succeed in stemming the sharply declining popularity of the pools and put the complex back on to a growth track.
The Hot Pools already made a $600,000-a-year surplus which helped subsidise the rest of the council's aquatic operations.
The projected operating surplus for council's $7.2 million share of the full redevelopment would be $1.16m once the project was completed by mid 2011, dropping to $700,000 after depreciation and loan costs were deducted.
The Hot Pools was currently debt free and incurred no depreciation. However financial projections for the minimum development option for the Hot Pools only saw the bottom line plummet to $260,000.
The case for the full development was based on a very conservative 30 per cent usage of the spa - called a health and wellness centre. Profits from the spa were pivotal to the viability of the Hot Pools.
Council has promised to hold admission charges to the Hot Pools at current levels for the next 13 years, except for inflation.
The block of four councillors elected on the Pick 6 ticket 15 months ago accounted for most of the opposition, with Cr Bill Grainger making up the fifth opponent of the full redevelopment.
Other opposing councillors were Rick Curach, Murray Guy, Hayden Evans and Catherine Stewart.
A petition opposing the redevelopment, organised by Ada McTainsh, has obtained about 2200 signatures.
Former Mount Maunganui mayor, Cr Wayne Moultrie, recalled the opposition when the old borough council was faced with the last major upgrade of the pools 20 years ago. Arguments then against spending the money were that people would not want it and that the pools would not be used.
He said it would be totally inappropriate not to proceed to the next step of allowing the public to have its say through submissions to the council's 10-year plan.
Cr David Stewart said the case to do more than just refurbish the hot pools stacked up in every way.
Cr Guy opposed the structure in the sensitive environment of Mauao, saying a private developer would never get the go-ahead to build a health and wellness centre at the base of Mauao.
Cr Greg Brownless said Mauao was iconic but it already had the camping ground and Hot Pools along its base. Anyone with a logical mind would see there was a very good chance that the financial assumptions would not only be met but exceeded.
Cr Curach's argued that the council was competing with the private sector by opening a health and wellness centre.
Cr Evans said council should stick to its knitting. He said he was involved in the petition and, in his opinion, the people had already spoken.
Other councillors argued that now was the right time to get very competitive tenders, and by the time it opened, the country would be coming out of the recession.
Cr Catherine Stewart said lack of parking had been one of the reasons for the decline in popularity of the Hot Pools and this issue had still not been addressed.
The $10 million redevelopment was also supported by Mayor Stuart Crosby and Crs Mike Baker and Bill Faulkner.