Wattle Range Council has voted for another temporary patch-up of the leaking floor of the Millicent Swimming Lake.
The floor will be re-sealed with bitumen at a cost of around $130,000 and the lake is expected to be available for swimming in the coming season.
Council chief executive Ben Gower said the work would be subject to a tender process and its timing would be weather-dependent.
Mr Gower believes the re-seal may be effective for three or four years.
He said a possible fall-back position would be to have three-yearly reseals at an average cost of $30,000 per year.
The re-seal decision was made at the monthly council meeting on Tuesday night.
It has “bought time” for the council to further plan for a concrete re-build at an estimated cost of nearly $8m.
Grants from the State and Federal Governments will be sought and council might need to re-assess its Long-Term Financial Plan according to deputy chief executive Paul Duka.
Mr Gower said grant applications for such projects seldom succeeded at first and it often took two or three attempts to be successful.
Deputy Mayor Councillor Peter Dunnicliff said local people would rather see money spent on the swimming lake instead of beautification of the Millicent CBD.
Cr Dale Price queried whether a pool should be constructed instead of a major upgrade of the lake.
He said his support for a major lake upgrade would be dependent on the project receiving grants.
Engineering director Peter Halton said there had been comments on social media about the possibility of a heated indoor pool.
However, Mr Halton said the costs of building and operating a heated indoor pool would be “ten times” the cost of a concrete re-build of the lake.
According to Mr Halton, if council opted instead to have an outdoor pool, there would be additional costs for mandatory lifeguards and fencing.
Mr Halton was queried about the higher than anticipated figure of $8m for a concrete re-build and said it included such additional features as the tiling of the children’s area.
“The operational costs are yet to be determined,” Mr Halton said.
Cr John Drew said it could be feasible to make savings by doing the concrete re-build in one project rather than stages.
The successful motion to re-seal the lake’s floor was moved by Cr Deb Agnew and seconded by Cr Richard Cassidy.
