AusLeisure

Orange City Council has allocated $240,000 for repair work at the Orange Aquatic Centre in its 2014/15 budget.

Orange City Council spokesperson Allan Reeder recently told the Central Western Daily that it was “disappointing” that the repairs were necessary at the $7.2 million facility, which only opened in October 2012.

However, the works will be funded with money withheld from the contractor, the National Buildplan Group, after a number of problems were identified before the construction was completed.

Reeder stated “in negotiations at the time of the final settlement with Buildplan an agreement was reached which resulted in a significant discount on the final payment made by the city council.

“This discount will more than cover the work to be done.”

Reeder said $95,000 would be spent on replacing the folding doors along the walls of the indoor pool building, adding “there are drainage problems in the indoor shower area and some new tiling in this area will improve the functionality of that area..

“Further waterproofing will be added on the lower sections of the walls.”

Money will also be spent on a new PA system as there are two separate, unconnected systems for the outdoor and indoor areas.

On a more positive note, Reeder was able to state “since it opened the aquatic centre has been warmly embraced by the people of Orange, despite the shortfalls.

“These problems have been managed by staff to minimise the impact for the centre and pool users, but it will be good to have the improvements in place.”

Buildplan had already been forced to fix a number of problems before the pool opened, including repairing the 25-metre indoor pool that was reportedly not built to regulation size.

Click here to visit the Orange Aquatic Centre website.

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