At monitoring committee, elected members had a presentation from Warren Banks, Chairman of Tauranga City Aquatics (TCAL), the organisation that runs all council swimming pools.

The bad news could have been worse. Ratepayers' subsidy for all aquatic facilities is $1.89 million, or just under $40 each ratepaying property. Of this, $1.15 million goes in depreciation and debt repayment and $730,000 on operational losses. Total admissions topped $1 million for the first time. It looks like just over $100,000 won't be recovered from the liquidators in the wash up (no pun intended) from failed management contractor LeisureCo.
The good news is that these figures could have/would have been much worse were TCAL not running the show. TCAL had received assurances each month from LeisureCo that liquidity was alright. On Saturday, June 27, advice was received that they were likely to go under (again no pun) and TCAL moved immediately to terminate the contract and grab all available cash and cash flows. This move has saved significant monies, plus the jobs of around 150 local staff. Warren said he was disappointed that the Bay Times ran a story from LeisureCo that in his view was unsubstantiated, detailing 15 staff redundancies. This caused unnecessary disquiet and insecurity. He reported that TCAL had commenced discussions with interested parties over the Otumoetai Pool upgrade. TCAL had contained costs on planning for the Mount Hot Pools upgrade, with in-house expertise resulting in significant savings. He reported funding was likely from outside council sources for a cultural centre at Mount Hot Pools. Final approval for the cultural centre with the cash upfront will be council's call.

Good prospects for TCVL
Grant Seagar, chairman of Tauranga City Venues (TCVL) who runs Baypark and the soon to be built Indoor Sport and Exhibition Centre (ISEC) was next up in the hot seat. They've done well too with a surplus of $214,000 on operations and an overall loss of around $500,000 after finance costs, some $200,000 less than expected. Overall losses were budgeted for in the first three years or so, when the purchase was made, and are capitalised. That is, they are carried forward and not ratepayer funded. Pity we don't/can't do that with other functions of council. The true cost would then be transparent and the ratepaying community might then question whether council should be in the business of those service provisions.
TCVL received 95 applications for the position of general manager. This appointment will be the key to TCVL's future as a self funding operation. It is also worth remembering that the original motivation for purchase of Baypark was to provide a site for the ISEC, a replacement for the Mount Action Centre, so we can put the cost of potential site acquisition into the Baypark equation as well. There is no doubt that TCVL is experiencing hard rows in the financials as expected, but they are aware of the situation and actively addressing issues.

Parks pick up momentum
Presentations continued with updates on sub-regional parks Huharua at Plummers Point Te Puna, and TECT All Terrain Park up the top of Pyes Pa Road. Huharua Park is developing well and its official opening is set down for March 30, 2010. An old pa site with extensive Maori history, it's been recovered from kiwifruit orcharding. It's well worth a visit even now, with some great walks and even better vistas. Just drive to the end of Plummers Point Road. It's got a beach, not too good in a howling westerly and I asked for some proactive sea lettuce removal over the holiday season.
TECT All Terrain Park is, at long last, getting into gear and actually getting users on the site. Staff confirmed that the absolute priority was to get people using the amenity. Instead of red tape getting priority it will now run parallel to users' needs. Remember the good old days where you just went and did things? It's been a battle and the delay, whilst explainable, in getting on site could have been expedited in my view. Believe it or not TECT Park will be caught up in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and carbon credits. So we've had to employ an ETS consultant to advise on the continually changing rules. But with over 1700 hectares of bush, we can't afford to be landed with an unexpected ETS bill. This ETS is absolute nonsense in my view and I see the first scam reported at around $2 billion has been uncovered in Europe. There will be more I predict. Both these parks are joint ventures between Western Bay District and Tauranga City Councils.

Natives for natives
As mentioned in an earlier column, the saga of the Te Ngaio Road, Kermadec, pohutukawa trees wound its way back to full council for an injection of common sense; which it got. Staff, along with Wayne Moultrie and David Stewart will liaise with residents to decide what to do. One affected resident told us he could hear these trees growing and offered to help pay for replacement native specimens as the pohutukawas are not native there.

Another access way problem between Eversham Road and Girven Road and staff reported costs of around $15,000 to close it off. I was told my solution of boarding it up each end and planting a box thorn hedge was not politically correct.

Watering down process
Rick Curach succeeded in watering down a formal closure process, which included public consultation, to include a pre process warm fuzzy informal consultation with affected persons. He couldn't give a definition of who was affected. Oh well. Sapphire Drive access at Ohauiti will also be coming back for action; seems that anarchy is alive and well in this politically correct society and the cretins rule. Society is on the defensive as it accords the low lives who predate these precincts' rights without responsibilities.
Strand pedestrian access along the bar fronts will be moved out towards the road from 4pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, in a move to more easily control the situation that sometimes develops down there.
Rick and Murray Guy wanted to spend $150,000 ripping out street amenities and make the access way along the road edge.

Tolls suggested
Rick said $150,000 was 'tiny in the scheme of things”. Someone asked where the unbudgeted money would come from – I suggested a toll.
Following on from my article last week about Bay Times council reporter John Cousins' enquiry about a 'paucity” of council meetings, I had a quiet chuckle last Tuesday; two meetings, monitoring and full council and no John. Oh dear!