Franconian switzerland: deficiencies in the open-air swimming pool are “not to be remedied”
After years of financial reassurance and debt reduction, the fear of new high expenditures is now slowly returning to the community of egloffstein. On the one hand, there is the very expensive renovation and the new extension of the kindergarten with still uncertain demands, on the other hand, there is now the threatened closure of the municipal open-air swimming pool.
At least 2.1 million euros will be the "ertuchtigung" the cost of the new open-air swimming pool, announced mayor stefan fortsch (CSU) at the town council meeting. This is the sum of the commissioned expert opinion of the engineering firm krautloher. The coarse sum was to be used for a new construction of the coarse water basin.
Because this tank lies on soft ground, it tilts to one side, causing cracks in the tank’s body. The surge behavior of the water is negatively affected by it. These are deficiencies that "do not redevelop" according to the engineering office.
The supervisory authorities, he explained, are still turning a blind eye because the water values are still in the green range. But in the medium term, a new filter system will also have to be installed, and the construction and cost of this will depend on the size of the existing pool and the amount of water that will be used for it. "Economically rehabilitable" the facility is not, fortsch continued, which is why a new building has to be considered in the long term, and that costs a lot of money.
Fortsch was disappointed by the results of the promotion tour of some politicians, who raised hopes in the summer that now seem quite different in reality. If the municipality submits an application despite the high costs of the rebuild, it will have to "get in line". The applications are processed according to the earliest receipt. "And if the money for this year" – 20 million euros for the whole of bavaria "have already been spent, the application will simply be left until next year", said fortsch. And in five years the deadline expires. There is a lack of planning certainty.
Whether it will come to that is still unclear at the moment. There is a split opinion in the municipal council as to whether the municipality can afford this high expenditure at all. The requirement is a maximum of 30 percent, which means that the municipality had to take on 1.4 million euros in debt just to renovate the baths. New sanitary and commercial buildings, paddling pools, slides, diving towers and the like are completely excluded from the requirement. There were then further expenses for the municipality, if one wanted to use the rebuilding for a general reorganization. The majority of the rate is afraid of that.
Uncertainties
The uncertainties in the reconstruction of the kindergarten, the high expenses in the improvement of the water supply, the redevelopment of the town center by the city construction demand, the redevelopment of the paradise way and now the improvement of the outdoor swimming pool: these are all measures that can cost a lot of money. A list of priorities must be drawn up. And then the open-air swimming pool – despite high acceptance by the population – was considered a "can"-task slide all the way to the back.
Therefore, the majority of the council decided "only to express the intention to participate in the special program swimming pool requirement". No more. This is to waste enough time to check "what size of baths we can afford at all" said market town councilman manuel vogel (UGL).
