The Otautau Baths are a typical example of a community successfully working together to secure the future of a struggling recreational facility that is nevertheless very important to the community.
The Otautau Baths Committee is a non-profit community group which manages and operates the community swimming pool in Otautau. Like many other community swimming pool committees, this group had been struggling with old plant requiring extensive maintenance, high operational cost and a decrease in volunteers numbers.
One of the main problems which caused a lot of frustration to the Committee was an older-type solar heating, the only heating source for the pool. The system had leaks, was only partly operational and prone to breakdowns, which resulted in colder water and poor attendance the season before. Without a reliable heating source the future of the pool looked pretty grim. The pool also required a new coat of paint and the changing rooms needed maintenance. In early 2007 the Committee approached Venture Southland with a request for assistance with planning and fundraising.
However, no amount of money raised would be helpful without the community taking ownership in the pool. At a public meeting a few months later a variety of options for the future of the facility were presented, the most drastic of them closure of the facility. The Otautau community decided that the swimming pool was a valuable facility and resolved to fix the solar heating and keep the pool open. A strong committee was formed which immediately embarked on organising a community fundraiser.
Venture Southland staff worked with the Committee on lodging funding applications for upgrading of the existing solar heating and other maintenance work. A total of $5100 was raised from the SDC Amenity Fund, Community Trust of Southland and the Southern Trust, and the Wallace Community Board also came on board with a grant. Venture Southland staff also commissioned a technical, operational and financial audit of the pool with the aim to assist the group and other stakeholders with further planning and decision making.
The community fundraiser in October 2007 was hugely successful and not only raised an amazing $18,500 but also increased community interest in the pool. The solar heating was fixed in time for the beginning of the 2007/08 season and has worked very well with water temperatures reaching a balmy 29oC. Part of the raised money has been used to establish a seed fund for future development work.
The Wallace Community Board is in the process of formalising the community ownership of the facility through a lease agreement and will in the future support the Committee with an annual grant.
Recently Venture Southland assisted the Otautau Baths Committee with formalising its rules and lodging an application for registration with the Charities Commission. Incorporating as a legal charitable entity will give the group better opportunities for leveraging public funding when they start fundraising for future capital work on the facility, and also reduce the potential liability of individual Committee members.
With the immediate future of the facility secured, the Committee has now turned its focus on implementing the recommendations from the audit report. Their aim is to develop Otautau Baths into a sustainable, viable community facility. This may include a new heating system. Venture Southland staff continue to work alongside the Committee through this process.
Otautau Baths Chairperson Colin Lawry committed to parting from his beloved and well known beard as part of the community fundraiser in October 2007. The beard was successfully auctioned and publicly removed from Colin by his delighted wife Tania, to the great entertainment of the crowd.