Cr Gates, who represents Kyabram Deakin ward on council, is in a unique situation as she has a foot in several camps.
She lives at Rushworth, has a strong professional connection to the Stanhope community and also has her duty as a ward councillor to consider.
"It must feel like Groundhog Day for those who went through this in 2016.
“The way this has happened has not been ideal, but the feedback in the last five days has been impressive, as has its mobilisation,” Cr Gates said.
She explained she had responded to 200 emails, describing the feedback she had received from the community in the last few days as “very valuable”.
“It’s provoked a lot of discussion in the community.
“Some of the data presented needs to be unpacked and verified. A community engagement process will enable us to do that,” she said.
Cr Gates said the council needed to identify what the issues were, in regard to infrastructure and service provision, and work as a group to have the tough conversations before any consideration of closures could be put forward.
“One of the reasons I ran for council was to retain the viability of small towns in the shire.
“We need to ensure the long-term viability of those towns. If we keep moving in a direction where assets in our community are rationalised then there won’t be any small towns left,” she said.
Kyabram Tomorrow group member Susan Weardon was one of the six community members allowed to speak to the council at the meeting.
She said while her words were representing Kyabram, they could easily be applied to any of the groups in the Campaspe Shire community.
“I want to address the reported decrease in pool attendance, in recent years. If we had a better facility people would come.
“It is just not an inviting environment and is open on quite limited hours,” she said.
Mrs Weardon said a majority of people in Kyabram did not have backyards and she challenged anyone to learn to swim distances in backyard pools.
"Within the Campapse Shire there are many areas of low socio-economic status,“ she said.
Mrs Weardon said all of her four children were members of the Kyabram Swimming Club and became strong swimmers as a result.
“Kyabram’s P-12 principal has told us it is not viable to bus the kids to Echuca for a carnival. Does this mean an end to school swim sports?” she said.
Mrs Weardon said she, and her committee, were frustrated that the council helped the community prepare a place-based plan where one of the main items was to maintain and upgrade the aquatic facility.
“There is a masterplan for the aquatic facility and we were just in the process of trying to get a feasibility grant to do some funding.
“Then this recommendation to close the pools. We were in absolute shock, flabbergasted.
“We were left wondering how it got to this stage,” she said.
“The pool was high priority at the place-based plan meeting. We always knew that we wanted to improve the aquatic facility, and that was holding us back as a community.
“Our committee has been about generating enthusiasm for the pool. We are thinking big.
"There are 57 days a year over 30°C.
“We desperately need to reinvigorate Kyabram. Let’s imagine what Ky could look like with better aquatic facilities.
“Something with solar heating, shade and a splash park.
"People have told us, and we told council, we want a pool that is fit for purpose, a sustainable business model which services the community into the future,“ she said.
Jack Norris, a former school captain at Kyabram P-12, said this moment had been coming for some time.
“This is how a democracy works. Everyone being heard, not only the people that have been able to speak to council tonight, but also the 4352 individuals who have put their name to the online petition to keep the pool open.
“As a young leader in my community I feel as though I need to provide a voice for that group,” Mr Norris said.
He offered four reasons that the council should reconsider the pool closure recommendation.
“Safety, exercise and health, family bonds, along with social interaction.
“If council does choose to go down this road we are only going to encourage people to swim (illegally), which will increase drownings,” he said.
