FOLLOWING a series of frustrated comments and posts from locals who voiced their opinions on some issues in the Southern Grampians Shire Council, further discussion has begun.

Deputy mayor, Helen Henry, wrote a letter to a public forum last week to discuss some of the public’s key issues with the community and highlight some positives of the town.

Members of the community had previously raised their concerns about the opening hours of the Hamilton Olympic Pool and questioned why this was the case.

Locals disputed the reasons for the closures online, arguing that it wasn’t due to the staff shortage and criticised the council for this.

In the wake of the controversy, Cr Henry posted a letter to the ‘Hamilton Victoria’s Community Group’ Facebook page discussing the heavily criticised Christmas decorations outside the Performing Arts Centre (PAC) and the swimming pools in the shire, which gained some significant traction and divided the public.

At the time of print, the post had 183 comments from the community and a number of shares, and it also prompted further posts.

“I acknowledge that our (Christmas) decorations are not everything that we could hope for, but I encourage you to consider the cost as we are definitely not a rich shire and how we as a community can support our council and work together on a vision for Christmas 2023,” she said.

“Our outdoor staff were doing incredible work on the flood situation during this time to keep people safe and support those affected, which most will consider far more important.”

Cr Henry said the town did not easily allow for plug in lights and solar was unreliable under the trees.

“So many of our businesses were incredibly decorated and we are working on finding funding to revamp the CBD to better suit the needs of our retailers, shoppers and visitors,” she said.

The Southern Grampians Shire Council confirmed that the shire only has 34 of the 63 lifeguards required to keep the outdoor swimming pools open.

Cr Henry said that many of the pools were old and in significant need of costly upgrades to keep them safe and open, with the floods delaying this.

While inductions and training can be timely and costly to those wishing to do the courses, the letter stated that the pools were heavily regulated by state legislation.

“Under-18 year old lifeguards cannot work alone, lifeguards cannot work seven days per week and pools must be tested and maintained in accordance to standards before opening … we have six outdoor pools (the most of any shire in the state),” Cr Henry said.

“If we keep all of our swimming pools open, we will need to find the money in a finite budget that includes roads, rubbish, infrastructure, childcare, maternal health, and more.”

Cr Henry advised members of the public to contact the council with any issues rather than “slandering” it’s work on social media without giving it the right of reply.

“I’m in no way saying Southern Grampians Shire is a perfect organisation but we as a community can do more by working together than creating a culture of ‘us and them’,” she said.

“If you think you can do a better job, by all means put your hand up next election.

“I would like to say that there are so many positives of our lives here in Southern Grampians; we are blessed with a strong economic climate resting on our incredible agricultural industry.”

In response to the letter, Lisa (Marie) McDonald added a comment reiterating her original post, in which she asked questions of the council about the lifeguard shortage.

“I began the open discussion on the outdoor pool … democracy allows us to ask questions and I will continue to ask questions,” she said.

Cr Henry responded in the comment section by asking Ms McDonald personally what she would do to help make a change to the community.

“My question is - what are you going to do to help? Could you train to be a senior lifeguard? Could you help raise money to upgrade our pools by writing to State and Federal Governments? and will you run for council in 2024?”

Ms McDonald responded by detailing her 10 years of volunteer work with the shire, money raising efforts towards the gas heater for the outdoor pool in 1996 and offered to help out the shire where she could.

The council letter warranted further posts in the Facebook group from locals with a video of the Mount Baimbridge lookout uploaded by Paul Battista, who was disappointed with its maintenance.

Local Leroy Mojica-Perez responded to Cr Henry’s letter by doing his bit for the town and cleaning the walkway connecting Kenny Street and Miller Crescent; his work received plenty of positive feedback.

“As per a councillor's recommendation ‘what are you going to do to help?’ I thought I’d do exactly that!” he said.

“I did the council's job of cleaning up the walkway connecting Kenny Street and Miller Crescent.

“The second half of the walkway will be cleaned up once bin week comes, as it’s full to the brim.”