Schmölln fights for his indoor pool: 400,000 euros are missing for rescue!

Schmölln fights for his indoor pool: 400,000 euros are missing for rescue!

Altenburger Land, Deutschland - In Thuringia, numerous indoor pools threaten to close due to financial bottlenecks. The Tatami-Bad is particularly on the brink. The operating costs amount to a total of 2.5 million euros, of which around 60 % are covered by entrance fees. This means that there are around 1.2 million euros that are not financed, which means that the city of Schmölln and the state of Thuringia have already taken over 400,000 euros and 407,000 euros. But there are still 400,000 euros for which there are no solutions so far. Mayor Schrade hopes for support from the state government and the Altenburgerland district to save the bathroom, and therefore launched a petition to build political pressure. He also plans to meet Thuringia's finance minister Katja Wolf to discuss the situation. As reported MDR, it is stated in the coalition agreement that all Thuringian indoor pools should be preserved.

The situation is not only tense in Altenburger Land. The municipal indoor pools in all of Thuringia are in a similar emergency. 40 of the approximately 38 indoor pools urgently demand financial support from the state. The head of the Thuringian bathroom working group, Martin Fromm, pointed out the steadily increasing costs and the increasingly scarce funds for maintenance and renovation. Cities and municipalities are financially at the limit and fight to wear the loads. Many bathrooms date from the 1990s and urgently need renovations. The importance of these baths is undisputed: they visit almost ten million people every year, including 40,000 children who learn to swim. The bathrooms are also indispensable for school swimming, club sports and rehabilitation courses, according to the Thuringian association of Healsbread. The Association and the Thuringian bath working group have already written an open letter to Prime Minister Mario Voigt to draw attention to the precarious situation, such as [Die Thüringer] (https://www.diethueringer.de/politik/kommunale-hallenbaeder-in-thueringen-vaden- Financial--Land-2967606) reported.

Financial challenge for Thuringia's baths

Although the state of Thuringia has already provided 15 million euros in the form of grants, this money is not enough to secure the existence of all indoor pools. Those responsible agree that permanent operating cost funding of at least 30 million euros per year is necessary to make the bathrooms future -proof. It becomes clear that swimming pools cannot be covered cost -covering due to their social tasks. A constant granting requirement will always remain, as caused by the Thuringian Association of Healsbread, which also emphasizes the high social value of the institutions. As notes TAG24, the preservation of domestic baths is more than just a question of finance, but also a question of social responsibility.