Now it's fixed: Wellenberg Oberammergau will close on October 1st
Created: 08/12/2022, 09:35 am
By: Josef Hornsteiner
Has a lot to criticize: Manager Ludwig Schön speaks Tacheles at the municipal council meeting on Wednesday.
He is disappointed in politics.
© PETER KORNATZ
Now it's fixed: The Oberammergau swimming pool is permanently closed.
But at least one outdoor pool should be maintained in summer.
Oberammergau – He drew attention to himself with a sarcastic laugh.
When he was given the floor, Ludwig Schön rumbled on.
"You haven't been able to run the pool for 15 years." The still manager of the Oberammergauer Wellenberg was irritated.
"There's just not enough cash, period." Schön casually sums up what has been failing at the Oberammergau swimming pool for decades: money.
It was a historic municipal council meeting in which Mayor Andreas Rödl (CSU) gave Schön permission to speak in the Ammergau house.
The committee now drew the conclusion from the financial debacle: the Oberammergau swimming pool was buried with 11:8 votes.
On September 30th it is the last day open.
Nice had a lot to criticize.
Again and again he and his employees were fobbed off with "the smallest minimal solutions".
However, the workers had to do a lot themselves, such as repairs, maintenance and sometimes even renovations.
They are now exposed to enormous psychological stress.
Locals would complain about the state of the bath, as would guests.
"Do you know what we're allowed to hear every day?" he asked the panel.
He came to Oberammergau in 2017 with other goals and therefore resigned.
The way the municipality handles the bathroom is absurd for Schön.
It is true that around ten million euros were invested in the wave mountain - some local councilors believe it was even significantly more.
"But it was all just patchwork," said Schön.
It ends on October 1st.
After Alpamare in Bad Tölz and Karwendelbad in Mittenwald, the Wellenberg is now also closing
The swimming pool thus joins the list of pools that suffered the same fate: The Alpamare in Bad Tölz (closure in 2015), the Karwendelbad in Mittenwald (closure in 2016) - more than 44 swimming pools have been closed in Upper Bavaria since 2005.
Rödl understands the emotions that the closure of the wave mountain brings with it.
Ludwig Utschneider (PWG) spoke of a "sad day" and "severe loss".
But the figures, which the managing director Christian Ostler announced in the small meeting room of the Ammergau house, speak a clear language.
Between 2012 and 2022, the bathroom devoured 9.79 million euros without depreciation.
In return, the list of mandatory tasks for the municipality has grown steadily.
The municipality currently has an investment backlog of around 30 million euros, including life-saving measures such as flood protection or fire brigade maintenance.
“If you add the voluntary benefits, we would have to spend a total of over 50 million euros by 2030.
It's going to be difficult, if not impossible.
Because Rödl already knows that this time the Passion Play will not yield the same profits as it did in 2010 - at that time 40 million euros were left over.
"Then there's inflation."
And since Russia significantly reduced gas supplies to Germany in June and the gas storage tanks can no longer be filled as necessary for the winter, "it is becoming more and more likely that the supply will have to be prioritized," Ostler said.
A leisure facility like the Wellenberg is “not a protected customer” and would no longer be supplied with gas in the event of bottlenecks.
It is still unclear whether the building will be demolished as soon as possible or whether there will be an interim use
In short: it's over for the wave crest.
The large building complex will be permanently shut down.
A decision has yet to be made as to whether it will be demolished immediately or whether it will be used for a short-term solution.
There is still one last glimmer of hope: if the talks between the municipality and potential investors bear fruit.
The Free Voters also continue to insist on drawing up plans for a small community pool.
In order to bridge the time until a possible solution is found, the outdoor area with its 50 meter long sports pool is to be used as an outdoor pool.
The simplest, most cost-effective and currently the safest option in terms of liability law, says Ostler.
"The offer could be supplemented with the children's paddling pool with sunbathing area, playground and beach volleyball field." Barbecue areas, shaded children's pools and the like should further enhance the facility.
Cloakrooms and toilets would be there.
The municipality can operate the water treatment of the sports pool independently of the technology of the closed indoor pool.
"The energy costs would be kept within limits," assures Ostler.
The solar system heats the pool, which, according to plant manager Schön, is in poor but not yet completely desolate condition.
“Because we patched them up every year.
Those numbers are long gone.
In 2019 it was just 158,000. This year we are even miles away from this mark.
Almost 7,000 guests came in July – over 20,000 in 2019. The municipal councils did not agree on the reasons for the decline in visitors.
"No wonder if there are no more attractions," rumbled BIO councilor Florian Schwarzfischer.
For him, the decline in visitors has already started since the closure of the once famous wave pool, to which the bath owes its name.
It was clear to Simon Fischer (CSU) that attractions alone would no longer draw visitors from Landsberg, Munich or Augsburg to Oberammergau.
A debate ensued about guilt and not-guilt.
What has been slept through in the past decades.
