– Orka is no longer a company; it is part of the activities of the Municipal Sports and Recreation Centre (MOSiR). And here, the principle of a unified budget applies. In other words, if MOSiR earns money elsewhere, it can allocate some of it to Orka’s operations. Generally speaking, almost all swimming pools in Poland receive subsidies so that residents can benefit from having such a facility operating, said Bolesławiec Mayor Piotr Roman at the December session of the city council.
In practice, this means that the local government contributes to Orka’s operations every year. “The city contributes nearly PLN 1.5 million annually from its budget to Orka water park. More than 22,000 people use our swimming pool (it is not known, however, whether these are different people or the same people counted again each day when they visit the pool – editor’s note). Recently, we prepared a weekly tally and it showed that 2,200 people visited our facility. Is that a very large number of users? As for swimming schools, we really make use of every opportunity. We have five associations that rent lanes from us and run swimming schools,” explains Paweł Dul, head of MOSiR in Bolesławiec.
The city authorities stress that this type of financial support is standard when operating swimming facilities in Poland. The injection of funds from the budget makes it possible to maintain an attractive offer for residents, including swimming and recreational activities. As a result, a broad group of people can enjoy the water park, and the facility, although it requires subsidies, fulfils an important social function.