OBG says sauna would pose a risk for the town’s finances

Local political group the OBG do not belive that adding a sauna to the new indoor swimming pool would make financial sense, as they claim it would cost more to build and run than it would make in revenue.  In fact, the leader of their parliamentary group Georg Braun says that this has been clear to them since the summer of 2011.

According to an expert opinion, the income from a sauna would cover the running costs, but not when the cost of building it is added to the equation.  Georg Braun was quoted as asking “What use would the higher revenue be, if the investment costs are not covered?”

The OBG went into the pedestrian area of the town on Saturday morning, and reported that in many of their conversations with passers-by the people of the town are confused by what they call the “half truths” of the sauna supporters.  They also warn that if the sauna were to make a loss, then the taxpayer would have to pick up the bill.

Their financial spokesman, Andreas Bernhardt, pointed out that the town’s budget for 2013 has not been approved yet by the local authority, and that if the town’s finances were not the state that they are in, then urgent projects such as the traffic lights on the Frankfurter Landstraße could have been started by now.  He said “we are only too happy to accuse politicians in southern Europe of not being able to look after their finances and endangering our currency, but the national debt per person in Germany is higher than in Cyprus” and commented that Germany was in no position to point fingers if they could not even stop their own communities from spending more money than they have.

From the OBG’s point of view, the visitors coming to Oberursel’s new sauna would be people who currently go to saunas in the neighbouring towns, meaning that if Oberursel is a success then those saunas would suffer financially.  They believe that if one of those saunas were to be modernised at a later stage, then those new visitors to Oberursel may once again turn their back on the town.  Bad Homburg, in particular, has been advertising the sauna in the Seedammbad on local radio.

Andreas Bernhardt is calling for the additional two million Euro to be invested in the Sauna, but instead to be used to renovate the outdoor pool.  In this respect the OBG is also warning against spending the spare cash from the sale of the so-called “silverware” pieces of land too quickly and producing new costs which will have to be met from the town’s budget for decades to come.