The Tamworth Regional Council has been praised for keeping Scully Park pool open and thus allowing the avenue's annual carnival to be stage this year.
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By ensuring that Tamworth has one pool operational, the Scully Park Swimming Carnival will be held for the 51st consecutive year on Sunday - the sequence dating back to the year the pool opened.
Peter Ryan, the president of 360 Scully Park Swimming Club, said: "Thank goodness we had some water this year, because this would have been the first time it would have been interrupted, if we weren't able to get water.
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"The council's really done a good job of being able to open the pool."
The council has implement level five drought-management measures, meaning all pools should be shut down.
"But council's really come to the party with using water out of One Tree reservoir that had to be repaired, and using bore water and so on, to at least give us [Tamworth] one pool, which is great," Ryan said.
This year's carnival has attracted 194 swimmers from 14 NSW clubs. There are over 1000 entries.
The meeting will include a skins event, where swimmers will race for about $1000 in prize money.
"So that's brought some top swimmers from the region to have a go at that," Ryan said.
He said the number of competitors was up on last year. "But last year was down a lot on the previous year," he added. "The drought last year had a big effect."