A NEW $18 million pool at Wangaratta may not open until next year if the North East city is not part of a redrawn border bubble that allows Albury workers be part of its construction.
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Wangaratta mayor Dean Rees said his council was keenly lobbying for the city to be in the fresh 50-kilometre border zone flagged by NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro on Tuesday.
"We've got a lot of big projects and a lot of our construction workers are coming from NSW and the 50 kilometres is not enough," Cr Rees said.
""If we can't get them down that would put back our schedule, we've promised to have it opened in November and this could put it back to early in the new year."
Cr Rees said the would leave Wangaratta without an outdoor pool for the start of the hot weather and mean jobs could not be offered before Christmas to work at the aquatic hub.
From Corowa the Wangaratta CBD is within 50 kilometres of the NSW border, though it is over 70 kilometres to Albury.
Member for Albury Justin Clancy said the shape of the new blue zone would be discussed at the first meeting of the southern border recovery committee which is set for Thursday or Friday.
He said there would be debate about the inclusion of communities on the edge of the 50-kilometre mark with Mr Barilaro having specifically raised the case of Henty which is more than 60 kilometres from the border.
Asked about Wangaratta, Mr Clancy, who is co-chair of the committee, said "certainly consideration needs to be given to it" in balancing the size of the area "but at the same time acknowledging it's a major population place".
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Mr Barilaro said on Tuesday the new zone would apply in seven to 10 days.
Mr Clancy said on Wednesday that it would be his "expectation it would be before the end of next week, that is something I will very much be pushing strongly on".
Asked why NSW could not have set a date as South Australia did on Tuesday when it announced it would return to a 40-kilometre bubble for Victorians on its border, Mr Clancy stressed the benefits in not keeping Murray River residents in the dark as previously occurred with late night changes.
"The public health order in the first instance took more than 24 hours to develop and there was an issue about a lack of visibility," Mr Clancy said.
"This time around we've got the visibility upfront, so people have an awareness that we're working on it.
"I would like to see it sooner but I don't want to commit to something where it doesn't occur within a certain timeframe."
The finalised border zone will be presented to Mr Barilaro who will then liaise with Health Minister Brad Hazzard before changes to the health order are made to apply it via Service NSW.
