Everyone Get Out Of The Pool
17/04/2009 02:46
Award-laden Strathcona High School facility on chopping block
The last time anyone beat the Stratchcona Lords in the swimming pool, the Oilers were Stanley Cup Champions and Brian Mulroney was prime minister.
After 23 years on top, though, the Lords could be in for a tough battle for No. 24.
City manager Al Maurer told council this week he wants to close the Scona Pool, which is attached to Strathcona High School.
The closure would save the city tens of thousands of dollars in repair and operation costs every year, he said.
But it would also mean displacing the Strathcona swim team, which has more than 100 members.
"We'd like to see it stay open, obviously," said Strathcona assistant principal Tom Davey. "We'd like to see things carry on the way they are."
Davey said the swim team uses the pool daily during the competitive season and he wasn't sure what would happen if they were forced to go to another location.
The Lords, though, are only one of a number of groups that would be displaced by the city plan.
Carl Simonson is the head coach of the Olympian Swimming club. He helps train more than 160 competitive swimmers between the ages of five and 14, as well as hundreds of learners, all out of Scona.
"They've basically given us until September to figure out what to do," Simonson said.
Simonson found out about the potential closure Tuesday night at a city meeting. He said the city told them it won't go out of its way to find new space for users.
"If you look around, there are no facilities that have availability," he said, especially during peak weekday hours between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
A manager with the city's recreation branch said that other pools in the area can easily pick up the slack.
"There is capacity, there is no question," said Rob Smyth, who added that the city will work to find space for all Scona users. "We're not going to cut them loose."
Scona has far fewer swimmers than any other Edmonton indoor pool, attracting about 35,000 people last year compared to 132,000 visits to Hardisty and 140,000 at Bonnie Doon, city figures show.
That works out to a subsidy of about $8 for each Scona customer compared to an average $5 subsidy for people using other pools.
Scona also rents time to private groups including a synchronized swimming club, a kayak club and a handful of diving clubs and trainers.
The city is proposing to close it permanently July 1, saving $80,000 in operating costs and repairs in 2009, and more in future years.
"Because of the downturn, we have to be fiscally responsible," Smyth said.
SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:
It’s really sad when city administrations get too big and powerful and community facilities such as the Strathcona Pool get the axe due to municipal budget cuts. Couldn’t City of Edmonton Administration have found something else?
I remember when the City of St. Albert tried to save a few nickels and dimes by proposing that the Grosvenor Pool be closed down in 2001. Wow, what a public outcry that caused! I remember Elke Blodgett and her orchestra of St. Albert kids chanting in Council, "Save our pool, save our pool!" And guess what? The pool was indeed saved by a few astute members of St. Albert City Council of the day, as I remember it.