The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Flin Flon's years-long quest for a new swimming pool took a promising twist last week when a young resident declared her interest in forming a fundraising committee. Sara Lawrence appeared before city council to say she is ready to start a volunteer group that would generate dollars for a facility she sees as an absolute must. 'It could probably shut down any year now,' the 24-year-old told council, describing the condition of the current Aqua Centre. To build a new pool, Lawrence suggested cooperation among the numerous communities that use the Aqua Centre, including Creighton, Snow Lake and Deschambault Lake, among others. 'None of these places have a pool and they bus people in to take swimming lessons,' she said, adding that she would be willing to approach councils in the outlying communities. Lawrence impressed Coun. Colleen McKee, who helped assemble a 2010 community survey that identified a new pool as the top recreational need. 'I support you 110 per cent if this is something you want to take on,' she told Lawrence. Coun. McKee said she would like to discuss the matter further with Lawrence to see 'if we can't get something resurrected.' 'Nothing would tickle me more than sitting on council and having a new pool,' she said. But Coun. McKee said it may not be pragmatic to get all of the communities that use the Aqua Centre to support a new pool. 'Even trying to get two communities together, you saw how that went,' she said, referring to the failed Flin Flon-Creighton effort to build the CommunityPlex several years ago. 'I think at some point, one community has to take the lead. It has to be done with the support of the other ones.' While he backs the concept of a new pool, Coun. Skip Martin said he is 'against Flin Flon building the pool on their own.' 'And I wouldn't be in favour until we had everybody in the area, the region, (on board),' he said. '...it will benefit the region, and so I figure the region should help pay for it and help maintain it, and if we don't have that agreement then I wouldn't be in favour of the city funding this.' Agreement Coun. Bill Hanson said he agreed with Coun. Martin's statement and believed the rest of council did, too _ until Coun. McKee indicated she did not. Though she is an Aqua Centre employee, Lawrence stressed she is acting as a private citizen concerned with the state of the 37-year-old facility. 'I've always gone to the Aqua Centre,' she said. 'I've swam since I was two. So (I'm) looking at the condition it's in, looking where (a new pool is) not really a priority right now by any means that I've seen.' Coun. Hanson said a new pool was at one time, in fact, council's top priority. But money became tight after 'we were mandated to build a sewage treatment plant and then shortly after that we were mandated to build a water treatment plant,' he said. Coun. Hanson referred to the proposed CommunityPlex, which would have included a pool and other recreational venues, saying there was 'a good plan' in place that unfortunately 'didn't fly.' But Lawrence said the immediate need is not a multi-use complex, just a pool. A new facility would not require a gym, she said, since there is already a public gym at the Community Hall and a private gym on Main Street. Mayor George Fontaine said that given the city's debt level, a new pool will take 'a certain number of years no matter how you plan it.' 'What we need to do is try our very best to keep that resolve (for a new facility), remembering that it costs over a quarter of a million dollars annually to run (the Aqua Centre),' he said. 'That is being covered only by the taxpayers of Flin Flon, not the surrounding areas.' Mayor Fontaine told Lawrence she does not face 'an unreceptive council, but you have a council with limited finances.' Wherever this effort goes, Coun. Hanson said it will be vital to ensure adequate funding is in place before any construction proceeds. He said the council in place at the time the Aqua Centre was built initially had a sound plan that would have ensured 'a very viable pool to this day.' When that council was unable to secure all of the funding required, Coun. Hanson said, they proceeded with a cheaper version. See 'Need...' on pg. 6 Continued from pg. 1 'So instead of waiting two years to get the money they needed to build it properly, they put the tin box up around the pool,' he said. 'And here we are dealing with it, whereas if we'd done it right the first time, we wouldn't be.' Past and present mayors and councillors have discussed the need for a new pool for at least the past decade. In 2002 the council of the day launched a study into what would become known as the CommunityPlex, which was to be built near the Phantom Lake Golf Course. The required government funding did not come through, however, and by 2007 then-mayor Tom Therien officially declared the plan dead. Council then began eyeing the site of the former armoury for a proposed pool complete with recreational facilities and an adjacent seniors housing complex. But again the project never came to fruition. From cold temperatures to the lack of a universal change room for families, complaints surrounding the Aqua Centre have become commonplace. Study An independent 2001 study of the facility found the building required $922,900 in renovations. 'The exterior of the building exhibits a number of areas of serious deterioration,' read the study, conducted by the Winnipeg-based Tuplin Group. The report also stated that the 'pool building roof . . . is not technically up to current pool roofing standards' and that the 'pool basin exhibits a painted and tiled surface with the paint in very spotty condition.' As well, the 'exterior wall cladding around the pool area is badly corroded and must be replaced'. Other recommended repairs included fixed steel columns and joists, a mechanical and electrical upgrade, the addition of entrance doors for handicapped people and a complete building envelope upgrade with a new metal roof system.
