As a former swim parent, I’ve been listening to this same song for 15 years or more. I watched the kids swim over top of each other because of crowding in the water.
A few years ago, the City of Red Deer decided to build a new pool at the Collicutt Centre. It’s an awesome play area, but not much good for swimming of any kind.
A few years later, the province made the decision to close Michener pool. At the same time, the Recreation Centre was closed for renovations. That would have left no room at all for the swim clubs of Red Deer.
Dawe is too shallow and too short.
The city took over Michener and kept it open while the Rec Centre and Dawe underwent renovations. But what happens when all the renovations are completed?
Michener pool is scheduled to close for good. We are back to where we started, one pool for all competitions.
Randy Shalagan states in his recent letter that the city is spending $200,000 on a swimming pool study with a portion of the money devoted to building community awareness. He is correct about that. There will be a pool built; it’s a matter of when and where.
The bottom line is, there still is no room for the underprivileged kids Shalagan wrote about.
They would be put on a waiting list, like everyone else. No amount of money can open space that just isn’t there.
Doris Brown
Red Deer