The president of the Westsyde Community Development Society says users of the Westsyde Pool are happy that the city will keep the facility open next year.
Diane Kuchma tells NL News she is pleased that city councillors listened to area residents who were lobbying to keep the pool open once renovations to the Canada Games Pool are completed.
“Its about the community and what they wanted and everybody is celebrating,” she said. “I see the facebook posts going back and forth. You know, its our kids. We need things to do. We want to have opportunities available even though its limited more so than it normally would we. We are very pleased with the outcome.”
The city says the facility has about 25,000 visits in a normal year, and Kuchma notes it took the efforts of the entire community to have their voices heard at City Hall.
“A large group of people that all got on board immediately writing letters to city council but then one of our past members decided to do a facebook presentation on keeping our pool open and how much Westsyders want that to happen and we got a lot of response there which we passed on to city council,” Kuchma added.
The pool was closed for a six-week renovation in the spring, and that closure lasted until September because of COVID-19.
City staff were recommending that Westsyde Pool be closed once renovations on the Canada Games Pool are completed because of COVID-19 economic concerns as that would have saved between $200,000 and $600,000 in next year’s budget. Instead, the pool will remain open for 12 hours a day on weekdays and six-and-a-half hours a day on weekends.
“I have deluged with people who want it to remain open. People who see it as no fault of theirs that when [the pool] was built, it was built to be a community facility,” said Councillor Dale Bass. “And they’re tired. They’re tired of every couple of years having to fight for their pool.”
Kuchma admits she was a little surprised to see the final vote after councillors voted 8-1 to keep the pool open.
“I was just tickled and thought, ‘oh, is that ever nice?’ Westsyde gets picked on and we fought for that pool for years, and I’m so glad,” she said. “It just made my heart swell that’s for sure. It was great group effort.”
(Photo via Westsyde Community Development Society)
