Anyway, back to the topic at hand, which is my thoughts surrounding the need for a new pool sooner than later. More background information is in a column I penned that is in the Sept. 26 Hinton Voice on Page 9 ... you can link to it here.
Essentially, we have an old pool. It's not really old, but it's old. It's just past 30 years old ... which isn't as old as me. The difference is the pool was built was a projected life span of 25 - 40 years, while I insist that I was built to last. Our pool isn't awful, but it's definitely not great.
I've been listening to haters talk
about the pool for a lot of years – listening to unhappy people is
part of the job description - but frustration has definitely grown
since the more than million dollars in upgrades since 2009.
I've spent the past year trying to
cultivate feedback from locals who haven't howled at the moon, or
complained, or bashed administration, but just kind of quietly took
their families to our surrounding towns to use their pools more
often.
Consensus among them – and I'd say
there were a little more than a half dozen I chatted with - was that
the other pools just offered more of an experience, appeared more
welcoming and was worth the drive. I have reflected on the feedback
for some time and, although it is a ridiculously small sample size,
they represent, I think, a pretty sensible cross section of Hinton
families. They still use our pool, but they also, as consumers, choose to go elsewhere on occasion. That was
telling to me because they chose to drive at least
an hour each way just to use the resource of other towns instead of
the one readily available here.
If you attend swim meets at the pool
... and I've been to a few over the years ... it's not an incredibly
functional place for the officials, the competitors or the parents
and fans trying to watch. That's where the pool differs from the
arenas.
Council has already decided that a new
pool at the current recreation centre will be the next step, with
consensus from a May 2013 meeting indicating that the Town will work
toward a 2017 plebiscite. Like I said, that's too far away, in my eyes, as I think
residents are looking for something to happen sooner than later. I
think we need to expedite that process to a plebiscite to be held
midway through the next council term in 2015. That gives council,
administration and other project champions two years to work a
preliminary design, do some more detailed costing, develop a plan for
paying the capital and future operating costs of the new facility,
and undertake an extensive education campaign leading up to the
plebiscite.
A new pool would be a big boost to community morale. It sounds like a silly reason, but if you look back over the years, there's been a lot of capital money spent in Town to replace aging infrastructure, but nothing that residents really take ownership of day to day. There's been a new fire hall and RCMP headquarters ... both of which were needed, and built to last. There's been a new Town hall – the old one burned down - but the way that project was managed was smart as the lease agreements with the provincial offices pay the lion's share of the mortgage. The last build is possibly the most contentious to many – the new Infrastructure Services Building, or the Garage Mahal, as it's called in some circles.
You can argue the merits of the aforementioned builds all you want, but that's not the point I wish to make. The point is that those builds exist at arms length from residents as a whole, there's nothing there they get to touch or experience on a day to day basis that increases their quality of life.
Meanwhile, the resource that is most used by the public has been subject to patch work over the past number of years. Sure, the upgrades were prioritized because that's what the federal government was funding at the time, but that doesn't change the reality. And that reality is that a new pool would be something tangible that a good many residents could get behind and get excited about.
I think if we made it a priority and moved the process forward we would put a new pool in place probably sometime around 2018. Not only does that mean we aren't waiting until so late in the game to get more prepared about a replacement, it also gives us a few years to get real about budgeting for a build and keeps us within the timelines recommended by the volunteer-driven Recreation Centre Task Force in late 2012.
In the mean time, I would suggest the
Town divert any found money into a reserve for the future project.
That includes new unallocated county funding and new photo radar proceeds. Speaking of new county funding, not only is the Town set to get new base funding each year to the tune of an additional $400,000, they also have a new agreement about recreational capital projects.
Whereas if we built a new pool for $25 million under the old contract and received $6 million in provincial or federal grants, the county would pay their percentage of costs based on the net amount of $19 million. Under the new agreement, they would pay their percentage of capital costs based on the gross amount of $25 million.
The county percentage is based on this formula:
County Residents / Town Residents + County Residents = Percentage of County Responsibility
That same ratio is used to determine their ongoing contribution to operating costs. And operating costs need to play a huge role in the ongoing conversation. From what I understand Grande Cache is just about drowning (pardon the pun) in the operating costs to run their pool. It's something we can't afford to overlook when we're talking about the long-term impacts on our budgets.
Anyway, here's the May 14 standing committee meeting agenda with the Recreation Task Force report here. Talk amongst yourselves. See what you think and be sure to share your thoughts with any council candidates within earshot.
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