Powassan experienced one of its best outdoor swimming seasons at the municipal pool, which is a bonus considering there were concerns that the facility would not even open on time this year.
The July 1 opening had been in doubt because last fall town council identified costly repairs that needed to be rectified before the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit could give the Powassan Lion's Community Pool a clean bill of health.
Those rehabilitative costs were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
See: Province plunges into Powassan pool
Most of the work involved the pool floor and the decking which was lifting in sections.
Allison Quinn, Powassan’s clerk, said although the number of items that needed attention was small, the cost was substantial.
However, Quinn says a team effort by employees from several departments including firefighters and arena staff reduced the cost by having parts done in-house rather than hiring someone to do the rehabilitative work.
“It was a group effort,” Quinn said, adding it paid off.
The collaborative effort included the arena staff repainting the pool floor this year.
The work by the municipal employees was completed in time for the health unit to inspect the pool and the inspector gave it a thumbs up to open on July 1.
But Quinn says it was close.
“We didn’t know until only a few days before if we’d open on July 1,” she said.
Before that inspection, Quinn said community residents called the town hall staff regularly to learn when the pool would open.
“People were very concerned that it wasn’t going to open on time,” Quinn said.
“Seeing it open on July 1 was great. And it was something I worried about a lot.”
With the season now ended, work begins to apply long-lasting repairs to the pool.
What can’t be completed before winter will be finished next spring.
The municipality received a $170,000 grant from the Trillium Foundation to carry out this more detailed work.
Quinn says if the work next spring is completed quickly, she intends to start opening the pool for three months, from the beginning of June to the Labour Day weekend.
Pre-COVID, the pool did open in June but that was only for swimming lessons.
Now the goal will be to have full public swimming for three months.
This year the pool had 1,600 users, which Quinn attributes to the great summer weather.
Additionally, that number doesn’t include the young children who are part of the Get Active Powassan program who swam in the pool daily for one hour.
It also doesn’t take into account the three sets of public swimming lessons that took place at the pool twice a week.
Quinn says the public this year got to use the pool for an additional two weeks because of the exceptionally warm days.
The pool finally closed on Sunday, Sept. 15 and on that final day, 70 swimmers showed up.
The municipal pool was built in 1957 by the local Lions Club as a community project and following its completion the Lions turned over its ownership to the municipality.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
