Fort Saskatchewan city council recently approved a study looking into the future of the city’s aquatic infrastructure.
The discussion around the state of Fort Saskatchewan's aquatic infrastructure has been happening for many years. In 2008, the city added a pool to its Recreation and Culture master plan, and several studies have since been conducted.
"In the recent 2021 recreation survey to residents, the pool once again came up as one of the amenities that people were looking for in terms of a future expansion," explained Fort Saskatchewan's culture and recreation director, Brad Babiak.
Budget 2022 included funds looking into the topic and whether the city’s needs could be met through expanding the Dow Centennial Centre (DCC).
In January, Councillor Brian Kelley brought forward a motion to pump the brakes on the DCC study and instead have administration provide a more detailed outline of a potential study and whether renovating Harbour Pool would fit the community’s needs.
City administration brought the new outline to council in March, including the current status of Harbour Pool’s infrastructure lifecycle and what the cost would be to extend its lifecycle.
The report also contained details regarding the community’s service level needs, expectations, and whether expanding or renovating Harbour Pool would meet those needs.
Council ultimately voted to combine the DCC and Harbour Pool studies into a hybrid-model study, which will take approximately 62 weeks to complete.
“Because there's so much alignment between the two [studies], this is why we call it the hybrid approach. A lot of the things they're looking for in each could be achieved; essentially, the same process was underlined. So, we'd actually be able to check both boxes without having to do it as two separate studies,” Babiak said.
It is estimated that the study will cost $417,600.