The City of Fort Saskatchewan is looking at a few different options with Harbour Pool.
An assessment of the pool, led by ACI Architecture, was recently done to determine the current state of the facility.
"This assessment was done as part of a bigger indoor recreation infrastructure service level review that council approved in May," said Brad Babiak, the director of recreation and culture with the city. "The first part of that work was to actually look at the Harbour Pool in terms of a couple of things."
Among the things that were looked at was the actual physical integrity of the entire building, including electrical components, the roof, and HVAC systems, as well as the pool-specific equipment.
"The report looked at both of those two pieces and provided information back," said Babiak. "The reason for that was to see, as we look at providing aquatics in the city, how viable is the Harbour Pool to continue operating."
Upon completion of the assessment, the city is not all that surprised with what they were told in the final report.
"The report found that the facility itself is in pretty good shape," said Babiak. "Because it is a 40-year-old building it does require ongoing investment into it to keep it up to a standard."
"The majority of the pool systems are in good shape as well, there are a couple of areas of improvement."
The report listed three possible paths that the city could take with the facility, complete with estimated costs.
Those three options were as follows:
- Basic refurbishment of the building ($14.8 million)
- Complete refurbishment with modifications to aquatic equipment ($19.2 million)
- Replacing the pool with a facility of the same size ($20.1 million)
As of right now, it is far too early for a decision to be made.
Babiak says that council still has to review the answers from the recent indoor recreation survey before they make a final call on the future of the pool.
"The goal is to try and provide that next level in terms of facility programming in the Spring and then take that back to council so they can look at what people want to do and what we are currently able to do."
Harbour Pool has been busy these past few months. In December the facility celebrated its 40th birthday, while earlier this month it reopened after nearly two months of maintenance.