KENILWORTH – Wellington North council unanimously supported a motion to expedite the tendering process for demolition of Mount Forest’s outdoor swimming pool, despite a vocal contingent of community members who attended the July 22 council meeting to speak in favour of saving the old pool.
“My hope is that a reevaluation might be considered,” said Thomas Potts, the only one of the roughly 25 people in attendance who had officially registered to speak at the meeting.
Not everyone spoke, but anyone who wished to do so was given the chance, even though it was a departure from usual council procedure.
Potts, who identified himself as a 40-year resident of Mount Forest, read from a prepared statement asking council to not necessarily abandon plans to build a new outdoor pool, but to reconsider spending the money required to keep the old one open.
“The fact that our community of Mount Forest has not had an operational pool for an extended period of time is a travesty and shameful to say the least,” he said.
The Lion Roy Grant Community Pool, on Parkside Drive, was closed in June of 2022 after it failed a public health inspection, which noted multiple deficiencies, including failure of the pool’s liner.
By that time, Wellington North had already been moving forward with work to have a new outdoor pool designed, with the township’s 2018 Recreation Master Plan recommending replacement of the old pool at a new location.
Council approved an area adjacent to the Mount Forest and District Sports Complex as the location for the new pool in 2019, and staff began requesting design proposals in 2021.
By spring of 2022, the public had been presented with three possible designs for a new pool – with a minimum price tag of $5.5 million.
It seems it was that price tag, which is expected to increase over the time it will take to raise the funds needed to construct the pool, that drew community members to the recent council meeting to speak out against moving forward with current pool-related plans.
In addition to Potts, seven other community members came to the microphone to offer their comments, and only one of those spoke in favour of scrapping the old pool and building new.
Laura Riehl said she has used the Mount Forest pool for more than 40 years. While said she understands the cost to replace it is high, she pointed out there is a cost to maintaining the old pool year after year.
“At some point it does need to be a new pool,” she said.
Riehl’s concerns were not just with the costs associated with maintaining the aging pool.
“We’re getting to use it less and less every year, because of the maintenance that’s needed to go into it every summer,” she said.
Potts took issue with council’s level of transparency regarding the need for a new pool, suggesting the public was not given a full understanding of the cost to repair the old pool before the decision was made to build new.
“The fact that our existing facility could possibly be repaired and upgraded at a pittance of the cost and much shorter time should have been made public knowledge and considered long before a decision to construct a new pool,” Potts said.
Chuck Markell, who said his family has never had a chance to use the pool, having moved to Mount Forest after it was closed, echoed Potts’ sentiment, saying his philosophy is “you fix what you have.”
He balked at the price of the new pool, calling it “insane.”
Victor Zymantas, a seven-year resident of Mount Forest, asked for more specifics of the deficiencies of the old pool, pushing for council to put a dollar figure on repairing them.
Councillor Sherry Burke, who chairs the Mount Forest Aquatic Advisory Committee, attempted to answer his concerns by comparing spending on the old facility to continuing to fix an old car.
“At some time or another, you stop putting good money into bad,” she said, explaining closure of the old pool was part of the master plan, and the committee had been working on how to transition operations from one pool to another.
Zymantas was not satisfied with the response.
“We still don’t know what the cost was,” he said. “Five million dollars for a new pool, compared to what?”
The staff report included with the council agenda said the 2022 estimated cost to replace the pool liner was $170,000 and $20,000 for a new circulation system, plus tax.
But it doesn’t list possible costs for other work the pool needs, including upgrades to the bath house and repairs to the deck, as well as an inspection of the pool walls.
Councillor Steve McCabe suggested the cost to repair the old pool had been similar to the expected cost of a new pool, throwing out $2.5 million as a figure.
But resident Michelle McInnis questioned that amount, saying she had paid the township for documents related to the pool, and could find nothing stating the repair costs would be that high.
“I saw nothing in that came anywhere in the neighbourhood of $2.5 million,” McInnis said.
She urged councillors to take another look at the repair option.
“It’s not a weakness to say maybe we didn’t consider this and change our mind,” she said.
But councillors did not change their minds.
Mayor Andy Lennox, chairing the meeting, added comments throughout the discussion.
He took issue with the suggestion that council’s process had not been transparent.
“While sometimes the council process doesn’t seem all that accessible to people, this has been very open and transparent,” he said, noting discussions about the pool had carried on for at least eight years.
He said council was “blindsided” when it received estimates in the $5-million range for a new pool, but investigated and found the numbers to be in line with facility costs in other municipalities.
“I have not found any new pools anywhere across the province any less than what we are proposing to build,” he said.
Investigating the idea of refurbishing the pool could mean a potentially costly investigation just to determine how much it might cost, he said.
“If it costs us $50,000 to get an investigation completed, that’s $50,000 we’re not putting toward a new pool,” Lennox said.
He emphasized council had gone through a significant process to arrive at its decisions regarding the pool, and thanked the people present for being engaged in the process, but noted the decision not to reopen the old pool had already been made.
“On today’s agenda, we’re discussing demolition of this pool,” he said.
As council began to move forward with the scheduled items on the agenda, the majority of those in the audience left.
When it came time to discuss demolition of the Lion Roy Grant pool, there was no talk of possibly keeping it open.
Senior project manager Tammy Stevenson told council staff was requesting a reduction in the usual tendering period for proposals for the demolition work from 45 days to 21 days.
The reason: “so that the demolition/restoration work could be completed this fall, and so that it doesn’t expand into the winter months,” she said.
Burke asked if there might be room to create any new “community amenity” in the space, but was told by chief administrative officer Brooke Lambert that additional space was needed for existing waterworks in the area and for a future water tower.
“Really it was determined that it was best to protect that space,” Lambert said.
The motion to direct staff to reduce the tendering period for the pool demolition was carried.
According to the report in the council package, the 2024 capital budget included $200,000 for the demolition of the pool and bathhouse as well as rehabilitation of the property.
