The city is considering adding a new climbing wall or an inflatable water play system to Fountain Park Pool and will soon be looking for public feedback.
City staff have come up with two play options to replace the big blue water slide at Fountain Park, after council passed a motion in Februrary asking for more options at the pool. The slide was dismantled as part of the pool's recent rehabilitation.
Coun. Shelley Biermanski, who in February put the motion forward asking city staff to come up with some options to replace the bygone water slide, said she was disappointed a new slide wasn't on the list.
“This report shows me that they're very clear that they have no intention on going back to the slide,” Biermanski said.
“I didn't really see a whole lot of new information other than those two items.”
One option city staff presented is to expand the existing climbing wall, which comes with a $25,000 estimate but would allow three pool-goers to climb at any given time rather than the current capacity limit of two at a time. The second option is to buy an inflatable water play system, which would be installed temporarily for special events or bookings, rather than as a permanent fixture. The inflatable system would come with a price tag of roughly $40,000.
“These are not amenities that could be put out daily, but rather could be used for special events and at designated facility times, as they require significant set-up and take-down times,” read a report to council by programs manager Shaun Percival.
Biermanski also said she wasn't confident an inflatable water play structure would be worth the cost, in that it would only be available for public use a few times a year.
Council passed a motion to have the citizen-based Youth Advisory Committee seek feedback from the public on the two options, with Mayor Cathy Heron and Coun. Ken MacKay opposed.
During debate, MacKay said he knows Fountain Park is an important facility for residents however, he felt council was out of place discussing specific amenities at a recreation centre.
“With all respect for my councillor colleagues, I'm sorry, but I think this is non-governance,” MacKay said. "We don't ask what type of lawnmowers our administration buys, we don't get into I.T. (department) and determine whether or not we want Dell versus HP, we don't ask what type of phones we want, whether we want Rogers or Bell.”
“If administration had brought this forward as part of the budget document, then I could support it, but I just think that we are truly not in a governance role looking for a particular type of equipment, or a functional piece of equipment.”
Coun. Sheena Hughes argued that council was acting in a governance role because of the recommended motion asking for public engagement, rather than directing administration to simply add a specific feature to the pool.
“The fact that we're saying bring forward an amenity is not being prescriptive," Hughes said. "It's just simply saying that we want to include this, and considering that a major amenity was taken out it, we just want to make sure we've considered all the other options, and it's very possible that (the public feedback) will come back and say there's nothing recommended.”
Non-viable amenities
Administration's report to the committee of the whole also explains that a number of non-viable amenity options were also identified as part of the initial research, including a “ninja course,” a swing rope, and a three-metre diving board.
“A ninja course is typically suspended from the facility ceiling,” Percival wrote. “The (Fountain Park) ceiling is not engineered to support this type of equipment, thereby risking the structural integrity of the facility.”
A swing rope was also eliminated from consideration for the same ceiling structural integrity reasons, Percival's report states.
Lastly, a three-metre diving board, due to spacial limitations, would consequentially involve the removal of the one-metre diving board.
“The one-metre diving board is currently used by a variety of age demographics and serves both existing programs and schools in their offerings,” Percival wrote.
If council passes the motion again during the council meeting on Oct. 17, the Youth Advisory Committee's deadline to complete the engagement and submit a recommendation to council will be June 2024.
