It’s official, July 14 will be the grand opening of the $12.78 million Barrhead Regional Aquatics Centre.
At their June 13 meeting, Barrhead town councillors unanimously approved the date after hearing an update on how work on the facility was progressing.
Parks and recreation director Shallon Touet said while work continues, it is unlikely staff would be ready for the July 1 date council had selected as a tentative grand opening target.
Clark Builders’ and their subcontractors staff are still onsite working on resolving some of the remaining issues, especially on the system side.
“The leisure pool is full and the main pool is virtually full, and so is the hot tub,” he said.
It was during this process that staff discovered there was a magnesium issue in the water.
“When we started putting chemicals into the hot tub, the water turned yellow,” Touet said. “Also, when we started to fire up all the systems we found that we had an automatic valve that wasn’t functioning.”
Maintenance staff has ordered a replacement from the manufacturer in Kentucky, but they aren’t sure when it will arrive.
“When it does arrive, it is a simple swap out that should take an hour or so to do,” he said.
Unfortunately, Touet said they are not sure how to resolve the other issue and it is one that they also had in the old pool.
While the hot tub’s filters would filter out the mineral Touet said, it is something they would rather not rely on.
“We need to be a little more careful because the new filters that we have are more delicate. Yes they can definitely handle it, but we will wear them out before their time by running all this iron through them,” he said.
Touet added that a pool system specialist with Clark Builders is working on a long-term solution, but he doesn’t know when, or what form that will take.
“I know that we could solve the problem by super chlorinating all the time, but that would be super expensive,” he said.
Mayor Gerry St. Pierre said he isn’t surprised that these issues are cropping up, adding it is better to deal with them now, before the facility opens.
“I imagine if this problem is happening with the hot tub, it could happen with the other two larger pools,” he said.
Touet agreed, noting that whatever solution Clark Builders comes up with it should work for the leisure and competition pools.
St. Pierre then asked whether a soft opening for June 23 is still a possibility. Though, Touet said that too is unlikely.
“The health inspector will be coming in on June 19. He will then send the samples away and we won’t know the results of those tests until the 23rd at the earliest. So I am thinking we will have to push it back to at least the 25th or later.”
Coun. Leslie Penny suggested they still have the grand opening on Canada Day.
“People don’t have to actually go in the water,” she said. “We could have people take off their shoes and have someone from the Rec. department lead tours of the facility, because people, after all this time, just want to see it.”
Coun. Shelley Oswald disagreed, saying people actually want to use the facility and they should delay the grand opening until that is possible.
“I think what is most important is to wait until all the glitches are fixed and our staff is trained and we are open so that people can get into the water,” she said, adding whenever that is she will make herself available. “That’s how important it is too me.”
Coun. Ryan Warehime asked for clarification on what a soft opening would look like and Touet said it would mean limited hours and programs.
“Basically, it would be a full-bore public swim and that is it,” he said.
Warehime then suggested that they delay the soft opening until Canada Day, even if it was only for a few hours, as part of a public swim. Council agreed, instructing Touet and his staff to aim to make it a possibility.
Council then asked Touet what recreation staff had planned for July 1.
Because his staff has been preoccupied with the aquatic centre opening, celebrations will be minimal, Touet said, noting all the activities would be taking place in the splash park/Agrena area.
In addition to what will hopefully be a public swim, staff plans to have cupcakes, Canada flags and tattoos available.
St. Pierre said residents would understand if the Canada Day celebrations were smaller this year.
“There is a lot of other activities going on that day,” he said, noting a couples’ golf tournament and Neerlandia’s Canada Day celebration. “Our focus has been on the celebration of the opening of this magnificent facility that we have spent a lot of our blood, sweat, and tears on. I’m not going to apologize for not having the Canada Day celebration that some people may expect.”
