Municipality creates a pool committee but gives no direction on what they’re to do
Milton Pool. Photo Ed Halverson
The only concrete action taken at the latest Region of Queens council meeting was the decision to create a pool committee.
Councillors Jack Fancy and Vicki Amirault will be joined by two members of the Queens Community Aquatic Society and two residents at large on the six-person panel.
However, Mayor Darlene Norman says it still isn’t clear what responsibilities the committee will have.
“What they’re going to talk about? I don’t know. Maybe they can discuss how to encourage more people to become lifeguards or other things, because they really have no authority to make decisions,” said Norman. “We’ll just see how it goes.”
Since then, some members of council and the Queens Community Aquatic Society have been pushing to tie the new pool to the development of a new library.
The mayor says municipal staff time is at a premium right now and no one is available to sit on the committee and provide resources as they are already working on several other major projects in the community.
“Our engineering and our CAO and our planner, they’re very involved with the building of the new Queens Manor, highly involved with that. We’ve got some major street work going on,” said Norman. “We’re, like many municipal units, we’re struggling with our staff shortage numbers. We don’t have enough labourers in our engineering department.”
Norman says staff is fully prepared to take the on the development of a new pool in 2023.
“At which time they will consult with the community about an outdoor pool, location, etc.”
The committee is expected to meet in early October and Norman says council will attempt to determine what the committee’s function will be before that first meeting.
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