{"id":7810,"date":"2024-11-12T17:36:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T21:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7810"},"modified":"2024-11-12T17:36:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T21:36:58","slug":"queens-councillors-want-info-on-changing-pool-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/11\/12\/queens-councillors-want-info-on-changing-pool-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens councillors want info on changing pool project"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Construction has begun on the $8-million outdoor pool at Queens Place Emera Centre in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

Region of Queens councillors want to test the waters on the idea of switching lanes and building an indoor pool after all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Construction on the $8.08-million heated outdoor pool next to Queens Place Emera Centre has already begun. But councillors said Tuesday they heard from many residents during the recent election campaign who want an indoor facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coun. Courtney Wentzell said many of his constituents prefer an indoor pool, while some were against a new pool altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo when we\u2019re voting on this and we’re thinking about this, we need to think about our constituents and what we heard in each district,” he told council. “And I will say from my experience and my constituents, they definitely prefer an indoor pool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Coun. Jack Fancy said he also heard from many people on both ends of the pool debate. He added that council\u2019s initial pool discussions were always geared toward building an indoor pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Council voted in June 2023 to go with the less expensive outdoor option — a heated, 25-metre, six-lane pool. But many residents have long advocated for an indoor pool that can be used year-round.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs Coun. Wentzell has said, it was a hot topic. Every house asked me,\u201d Fancy said. “I think most people didn’t even realize that we were getting donations or monies from the government.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Fancy said voters were also concerned about how spending more money on a pool would affect the region\u2019s tax rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The region secured $3 million from an anonymous private donor and $2.2 million from the province. The region is picking up the rest of the tab.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors on Tuesday asked the region\u2019s CAO to prepare a report on how feasible it would be to change the current project so that Queens has a year-round pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Scott Christian campaigned in favour of an indoor pool. He said regardless of what councillors find out, it won\u2019t stop the current project.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis motion wouldn’t in any way impact currently what’s taking place with the preparation of the site,” Christian said. <\/span><\/p>\n

“It also would not reverse course in terms of no pool at all. That’s not what’s on the table. It’s very much about providing the assembled council with all of the information required to understand what would be required and what the foreseeable impacts would be of entertaining and exploring and shifting the construction project to an indoor pool.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Coun. Vicki Amirault said it\u2019s important for councillors to understand the conditions under which the region secured funding for the indoor pool and how a change might affect that.<\/span><\/p>\n

CAO Cody Joudry said he hopes to report back to council at their next meeting on Nov. 25. He said that report may not be made available to the public, if it includes information about contracts or negotiations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/poolstudynov1224.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Region of Queens councillors want to test the waters on the idea of switching lanes and building an indoor pool after all. Construction on the $8.08-million heated outdoor pool next to Queens Place Emera Centre has already begun. But councillors said Tuesday they heard from many residents during the recent election campaign who want an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1948,2595,2600,1121,472,939,647,49,351,24,226],"class_list":["post-7810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-councillors","tag-courtney-wentzell","tag-fitness","tag-indoor-pool","tag-jack-fancy","tag-outdoor-pool","tag-pool","tag-queens-county","tag-queens-place-emera-centre","tag-region-of-queens","tag-scott-christian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7810"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7814,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810\/revisions\/7814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}