Pool improvement proposal

Kevin Berar - Giant FM - Castanet:

The Penticton Community Centre Pool is in desperate need of an upgrade. City Council held a special meeting Monday regarding a grant application for the pool. Council voted unanimously to apply for the grant under the federal-provincial Building Canada Fund for a $23.8 million pool expansion project. Parks and Recreation Director John Kirbyson says there are lots of challenges with the building. “It’s not a very suitable place to be able to hold competitions and events, there’s not offering a lot of variety of activities, especially family leisure opportunities. There’s limits to accessibility in the building. There’s a need to do some infrastructure improvements to the building. There’s also an opportunity to do some improvements and make the building much more energy efficient,” says Kirbyson. He says the project committee has narrowed the grant application down to two options. One would be a eight-lane 50 meter pool, with the existing pool turned into a family leisure pool. The cost, $31.3 million. Annual operating expenses would be about $1.5 million. The other sees the existing pool enlarged into a 10 lane 25 meter pool and a new family leisure pool. Annual operating expenses would be around $75,000.
The existing facility's operating expenses are $45,000.