A group of Barrhead area seniors want people to know that young people are not the only ones who are inconvenienced by the lack of a pool facility in the area.
On Friday, June 26, at the Barrhead Town council’s special meeting, mayor Gerry St. Pierre read a letter from a group of seniors saying that two to three times a week they travel to Westlock to swim or attend other pool related classes. The group also sent the letter to Barrhead County council. However, county council won’t have a chance to discuss the letter as a whole until their next meeting on Tuesday, July 7.
On Monday, June 29, four women, Cheryl Gergatz, Teresa Maykut, Vivien Stupniski and Edie Strawson dropped by the Barrhead Leader office to talk about how important a pool facility was to them and why they were disappointed to hear that the project had suffered another delay.
On Wednesday, June 24, Chuck Hambling and Manfred John delivered a petition asking Barrhead Town council to revisit the aquatic centre project.
In order to get the town to reconsider the cost of the aquatic centre the petition organizers needed 443 Town of Barrhead residents’ signatures. The petition submitted, had 511 signatures.
Before the petition is considered valid, the Town of Barrhead’s CAO, Martin Taylor, must determine if all the names are valid.
Mostly, to ensure all the people who signed the petition are of legal age, reside in Barrhead town boundaries and did indeed sign the petition. The process is expected to take between two to three weeks. On July 21, Taylor will report to council, during a special meeting, if the petition is valid.
“I think what we are most disappointed about is the continuous delays because of all the political issues involved,” Stupniski said. “There is a lot of people who need to be swimming, but can’t.”
Strawson agreed, saying that a lot of people have been affected by not having a pool, she feels especially bad for the children.
Gergatz said not having a pool for the young people in the area is especially pronounced in the summer.
“A lot of parents work during the summer and the kids used to go to the pool and swim during the day, now it’s not there,” she said.
While the group is disappointed that the children don’t have access to a swimming pool in their own community, the seniors have been just as affected by the closure of the pool.
“If you have arthritis, or some other physical problem, where you still need to exercise, but your body isn’t able to cope with exercise on hard floors, a pool makes such a difference,” Stupniski said, adding that her doctor recommended exercising in a pool.
Maykut agreed, saying there was no way she could do her exercise routine without a pool.
Currently, the group is about a dozen strong and includes seniors from all over the region from both the town and county.
“And we are the lucky ones,” Maykut said, adding that not everyone in the community is able to drive to Westlock, St. Albert, Whitecourt or the other communities that have a pool.
“We included (signatures) from both the town and county in our letter so that the councils would know that we are speaking as residents of the entire community,” Gergatz said.
She added that although the residents in their group are acting as a community, by helping each other get to the pool, she feels that one of the councils isn’t doing the same.
“Half of the community isn’t acting like they are part of the whole community. A pool is a large part of the recreation in any community and it’s something for all ages and shapes,” she said, adding that in her opinion Barrhead County council hasn’t been doing their share in making sure the pool project moves forward.
When the Leader asked if the group understands why some residents may be concernedabout the aquatic centre, as currently planned, the group said the project could be scaled down.
“I really don’t think we need the lazy river,” Stupniski said. “If we could have a facility like Westlock has, it is just a simple pool.”
Strawson agreed, adding that she didn’t believe the Barrhead area had the population for extras beyond the basic pool design.
However, Gergatz said, she wasn’t worried that taxes would go up beyond their ability to pay.
“Yes taxes are going to go up, but they wouldn’t go up as much if the county would contribute its share,” she said, referring not only to the aquatic centre’s capital cost, but the operational budgets of the area’s major recreational facilities. An opinion that Maykut, Stupniski and Strawson agree with.
