Transcona’s outdoor pool to remain closed, indoor renos scrapped

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This article was published 08/02/2016 (3619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cost increases derailed a $6-million upgrade to a Transcona pool complex and now leaves the facility’s long-term status in doubt.

The outdoor pool at the Transcona Centennial pool will be closed for a second summer season and the upgrades planned for the indoor pool have been scrapped.

Administrative officials said construction work on the pool – at Kildare Avenue and Wabasha Street – was halted last year after tenders came in higher than expected and put the project over budget.

Planning director John Kiernan told councillors Monday the project was halted 10 months ago and designs were subsequently redrawn, and scaled-down, to bring the project in on budget.

“There’s no will to do what needs to be done and that’s really unfortunate,” Coun. Russ Wyatt said.

Council approved significant upgrades to the Transcona pool in 2014, including a new outdoor pool and splash pad, and expanding the interior change room facilities and upgrading the pool’s mechanical, electrical and HVAC.

Work was stopped on the project, Kiernan said, when tenders for the indoor work pushed the project from $6 million to $7.2 million.

To bring the project back under budget, the indoor work was scrapped and the new change rooms will be constructed outdoors – but will only be accessible two months out of the year.

Kiernan said the life-span of the Transcona Centennial indoor pool is close to its end and won’t be operational much longer without the needed upgrades.

Wyatt (Transcona) said news of the project delay was kept out of the public eye for several months as it was being scaled back.

Wyatt said he attempted to work behind the scenes with the mayor’s office, members of the executive policy committee and CAO Doug McNeil to find the necessary funds to complete the project as envisioned but without success.

Wyatt said more building permits were issued for projects in Transcona than any other ward in the city yet the community appears to be short-changed for needed services.

“We’re adding to the tax base of the city but we’re being given it in the you-know-where by the mayor and his budget committee,” Wyatt said.

Kiernan said he was directed by McNeil to bring the project in on budget, which meant the project had to be scaled back.

Wyatt said the revised plans make no sense as the indoor pool needs the upgraded change room facilities but now that they are being built in a separate building outside, they won’t be accessible to users of the indoor pool and only usable for a few weeks every year.

“We could have extended the life of the (indoor pool) by another 20 to 30 years but now that’s not going to happen,” Wyatt said.

 

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca