Strathcona County council is working to determine how a Sherwood Park aquatic centre built seven years ago is already facing structural issues.
In a budget deliberation meeting Wednesday, council was shown a presentation from facility services on repairs needed for the Emerald Hills Leisure Centre pool.
According to city administration, cracks were found along the pool basin in 2022, as well as loose floor and ceiling tiles.
“We don’t know to the full extent of how far these cracks go. We know the ones that become obvious because they actually come through the surface and you can see where the water is starting to get through,” head of Strathcona County Facility Services Diel Townsley said during the meeting.
“We don’t know if there’s other cracks so part of what we want to do in 2024 is go and sound the whole pool and make sure that everything is solid,” he added.
The pool will be closed from March 19 to April 21, 2024 for annual maintenance. During tht time, they will investigate some of the issues before determining next steps which include a potential closure in 2025.
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Ward 7 Councillor Glen Lawrence was one of the councillors trying to determine how structural issues arose early.
“Nothing on the engineering? There must of been a mistake somewhere, was there?” Lawrence asked Townsley.
Townsley mentioned there could be a range of reasons but said pool structures typically go through some repair after it’s built, as structures tend to fail.
Ward 4 Councillor Bill Tonita shared with council his own experiences while using the facility.
“I’ve been swimming in that pool since it opened pretty much. And go back four or five years, and those ceiling tiles were problematic then. You’d be swimming and I look up at the ceiling ‘I wonder if it’s going to fall on me before I get out of the pool today?” Tonita said.
Residents who use the facility said the closure will have an impact to their routines, but understand the dilemma.
“It would probably impact things for a lot of families. This is a pretty popular spot for lessons, only a couple of places in (Sherwood) Park that do it,” Dani Till told Global News.
“There’s nowhere else we can come and walk. We don’t like to swim but we love to walk in the water. And there’s no other facility you can do that,” Bernie Fulkerth explained.
“There really isn’t another pool like this one because this has the adjustable bottom.”
In a statement, Strathcona County said the matter is before council.
“The public can be assured that the pool remains safe and open,” the statement read.
“No decision has been made; however, county administration was asked to complete due diligence to reduce the financial impact of the repairs on tax payers,” the statement continued.
“Council is continuing to deliberate the 2024-26 multi-year budget and the final tax rate will be set in the spring of 2024.”
Full repairs could cost the county $2.5 million and close the pool for four months while crews work to fix the cracks.
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