Moncton pool to include 1.5-metre deep end following special council meeting

Part of a Moncton pool will be one-and-a-half metres in depth.

It was originally announced the pool beside the Moncton East Youth Centre was going to be just over one metre deep, causing widespread concern from the public.

But during a special public council meeting Thursday, councillors voted to make part of the pool a bit deeper, following up on a committee of the whole decision Monday, directing staff to look at possibilities of a deep end.

READ MORE: A shallow decision: Moncton residents ‘shocked’ to learn new pool will only be 1 metre deep

Pikey French, director of the Moncton East Youth Centre, says despite an increased depth for a section of the pool, older children and adults will stay away because it still isn’t deep enough.

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French says it’s been a long road, with many setbacks and delays over the last five years.

“At least something will be there, and the mess will be cleaned up.”

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The price tag was pegged at $2.3 million, but about $62,000 has been added to the total with the approved design modifications. The city has an additional $90,000 set aside in a contingency fund for the project.

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the city’s deputy mayor, however, says the additional cost shouldn’t be a big concern.

“Rather than calling it the East End pool, it could be the ‘ABC pool’ – whoever would step up to the plate, and I think it would more than be worth the $60,000 we’re looking at adding on (Thursday) for naming rights for this role over the next five years.”

Staff say with the modifications, the pool’s capacity will drop from 200 people to 140.

Coun. Paul Pellerin was the only one opposed to the changes. He said he wanted more details on the drawings and reverse engineering done, so all possibilities could have been considered.

“At least it would have given us an option to say, ‘OK, are we satisfied with 1.5 (metres), or are we willing to go a little bit more?’ to give the community more or less what they were hoping for in the first place,” he said.

Staff say the timeline for the project won’t be impacted with the new changes.

The pool is expected to open for summer 2019.