The new Wascana Pool, one of the most anticipated City of Regina projects in years, has been open to the public for over a week, but in that time, people have found a few problems with the new build.
Perhaps the most prominent at the moment is the continuing closure of the waterslides due to a publicly accessible emergency shut-off button.
Nearly every day since the pool opened, the water slides have been shut down because someone has pushed the emergency shut-off button at the base of the slides.
“It’s the perfect height for kids to hit it, and I’m not surprised it’s hit often,” said pool goer Emma Dick. “It just looks like a button that wants to be pushed.”
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Robin Michon has a similar view of the situation.
“You want it to be accessible, but it just looks too bright and red,” she said. “If I was little, I would push it too.”
On Saturday, after multiple shut-offs, the pool announced the waterslides would be closing for the rest of the day. On Tuesday, it was only shut off once, and people were able to hit the slides again.
People feel there should be some surveillance to help prohibit the emergency shut-off from being hit.
“If that is an issue, someone should be watching it,” said Remy Petry. “They should have someone supervising it.”
“Maybe put cameras there, kick the kids out that are doing that, I guess,” Howard Nixon said.
Despite the problems, people say they understand there will be growing pains with the new project.
The City of Regina declined to comment on the issue at this time but officials are expected to host a press conference at the pool Thursday.