OPINION: Get over it. The old Mount Forest outdoor pool is history

Keegan Kozolanka covers Wellington County for EloraFergusToday.

Wellington North residents were packing the house recently at council meetings there wanting to preserve and rehabilitate Mount Forest’s outdoor pool.

The problem is this sudden interest in municipal matters is a little too late and should have happened years ago. Now council is having to waste time on something that's already been decided.

It was two summers ago council decided not to open the aging Lion Roy Grant Pool, a year and a half since council decided on a funding model on a new pool through gruelling budget discussions and more than a year since council first approved proceeding with decommissioning the former pool.

Where was this energy from Mount Forest and Wellington North residents hoping to save the existing pool when all this was going on? 

This is a lesson in why it’s important to know what’s going on closer to home. According to a report on the most recent Wellington North agenda, the pool issue has appeared in 120 sets of agendas and minutes and been subject to 30 reports since 2007. The clerk also found more than 20 articles from various publications about the pool issue dating as far back as 2002. 

It would have been much easier to advocate for the old pool when it was being discussed rather than try to convince council to reverse a decision already made. 

When it comes to the old pool, what exactly would be preserved? 

Do people really care for the physical pool or is it the memories associated with learning to swim there, taking your children there and community gathering on a hot summer day?

Reality is the pool is over 50 years old, it’s amazing it lasted as long as it did. Preserving it would absolutely be possible but how much money would get sunk into it year after year after year to keep it going? Not to mention how expensive it would be to make the facility accessible, which the township would be required to do so through the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. 

A new pool is definitely pricey but keeping the old pool wouldn’t necessarily come much cheaper despite the opinion of some. 

Recreational facilities are undoubtedly important and the township is definitely in a tough spot when it comes to paying for a new pool. About $2.5 million is supposed to be fundraised for the pool but Mount Forest is a small town without any serious contenders for large corporate donors to step in.

Should the township move ahead with building a new outdoor pool in Mount Forest that will only be used for a short period of time each year or is there a better path forward? 

That future looking discussion is a better one than holding onto the past.