Supporters against the closure of a pool in Inglewood converged on Calgary City Hall for a rally on Friday.
Dozens could be seen holding signs and chanting in protest of the proposed closure of the Inglewood Aquatic Centre — a local pool in the SE Calgary community that has hosted swim meets, lessons, and birthday parties for more than 60 years.
Friday’s rally comes after two city councillors took up the battle to keep the pool open for another year.
The pool’s fate was decided in a narrow vote by city council to uphold a ruling three years ago to shut it down over ballooning costs and critical repairs.
Calgary council voted last month to fast-track the closure because of a need for upgrades, a decrease in attendance, and the fact there other pools available.
In May, council learned the facility was in need of major electrical repairs. Administration says those fixes would come with a price tag of $600,000. Operational funding rings in at $400,000 per year, according to the city, meaning closing it would save $1.4 million annually.
An urgent notice of motion was brought forward this week by Couns. Sonya Sharp and Andrew Chabot at Thursday’s executive committee meeting that would look at keeping the pool open until 2026.
Sharp says now that administration has found investment income to reduce the tax rate, they should also be able to find the money to keep the location open.
“We figured that you could operate this pool until you can’t,” says Sharp. “Giving it a threshold of $350,000 that could probably chip away at some of the improvements that need to sustain the opening, until it needs to close in the future.”
Area residents have taken to social media to try to save their pool, including a senior in their Not Dead Yet Facebook group, who says the facility has been valuable for her health.
“Leave it open and leave it alone,” she says in the post. “I come in here everyday, it helped me lose weight.”
Another rally is being planned for Sunday.
The proposal to keep the aquatic centre open through 2026 will now come back to city hall for a vote later this month.
The pool was originally slated to close on Dec. 22.