Strathcona Pool sitting empty on June 22, 2020 (Photo courtesy of Ross Lavigne)

By Scott Roblin

Parks & Recreation

City aiming for early July re-opening of outdoor pools, Family Leisure Centre

Jun 22, 2020 | 4:50 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Outdoor pools in Medicine Hat have been given the green light to open in the coming weeks, with the City of Medicine Hat rolling out its first major re-opening framework for its parks and recreation department.

Both the Hill Pool and Strathcona Pool are expected to open sometime between July 8-10 as city crews get ready to re-fill them with water and bring staff on board.

“We can actually start to program those,” said parks and recreation general manager James Will. “So, our intention is that if our staffing levels allow for that, we can offer some swimming lessons to the public. We know that there’s going to be reduced capacity at those pools, so we’ll move forward with a sign up ahead of time.”

Along with the two outdoor pools re-opening, the Family Leisure Centre will finally open its doors to the public again during the week of July 6.

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The Cenovus Arena and South Country Co-Op Fitness Centre will be the first to open that week, followed by the Kinsmen Aquatic Park during the week of July 13.

Both the FLC gymnasium and field house meanwhile will be the last major pieces to re-open, as they will do so tentatively during the week of July 20.

Providing these and other recreation opportunities has been key to the City’s re-opening strategy according to Will.

“We know that people want fitness programming options, we know that people want to have lessons,” he said. “Certainly, we don’t have that plan completely finalized yet, but we are moving forward with some target dates that would allow us to be able to offer that to the community.”

Staffing has been one of the main reasons for the delay in opening for the City of Medicine Hat, as they have had to transition dozens of recreation workers back to their usual posts.

“We’ve moved a lot of our recreation staff over to the parks department,” said Will. “So, when we re-deploy those staff back to recreation, it certainly creates challenges in the parks environment.”

Park washrooms in high-traffic areas of the city have since been opened again, though there are two City-owned facilities that will remain closed for the foreseeable future.

The City will be taking a few weeks to evaluate both the Crestwood Recreation Centre and swim area at Echo Dale Regional Park, as both present unique challenges not found elsewhere.

“It’s more complex than just filling the swim lake,” said Will. “We are looking at moving forward with plans for Echo Dale. We don’t know at this point exactly when the launch date would be, we know that it wouldn’t be before the middle of July just given the number of staffing challenges that we have.”

More information on the opening of recreation facilities in Medicine Hat this summer can be found on the City of Medicine Hat’s website.