The Sundre and District Aquatic Society’s president and treasurer were not particularly enthused or inspired by council’s reaction to the board’s request to enter negotiations to transfer the indoor pool’s operations over to the municipality.
Instead of entering into negotiations, council has directed administration to meet with the aquatic society as well as the Sundre and District Agricultural Society to compile a list of pros and cons of transferring operations to the town.
“They’re not playing ball with us,” said treasurer Leona Bennett, following the May 27 council meeting where the issue was discussed.
“We’re all very upset. We have gone above and beyond,” said Bennett, referring to the effort invested by volunteers over the past four-plus years to bring the facility back from the brink of financial collapse.
In the event the town refuses to take over the Aquaplex, she said the worst-case scenario would be closing the facility, although there is no timeline for when that could happen.
She said that’s the last thing the board wants to do after working so hard to not only bring the budget back in the black but also completing numerous repairs and upgrades while additionally experiencing significantly increased visits.
“We don’t want to lose our patrons. We have a good base built up.”
Provided a smooth transition of operations to the municipality from the society were to take place, she said most people — many of whom don’t realize the town doesn’t own the facility to begin with — would not even notice.
She said taxes are always increasing one way or another, but volunteerism is down from what it used to be. The board’s members, who often also serve in several other volunteer capacities, cannot indefinitely keep up this pace, she said.
“We’re trying to make the town better…but we can’t keep going,” she said.
Although initially reluctant to go public for fear of scaring away patrons, the board has decided to go on the record in the hopes of garnering people’s support.
The building is well kept, completely paid for and no longer has any outstanding debt, she said.
Roy Cummings, the board’s president and a former two-term Sundre mayor and two-term councillor, said after the council meeting that he was disappointed in the direction council chose.
Over the years, the aquatic society has made the municipality aware of the issues and concerns the facility faces. It previously requested a transition in operations to the town, but there has been no progress at all, said Cummings.
“Lip service is all we got. They talk the talk, but never walk the walk,” he said.
“They don’t seem to want to even offer any suggestions.”
The society’s board will be considering its next steps, said the president, who seemed perplexed by council’s unanimously approved motion.
But the issue has been going on so long now, that if council still doesn’t know what the pros and cons are, Cummings wondered what would come of the impending discussions with administration.
“They either have not been listening or not done their homework,” he said.
“I don’t know what more information we could give them that they don’t know already.”
The only certainty at this point is that the society’s volunteers cannot be expected to indefinitely continue operating the multi-million-dollar facility, he said.
Cummings also highlighted the duplication of services, with the society having to hire staff positions such as a manager when the municipality already has a recreation director.
“There’s extra staff hired because we’re a separate entity.”
And as far as maintenance, the town also already has staff that could look after upkeep and upgrades, he said.
“To me, it should be a simple transition.”
Facilitating the facility’s handover to the municipality is the fact the society has not only successfully addressed the deficit, but also begun to generate a modest profit, he said.
“They’ve turned that facility around to having a healthy bank account from where they were at four years ago,” he said about the society, adding the Aquaplex “would be handed over in physically and financially sound condition.”
Cummings said the community seems to be struggling more than he has ever experienced, and he worries that closing the pool would be another detrimental turn of events that would discourage people from moving to Sundre.
“God forbid if the Aquaplex was to close,” he said.
But the board is in no hurry to shut down the pool, and all options remain on the table to ensure the facility stays open before even considering the decision to close the doors, he said.
