Chris Baird, project manager for the Tillsonburg Community Centre and pool renovations, overlooks the new customer service area from a newly-created glassed-in meeting room. The construction company will turn the facility back over to the town on Jan. 31. After cleaning, filling the pool and many other tasks, the goal is to have people in the water by the third week in February.
By Jeff Helsdon
Editor
Construction of the Tillsonburg Community Centre renovations and pool updates is on schedule, but swimming fans shouldn’t break out their bathing suits quite yet.
The construction company will hand over control of the area on Jan. 31, but time will be needed for cleaning, filling the pool, balancing the chemistry, training lifeguards, and other duties. The goal is for the pool to open the last week of February and for swimming lessons and full programming to start after the March break.
On an exclusive tour through the facility last week, town project manager Chris Baird showed off the facility and explained some of the challenges.
Visitors to the pool or health club will enter off a new ground-level entrance on Hardy Street. The exterior of the entrance area and many of the hallways are glassed, providing natural light and an open feel. A new customer service desk will provide staff a place to direct patrons directly to the pool, health club, or an alternate entrance into the arena changerooms. A new glassed-in meeting room overlooking the entrance dubbed The Deep End, will be available for the community to rent. A new staff room will be below it.
After leaving the entrance area, patrons can enter updated male, female, or new accessible pool changerooms. These include eight smaller family-friendly changerooms, each with its own door.
“The entire family can come in here – mom, dad, kids – and get changed,” Baird said.
Baird acknowledged one of the big questions was why the project had taken so long. “When you are building a new structure on an existing building that was added to in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, you find things you don’t expect.
For instance, he pointed to an area adjacent to the existing customer service desk – which will eventually be closed in for offices – and said asbestos was found there before Christmas. Since it was undisturbed, it was safe, he stressed, but it still had to be removed following protocols and took a week.
“Things like that, when you’re looking at a plan and drawings, until you open it up and find things, that’s not on our plan,” he said.
A new elevator by the entrance connects to the second floor. The pool viewing area is on the second floor and is largely unchanged except for adding a new barrier-free viewing area.
A new accessible ramp to the pool has been added. A special wheelchair will provide access. New tiling has been installed on the pool deck.
In the health club the sauna was removed to add 400 square feet to the health club.
Julie Dawley, a familiar face around the pool and community centre and the newly0appointed manager of recreation programs and services, explained there are several steps to be completed. Besides cleaning, filling and balancing the pool, there has to be a public health inspection, a new diving board and lifeguard chairs installed, as well as staff training.
“I don’t think people realize there’s extensive amounts of equipment,” she said. “It’s been in storage for almost two years so it has to be cleaned up.”
Recently completing a video update of the project, Dawley provided a few highlights, including that adult swims, public swims, and water fitness will be available only for the first couple of weeks. Registration for swimming lessons will start on March 5, with all other programs following the next day. She suggested that if there has been a two-year break in swimming lessons, registration should be at the last level successfully completed.
“We want to thank everyone because we know it’s been a long haul,” she said.
Saying it’s “pretty amazing” for a town the size of Tillsonburg to have a facility like the Tillsonburg Community Centre, Baird said he knows of several people who have Tillsonburg on a short list of where they would like to live and the facility was a factor.
“Council recognized the need to stay current with our recreation facilities,” he said. “This has been a perfect project to refresh the pool and bring it up to standard for people looking to call Tillsonburg home.”
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