City’s only outdoor pool still closed for repairs

Brandon’s only outdoor swimming pool remains closed due to mechanical issues — and the councillor for the area says it’s having an impact citywide.

“I’m disappointed for all the families that use it, not just families in my particular ward, but people from all across the city. Everybody with young ones are affected,” Coun. Glen Parker (Ward 9) told the Sun Tuesday.

“But unfortunately, it’s a 57-year-old pool, and is starting to show some wear and tear.”

The Kinsmen outdoor pool in Rideau Park was supposed to open June 15 but is still closed due to several problems that keep popping up, said City of Brandon general manager of operations Todd Burton.

The first time that maintenance crews turned on one of the pumps, it burned out. A new pump arrived within a week on a rush order, but that’s when staff noticed an even bigger issue.

“We were losing six inches of water a day, so that was a major concern,” Burton said. “They put the new pump in, and immediately noticed it was sucking air, which it’s not supposed to do, so they knew there were some leaks or voids underground.”

The pump was shut off, the pool was drained, and leaks in the pool walls were discovered.

When a camera was sent down to scope the lines, Burton said they saw that one of them had quite a few cracks.

“So they are looking at options this week to try to put some epoxy through there to at least seal up the cracks, because it’s not under pressure,” he said.

“We’re trying a few out-of-the-box ideas to get our pool back up and running, and we’re doing the best we can with a very old asset that’s given us a lot of good life. We’re trying to get a little more life out of it,” Burton said.

“That’s what we’re trying,” Parker added.

On the north side of the pool in Rideau Park is one of Brandon’s five spray parks and paddling pools, which was packed with kids and adults early Tuesday afternoon with the temperature at 25 C.

Not having the big pool didn’t dampen Annie Allen’s spirits as she watched over her daughter and two other children.

“As long as they can get in the water, right?” Allen said. “We just found out today and were surprised it wasn’t open because I’m sure it was filled just a couple of weeks ago.”

Looking after his own kids and those of his brother visiting from Alberta, Tyler Thompson said the young ones don’t miss the pool.

“They’ve been having too much fun at the spray park. This is perfect — and it’s free,” Thompson said. “If I want a big pool swim, we’ll go to a lake, or I’ll go to the Sportsplex or the Y. This is where it’s at.”

The city has added additional swim times at the Community Sportsplex to provide “more public swim options,” a city news release said.

Two additional swims will be offered at the Sportsplex pool Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m.

The indoor swimming pool doesn’t replace an outdoor pool on a hot day, said Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett, but he’s glad that arrangements have been made.

“It is something versus nothing,” he said.

At some point, Fawcett added, “we’re going to have to make some big decisions on the pools.

“The pools have been an issue for a long time, to the point that we only have one pool, and it is an old, old, pool. So that’ll be discussions council is going to have moving forward, and we’ll have to see how the public feels about that, under the budget circumstances,” he said.

“To what extent do we put into those sort of things — if there’s a new one, or if they feel they can make significant patches to sustain this? But ultimately, somewhere along the line, we’re going to have to make a decision. This pool is not going to go forever.”

The drop-in rate for the public swim at the Sportsplex is $6.50 for children and $7.50 for youth between 13 and 17 as well as people aged 55 and older. It’s $8.50 for those 18 to 54 years of age and $22 for a family.

The city has five free spray parks. Rideau Park is in the east end, Westridge is located in the city’s west end and Stanley Park is in the downtown core. Kin Park is on First Street south of Richmond Avenue, and Valleyview is on Whillier Drive. The hours of operation range from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com, with files from Alex Lambert

» enviromichele.bsky.social