Saugeen Shores Council is not ready to spend about 500 thousand dollars for a new dehumidifier unit at Centennial Pool located in Saugeen District Secondary School.
Instead the discussion will wait until talk continues about what should be done about the future of aquatics in the municipality.
Community Services Director Jayne Jagelewski made a presentation to a town capital budget session on what staff have been doing.
Jagelewski says the staff’s number one choice right now is to remain status quo at the current location while maintaining the facility as best they can without huge capital outlay.
The cost of the dehumidifier will be discussed as part of the renovation plans for Centennial Pool.
However in 2012, she says they want to have architect drawings created as to what the Plex area would look like, if a new pool was constructed, adjoining the Plex.
Jagelewski says if the pool was located at the Plex, it would be a benefit as far as shared resources at the municipal offices; it would be a tourism draw and overall it would be less interruption of aquatic services in Saugeen Shores.
Cost concerns of a new pool were voiced by some councillors and they alluded to maintenance costs in the years ahead.
Jagelewski says there’s no way of knowing what the cost of a new pool at the Plex will be but the ten to twelve million dollar estimate is a fair one, depending on the amenities the public wants.
She said there would be some public fundraising to help defray costs and traditionally that goal is set at 10 per cent of the overall cost.
Recently council was told by a pool consultant to bring the current pool at SDSS up to code would cost in the neighbourhood of five-million-dollars.
Councillors will re-visit the future pool plans at budget discussions in January.
