By Brian Hickey
If Ottawa city council approves next year’s draft budget, residents can look forward to seeing the long-awaited Plant Pool renovation get under way.
The draft budget, which still has to gain council approval, sets aside $4.6 million for the Plant Pool project.
That money, combined with the $2 million the city put in a reserve fund for the project as part of last year’s budget, fulfills the total amount needed for the renovation.
“I’m optimistic (that council will approve the project) because the community badly needs this centre,” says Somerset city Coun. Elisabeth Arnold. “It was a really sad day when the pool closed because suddenly this meeting place for young and old alike was gone and there was no replacement.”
The $6.6-million project will include building a new recreation centre at the Plant Pool site and re-developing the adjoining Plouffe Park. The new centre will have a three-lane pool, a separate shallow pool, an exercise room and meeting rooms.
Arnold expects construction on the new Centretown facility to begin next fall if the draft budget is approved.
Right now, the nearest municipally-owned swimming pool for inner-city residents is the Brewer Pool on Bronson Avenue.
The 76-year-old Plant Pool building, which is located at the corner of Preston and Somerset streets, was closed in 1996 when it was declared structurally unsafe.
The pool was originally built as a bath for working class immigrants and served as a public pool for the community before it was closed.
Rather than watch the decaying brick building crumble before their eyes, community groups began to lobby the city to renovate the historic facility a few years ago.
Ida Henderson, a member of the Plant Pool Recreation Association, says she’s absolutely thrilled about the proposal in the draft budget. She says the pool was, and can once again become, a focal point of the community.
“The building may have closed, but it wasn’t going to disappear off the agenda,” says Henderson. “The city had to know that the community wasn’t going to forget the loss of the building.”
The 80-member association has participated in activities such as painting murals on the wall around the building.
Henderson says the association has also raised more than $45,000 through events and corporate sector fund-raising.
About $20,000 of that money has already been spent on improving Plouffe Park, and providing providing summer programs for neighbourhood children.
Since the city is footing the entire $6.6 million renovation price tag, Henderson says the remaining funds the association raised will be put towards community programs at the new centre.
“We’re going to continue fund-raising for the equipment and the programming needs of the facility,” says Henderson. “The community and our organization has to remain active.”
The city still plans to sell the Dalhousie Community Centre on Somerset Street and move all community programming space to the renovated Plant Pool facility. Profits from the sale, estimated at $500,000, would be put towards the renovation costs.
City council will debate the draft budget on Dec. 13.