Swimming pool to open in coming weeks

ADVANCE FILE PHOTO

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

With the Phase 2 relaunch underway in Alberta, several facilities in the town of Vauxhall are opening.

As the summer heat starts creeping into southern Alberta, many have been wondering when the Vauxhall Swimming Pool would be able to open their doors, and while no official date has been set, things are looking good.

At town council’s regular meeting held on June 15, administration updated council on the process to get the pool open for the season.

“We were a little concerned about the lessons at first because how do you teach when you have to stay two metres away from the students? We softened the contact a little bit because of course the younger students, you actually have to help them so thank goodness they changed some of those rules,” explained Mindy Dunphy, office manager. “We haven’t got a date set yet but we’re hoping for the first part of July. Of course, we have to get some lifeguards in place. We did have some resumes when we thought the pool was going to open so we are working on contacting them and seeing if they are available. We’ve had discussions around changing the hours somewhat, we may start later in the morning.”

Much like any other recreation facility or business that has opened in Phase 2, the town is ensuring additional measures will be taken to prevent spreading of germs.

With strict guidelines around cleaning, contact, equipment use and physical distancing requirements needed, the town has already started formulating a plan.

“As part of our opening, we have implemented a number of measures that we are asking all users to adhere to for their safety and as per the Government of Alberta’s guidelines these will all be posted,” reads a post on the town’s Facebook page.

On top of these additional measures to protect swimmers, decking at the pool was raised for safety of both staff and swimmers.

Allowed activites in Alberta’s Phase 2 in terms of the swimming pool will be aquatic sports, diving, lane swimming, camps, lessons, drop-in, leisure aquatic features (lazy rivers, water slides, wave pool etc.) and public swimming.

Along with the pool’s eventual opening in the coming weeks, the Vauxhall Public Library was able to open their doors with additional safety measures this past Monday.
When attending the library, rules have been set that only allow a maximum of five people in the facility at all times and those who enter are only allowed a maximum time of 30 minutes to an hour in the library.

When residents are entering the library, hands must be sanitized before entering and before using the computers (hand sanitizer will be provided by the library) and there will be no toys available for children as per government regulations.

There will also be limited chairs and computers available to maintain social distancing measures and Chromebooks are not available at this time.

Those who still don’t feel comfortable entering the library can request front door delivery and return.

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