City to pull plug on Inglewood pool in December

After years of discussions about its future, a major issue with the electrical system at the Inglewood Aquatic Centre has forced the City of Calgary's hand.

It has announced it will pull the plug on the pool, which dates back to the 1960s, on Dec. 22.

City council voted in 2019 to close the facility as part of a larger budget reduction. But pressure from the southeast community convinced the city to delay the closure until a new recreational aquatic facility was added to the MNP Community and Sport Centre in Erlton.

Construction of that addition is slated to begin later this year, with an estimated opening date of early 2027.

Since that delay, however, the city has determined that 13 of its community pools need major electrical upgrades.

In the case of the Inglewood pool, that upgrade is estimated to cost $600,000 and require a three-month closure.

No safety risk

Heather Johnson, the city's director of recreation and social programs, said given the scale of the work required, closing the pool is the best option.

"I want to assure you that there's no safety risk to our customers or staff accessing the facility. However, there is a risk the electrical system could unexpectedly fail, resulting in the facility being inoperable and causing a disruption to our user groups and customers," said Johnson.

The city decided to set a closure date toward the end of the year to give various user groups the time to find other locations for their members and clients.

She said once it closes, the pool's staff will be transferred to other city facilities.

Land will go private

In the mid-1960s, when the pool opened, the city signed a restrictive covenant with the then-owner of the Calgary Brewing and Malting site. It stipulates that the city could operate a pool on the site, but if that ever changed, the land would revert to the owner of the brewery site.

Johnson said the city will demolish the pool and clear the land in 2025. The title will then be transferred to Marchese Holdings Ltd. 

She said the land will be used as part of the proposed redevelopment of the brewery lands, which is being led by Matco Development Corp. 

The city councillor for the area, Gian-Carlo Carra, said that while everyone knew the pool would close one day, this timing is a surprise.

"It's a blow," said Carra. "We knew the Inglewood pool was going to be here for a good time but not a long time."

"It was my mission to keep the Inglewood community pool open until the MNP opened as their new home. And we failed in that regard."

Not worth it

Carra said he agrees it's not worth paying for the electrical upgrades on a facility that isn't in the city's long-term plans.

He suggested it could stay open as long as the electrical system functioned, given it isn't a life safety issue.

"It could go two years. It could collapse in the next couple of weeks. We don't know," said Carra.

But in the event of a sudden closure, he said it would be a major blow to the user groups at the pool, who would then be scrambling to find other locations for their purposes.

So it was felt it would be better to give notice that the pool would be closing in several months, so users have time to line up their next location.

While the electrical issue will not be dealt with at the Inglewood site, the work will be done at other city pools.

Some locations are already closed for repairs, while the city says other pools will be closed in the coming years for upgrades. All of the pools affected opened between the 1960s and the 1980s.

The city intends to organize a community celebration for the Inglewood pool later this year. The date has not yet been set.