Don't close Water World, Windsor councillor says

A Windsor city councillor wants to see the plan for the new Catholic high school in downtown Windsor include the community activities at the Water World site.

After years of lobbying, the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board announced the province approved $26-million in funding for a new Catholic Central high school. It is slated to be built at the former Windsor Arena and Water World site, which the city plans to sell to the board for $1.

• Parents fear loss of Water World to new Catholic Central
• Board gets nod for new $26M replacement for Catholic Central 

Though a Catholic board spokesman wouldn't commit to keeping Water World open, Coun. Rino Bortolin wants to make that part of the negotiations for the land transfer.

"It's no surprise the community in that area needs that centre," Bortolin said. "I've fought to keep the doors open and keep the centre alive. It's a major component for the area there."

"It would be great to see the Water World portion [of the site] to continue to have community access," he said.

Parents who use the centre for their kids expressed concern that the centre would close with the new school. If that happened,  it would be another blow to community centres in the downtown.

Bortolin supports the new school — and the selected site. But he wants to see it work for the entire neighbourhood.  

"The long-term social benefits of investing with a high school in the core can't be understated," he said.

"This is a neighbourhood where schools typically move out of. We close schools, community centres, and other amenities and people are left to scramble and move out," he said. "Rarely do people move in, now you'll see that when their kids get to high school age, they won't need to move away."