Councillor isn’t giving up on new St. Davids pool

Long before Adriana Vizzari was considering running for councillor, she was advocating for a new pool in St. Davids.

She attended the meetings to discuss a new design, she was a member of the pool fundraising committee when it was formed, and she even organized an orderly protest of local families during the very hot summer of 2020, when the pool at Veterans Memorial Park was opened, but St. Davids remained closed.

Now Coun. Adriana Vizzari, a mother of four, is as determined as ever that there be a new pool in St. Davids.

There have been some bumps in the road. A design was chosen in 2019, estimated then to cost about $5 million, with a grant from upper levels of government expected to pay for the largest portion.

The grant, however, didn’t materialize, and there were several discussions at council about what to do next, including revising the design or repairing the existing pool.

About a year ago, the former council talked of changing the mandate of the pool committee from fundraising for a new facility to include the possibility of helping to pay for repairs, but then-operations manager Sheldon Randall  said in his opinion, that wasn’t a good idea.

“I think we’d be looking at spending a lot of money to keep it going every year until we come up with a permanent solution,” he said, and that repairing the pool is “definitely not part of the facility master plan.”

The committee was disbanded without changes as the last term of council ended, with $52,000 having been raised without the committee really getting going, as it waited for a grant.

Vizzari says the new council has been working on forming new committees, and a pool fundraising committee will be one of the next batch to be approved. She says she definitely wants to be on it, and she is hoping for “a replacement pool.”

There is a line in the current capital budget, expected to be approved at the end of the month, that sets aside $100,000, plus the $52,000 donated.

“Once we get the committee going, we’ll talk about federal and provincial grants. It’s not going to happen overnight,” she says.

But she’s not going to give up.

“We cannot lose our only facility in St. Davids. We have a growing community.”

The pool was repainted for the 2022 season, and as far as she knows, “the pool is opening this year,” for lessons, a swim team, and hopefully a full schedule of programs.

Early in budget talks she asked about a replacement diving board for Veterans Memorial Park — it had been broken and out of use for swimmers the last two seasons. Coun. Nick Ruller jumped into the discussion asking why a councillor had to request it be repaired or replaced, assuming it should be part of regular maintenance. All councillors agreed, and there will be a replacement board when the pool opens.

Like the diving board, the pool in St. Davids already exists, and is part of the St. Davids community, says Vizzari. “We’re not asking for a new pool — it’s an asset we already have, and that needs to be replaced.”

She hopes council will agree.

“This new council is very aware, and really out to support residents. It feels great to be part of it. We’re all hoping to do good things for our community.”