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Warm Water Therapy Society unhappy with pool design

Members of the Warm Water Therapy Pool Society voiced their concerns to council Feb. 24 over what they believe is not the best design for what they hope will eventually be a ‘state of the art’ warm water therapy facility.
Town of Cochrane
Town of Cochrane

Members of the Warm Water Therapy Pool Society voiced their concerns to council Feb. 24 over what they believe is not the best design for what they hope will eventually be a ‘state of the art’ warm water therapy facility.

Speaking for the society, Richard Foy highlighted several key design features the group would like to see incorporated into the warm water therapy pool once it is completed. The pool is slated to be part of the $45 million aquatic/curling facility, attached to the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.

Foy’s design requests prompted some members of council to question whether the project could move forward in its current state.

“This isn’t a little change,” said councillor Jeff Toews, “this is huge.”

Toews went on to question whether the society would be happy with the current design of the therapy pool, and if not, would it be best to walk away from it now.

“No,” replied Foy, “we’re not walking away from this.”

Some of the key design features Foy requested of council was to create an environment of privacy with a pleasing ambiance, specific equipment and programing needs, a dedicated pool for those with medical conditions and better utilizing space. Foy also suggested incorporating drop-in pool, where the floor rises and lowers for ease of access, a request council said would come with a high price tag.

Mayor Ivan Brooker said he was baffled why the Warm Water Therapy Pool Society signed off on a plan when it clearly had several concerns over the way the pool area was planned.

“The changes in detail are very, very expensive,” said Brooker, adding that many of the requests from the society sounded more like the project should be treated as a private facility and not a public one.

Foy said the final product needs to be a facility where people feel comfortable going, or people would not come. He also said the society had been trying to get clarity on the proposed design for some time, and any signing off was done so with the understanding that a final design was still in the works.

Foy said the society essentially did not know what to ask for back in October when they discussed the design with the Town of Cochrane, but after doing some research, they had a better understanding of what would make a successful warm water therapy pool.

Council said the town would discuss the design with the society in the next two weeks.

More housing needed

The Cochrane Society for Housing Options (CSHO) said the community remains in desperate need of affordable housing and rental units.

Glen Sine, CSHO chair, said that since the study they did in 2009, which pointed to the issue of affordable housing and a lack of rental units in Cochrane, not much has changed, despite the hard work of many, including the CSHO and the town.

Some of the statistics Sine underscored included: Over 60 per cent of available homes for sale in Cochrane are over $400,000; rentals make up 14.7 per cent of Cochrane’s housing market; the Canadian average indicates that 30 per cent of residents are in the rental market, meaning Cochrane falls 50 per cent shy; between 2001-08, the average Cochrane home went up 127 per cent; Cochrane’s rental vacancy rate is under three per cent.

Sine said that those who live in Cochrane and have a household income of less than $100,000 struggle to get into a home they can afford, as homeowners should spend no more than 32 per cent on housing costs (including utilities and taxes) and renters should be spending no more than 30 per cent of their gross income on rent and bills.

So far this year, the CSHO has received 52 inquiries for affordable housing, most of whom, Sine said, were from Cochrane.

The CSHO will soon have 13 new affordable rental units available in the Sunset community for 2015.

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