Scona pool gets short reprieve

The long-term future of Scona Pool is still unclear after Edmonton City Council voted on Wednesday to spend $120,000 to keep it running until the end of this year.

City council didn't approve any funding beyond December for the pool, which is attached to Strathcona High School in the city's south end.

That decision makes it difficult to plan according to Kirby Feng, the volunteer swim coach for the Scona team.

"I'd say the whole situation is kind of disappointing, because you can't run a club on three months time so then the question is do they go to Scona and hope that they have a team pool to swim in in January?" Feng said Wednesday.

The proposal before city council was to put money into the pool to keep it operating through 2010.

Rather than commit to that now, councillors put off any decision until budget discussions get underway later this year. In the meantime, a detailed assessment of the building which houses the pool, will be done.

With such a short commitment to the pool, it'll be difficult to gain support to keep the pool open long-term, Feng said.

"Unfortunately, the one thing that we really needed was a chance to run the pool . Now if I say we are going to hire you for a year but in three months time we may fire you, are you going to take that job or are you not ...? Without that, realistically it puts the whole thing back in jeopardy," he said.

The proposal to close the pool was brought to city council in April as part of a plan to make up a $35-million shortfall in city revenue.