City recreation managers again recommend permanent closure of Norwood pool

City of Winnipeg recreation managers chose the coldest week of the year to once again recommend the closure of an outdoor swimming pool in St. Boniface.

A new report to council's protection, community services and parks committee recommends the Norwood outdoor pool be decommissioned and demolished this summer at a cost of $150,000.

City recreation managers initially made this recommendation in September, but Norwood residents persuaded St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard to request city staff reconsider the idea. That occurred six weeks before an election that returned Allard to council for a second term.

• This will be Norwood Pool's last summer, councillor says
• Residents say 56-year-old Norwood Pool 'a gathering place' that should be fixed, not scrapped
• Winnipeg plans to close Norwood pool due to groundwater seepage

In the new report, city asset manager Ken McKimwrites groundwater-seepage issues have made it too expensive to continue to maintain the pool.

It would costthe the city $30,000 to $50,000 a year to continue to maintain the amenity, $650,000 to install wells nearbyto drain water away from the pool, and $1.4 million to $2 million to build a pool within the existing pool, McKim writes.

A new pool on the same site would cost $4 million to $6 million, he writes.

In place of the pool, the city may consider new park amenities at the site such as a"spray pad, junior playground replacement, picnic area with shade structure," McKim writes.