We live on a latitude that breeds 40-below Januaries — Fahrenheit or Celsius, take your pick. But when the Earth tilts on its axis sufficiently to allow the sun to explore the north as well as the south sides of our buildings, Edmontonians know how to revel in its long, warm rays. Our summers may be short, but the days are long, and a favourite place to pass those lazy days is at one of our outdoor pools.
Penny-pinchers claim indoor pools are more practical and economical than outdoor ones. After all, you can enjoy them year-round, including days when storm clouds gather or a mercury drop makes a dip in al fresco waters more bracing than refreshing. Besides, Edmonton’s five outdoor pools— well, three, this summer, but more on that later — are so decrepit (one of the newest, Mill Creek, built in 1955, can audition as a bona fide period set for a Funicello-and-Avalon remake) that they’re hardly worth having. Or are they?
Ask the families who sign up for early-morning swim lessons, or teens turned away on sizzling days when Mill Creek fills to capacity. Talk to school kids who flop home properly wrung out after a jam-packed day of splashing, diving, hollering and soaking up Vitamin D. Speak with homeowners and merchants who prefer city youth to exercise and socialize rather than idly hang out. Or with singles who live in apartments without backyards.
What’s not to like? To plunge into an open-air pool under our high prairie sky is a dip into the senses. For only there can you experience the scent of sun-warmed chlorine that simmers gently on the water’s surface. It blends effortlessly with the aroma of sunscreen or — for invincible teens who think skin cancer as impossible as unplanned pregnancy and breathalyzer tests — the heady, coconut perfume of suntan lotion.
The deck snacks make it a party, with frozen treats, potato chips and the inevitable orange slices that some nutrition-conscious mother manages to bring or send along. Youngsters swarm like swallows, blue-lipped and shivering, and by the time they’ve hoovered it all down, they’re ready to fling off their towels and dive in again. Fortunately, the rule about waiting an hour after eating has been exposed as myth; but the unrelenting rumour of a dye in the water that’s activated if you pee in the pool should be encouraged whenever possible.
But the current style of outdoor pool is on the way out in Edmonton. “Stand-alone pools, from the research that we did and from the community consultation we did, are not a feature that is going to meet the community’s needs,” says Rob Smyth, branch manager of recreation facilities services for the city. “It’s really about the other kinds of features.”
The city’s Outdoor Aquatic Strategy, 2008-2017, offers small spray decks with single water features, larger spray parks with multiple water features, water curtains, water walls, decorative fountains and swimming lakes with beaches as possibilities. The city hopes to develop public/private or public/non-profit partnerships to create two swimming lakes or water parks in the rapidly expanding north and south ends of Edmonton. “The challenge is servicing the growth areas of the city,” says Smyth.
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