Outdoor pools in Cornwall to bring back pre-pandemic hours, events

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With a few warm days already in the books this spring, some may be forgetting their bathing suits and are ready to take a dip in one of Cornwall’s outdoor pools.

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Cornwall Recreation Manager Lori Gibeault said the city aims to see at least some of the five outdoor pools open. — Swimming pool St. Francis, Terry Fox Pool, St. Joseph, Reg Campbell Pool and Mattice Pool — open since Weekend June 22-23, weather permitting. The splash pads are also scheduled to run through the long weekend of Victory Day, which will be May 18-20.

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Open until August 23, Cornwall’s outdoor pools will offer public swimming, swimming lessons, aqua fitness and possibly senior swimming sessions. Special events return this year, including speed swimming, ssynchronized swimming and diving.

“It’s been a few years now,” Gibeault said of the special events coming back. “We didn’t really have them during COVID and just operationally, sometimes we didn’t have enough staff to be able to provide those services. But we’re well staffed this year, so we’re very grateful for that, and we’re going back to more of our pre-Covid classes (and events) than before.”

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Hours will vary by each pool, Gibeault said, as some programs will be moved from the Aquatic Center to the outdoor pools in July while the facility undergoes a sprinkler system replacement.

New concrete walls and new plumbing improvements are expected to be completed at Mattice Pool by July 2nd. The pool is one of three with a heater, along with St. Francis and St. Joseph, which is a draw for many people, according to Gibeault. .

“Mattice is on schedule,” she said. “Having said that, it always depends on the weather too.”

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Rehabilitation work by Grant-Marion Construction Ltd. of Cornwall at a total bid price of $1,341,870 will extend the life of the pool by approximately 20 years. The city has budgeted $525,000 for the project in the 2023 budget; the entire amount will be financed over a period of 10 years.

The city budgeted $130,000 in the 2024 budget for an engineering firm to provide bid documents for proposed repairs scheduled to take place in 2025 at the Reg Campbell Pool, which are estimated to cost $1,300,000. The pool will also require new concrete and pool basin plumbing.

“We’ll probably go out to bid later this year, but implementation of the project won’t happen until next year, probably in the fall,” Gibeault said.

The longer term plan was to redo the pool decks at all the outdoor pools, aiming to do one for the start of each season until completion.

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