Build A Leisure Pool

I am worried about the perception that having a 50m pool will make us a bigger, better city. 50m pools are proven to be a drain on resources, so let's really examine why we want one.

At double the operating costs, a 50m pool will give us the opportunity to host a provincial or even national level swim meet. This would happen maybe once every 5 years at the most (as a competitive swimmer myself, I know that major competitions rarely take place in the same city within a 5-year span). Is this worth the extra $425,000+/year for the rest of our lives?

Or would it be a better investment in our city, and really put us on the map, if we build an even bigger, better leisure pool? The attention and clout our city would receive on an ongoing basis by creating a skookum leisure pool with all the bells and whistles will bring much more $$ in tourism than having a swim meet.

With childhood obesity already causing early onset diabetes and children facing heart disease at age 14, we need to get our kids active. How many kids will be excited about swimming laps in a 50 m pool versus the amount of kids that would play in a gigantic leisure pool full of fun features?

I urge our Council to really examine the question "Why a 50m pool?" ask other communities who already have the same concept being proposed here: if they were to do it again, would they go with a 50m pool, or invest more in the leisure component? Just ask, and see what they say. Make Kelowna the larger city by not making the same mistake as all these other communities.

I am not willing to pay for another boring rectangular pool in this city that will cater to the small percentage of people who are swimmers. Not everyone likes to swim laps, but everyone likes to have fun.

-K.S.