Editor:
Re: Temporary cover at Burnaby pool “a complete embarrassment”: mayor
As a swimmer at North Burnaby's Eileen Dailly pool, I'm frustrated by poor scheduling decisions that have closed every lane of the pool for public lengths daily from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Due to this new scheduling, length swimmers with young children who rely on Eileen Dailly’s childminding service have effectively been shut out of the pool. Childminding is only available three mornings a week, and now that the lanes are closed in the middle of these hours, there's not enough time during childminding for many parents to swim.
The disruption started recently to accommodate extra aquafit classes, in part to support the overflow demand from C.G. Brown Memorial Pool. Aquafit is popular and it's important to have this programming; however, it comes at the daily expense of all length swimmers and especially parents.
Patrons have suggested keeping one lane open during the aquafit class, which would still leave four full lengths for aquafit to continue as scheduled, a common solution at other pools. This idea was rejected.
Administrators instead proposed a temporary half-lane, spanning part of the width of the pool at ⅔ the normal length distance. This idea ironically mimics the temporary-half-roof debacle at Kensington pool that was recently admonished by Mayor Hurley.
Is Eileen Dailly purposefully using this scheduling conflict to make childminding less accessible, as an excuse to shut the service down entirely? The childminding hours at Eileen Dailly are already offered at 75% of what they were before 2020, about half of what is offered at Bonsor and Edmonds.
As an avid swimmer and mother, as well as long-time Eileen Dailly patron who has sent three kids to their excellent childminding program over the past 6 years, and enjoyed many hours of swimming lengths until now, I am frustrated and disheartened by this disruption and subsequent refusal to find a reasonable compromise.
Sarah Radziminski
