Stan Siwik pool. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Some pools and ice arenas to open this weekend in Lethbridge with restrictions

Jul 10, 2020 | 12:46 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The City of Lethbridge is set to open a select number of recreational facilities in the days and weeks ahead.

Stage 2 of Alberta’s relaunch allowed pools and ice arenas to operate, but given the short notice that they were being moved up from Stage 3 to Stage 2, officials needed more time to get them ready.

Recreation Services Manager with the City of Lethbridge Jason Freund says they will start with a smaller selection of facilities and expand from there.

“Right now, we basically wanted to cover some geographic areas in the city. We wanted to find out what the attendance will be like in those facilities themselves because we understand that people are interested in coming back to the facilities, but we don’t know at what numbers yet. We wanted to introduce things a little more slowly to make sure we didn’t overshoot.”

Working around COVID-19 restrictions is something that will be new to all staff members, so the public is encouraged to provide feedback after visiting these centres so these protocols can be tweaked as necessary.

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Pools:

The first public pool to open up in Lethbridge will be Stan Siwik on Saturday, July 11.

Sunni Belle, the Assistant G.M. for Recreation Excellence, the company that runs many of the cities pools, says they are taking every precaution necessary to ensure their staff and guests stay safe.

Freund adds that the pool is “probably the safest environment” from a COVID-19 perspective.

“The chlorine levels in the water have been shown, from what I’ve been told, I’m not a scientist, but what we’ve been told, kill the virus very effectively.”

For every pool in the city, you will have to reserve a specific time slot online.

Change rooms will not be available so you will have to come in your swimming gear. Guests will be provided with a bin to store their personal belongings.

When you enter Stan Siwik, you will be assigned a specific zone where you will enter and exit the pool.

Lane swimming will be restricted to just six people at a time, which Belle joked will feel “luxurious”.

Lessons are scheduled to begin on July 21.

Freund says instructors will not be able to touch the learners, so for lessons involving younger children, parents will have to be in the pool to guide them.

Lifeguards will do their best to do rescues with as little physical contact as possible.

“Our training so far has all been contact-less rescues,” says Belle. “They have been trained to lessen the contact with patrons, should they need to do pullouts, so they are trained to ensure that everybody is as safe as possible.”

Following the opening of Stan Siwik, the Westminster Outdoor Public Pool and the YMCA’s pool will relaunch on Saturday, July 18 with Henderson reopening on the 19th.

No food will be allowed inside these facilities and those that normally have concessions will be closed.

The pools at Nicholas Sheran and Fritz Sick will remain closed for the time being.

Ice arenas:

Unfortunately, public skating will not be allowed for now.

“For the most part, we’re only allowed to book organizations right now. Individuals and public skates are not available at this time so it’s just organizations and whatnot,” says Freund. “We tried to basically put the same groups that would normally be in the summer back in there.”

The ice arenas at the ATB Centre will be the first to open on Saturday, July 11.

No spectators are allowed in and the City of Lethbridge has “lots of restrictions” for those who can go on the ice.

Other governing bodies like Hockey Canada, Hockey Alberta, Skate Canada have their own protocols to follow so Freund could not comment on which specific teams or organizations will be hitting the ice right away.

The rinks at Logan Boulet Arena, the Civic Ice Centre, Henderson Ice Centre, Labor Club Ice Centre, and Nicholas Sheran Ice Centre will remain closed for the time being.