Mount Pleasant Community Pool still a heated issue amongst residents

This past Thursday, Oct. 16th, the Mount Pleasant Community Centre held its all-candidates meeting for the Parks board before the November 15 municipal election.

Mt Pleasant area residents are already deeply concerned about the loss of their community swimming pool and child-care space at the current centre which is being phased out. The new Centre at 1 Kingsway is not what the community asked for but the Parks board went ahead with plans to build this new space.

Speaker after speaker at the Mt Pleasant meeting stated they preferred child-care and the pool to remain exactly where they are now and this is a simple request. In fact, long-time Mount Pleasant resident, Gavin Ross expressed his desire to have discussions re-opened regarding the Mount Pleasant child-care and the children's pool. All parks board candidates in attendance when asked whether we would support this, stated yes.

There were no incumbent NPA Parks Commissioners in attendance at the meeting to address their decision making and residents concerns.

The three NPA candidates, Laura McDiarmid, Christopher Richardson and Sharon Urton tried their best to answer residents concerns but unfortunately, the audience was not supportive and it became very difficult for the NPA candidates to defend their colleagues who embarked on what turned out to be un-neighbourly decision making.

Community centre renewal is a hot-button issue this election. Initially the Trout Lake Community Centre renewal was left off the 2009-2011 draft capital plan, but after several meetings and much protest from community groups, it was put back on the list of approved major projects. Money earmarked for the Mount Pleasant Community Centre was also taken off the capital plan, but despite similar protests there's no sign the parks board or city will relent.

Long-time commissioner Allan De Genova, who sat on the board for almost 16 years and is not running in this election but his daughter Melissa De Genova is, stated, "If it gets approved, the capital budget for the next three years will be $70 million. At the end of the day you have to be fiscally responsible."

With the recent economic downturn, De Genova predicted more residents will turn to affordable community centres for their recreation, putting a strain on aging facilities. Fewer people will golf, which leads to less revenue for the board, and fewer people will eat out at parks board-operated concessions.

Demolished outdoor pools include Sunset, Hastings and Marpole and soon Mount Pleasant.

Scheduled upcoming all-candidate parks board meetings take place on Nov. 2 at Roundhouse, Nov. 3 at Killarney and Nov. 4 at Kerrisdale. Kitsilano, Marpole and Dunbar community centres are also taking part in the Kerrisdale meeting.

Taken from:
Vancouver Courier
and
Jamie Lee Hamilton