Only indoor pool in eastern P.E.I. will soon reopen after months-long dry spell

The TCAP Family Aquatics and Fitness Center will soon be making a splashy comeback after being closed for around eight months. 

The Three Rivers facility is not open to the public quite yet, but the pool has been refilled and the water is being brought up to temperature.

Staff at the centre said eastern P.E.I.'s only indoor pool should be able to open within a week or so.

The news has swimmers like Patty Campbell excited. She's at the pool often, and said swimming has helped both her physical and mental health over the years. 

“When you miss something really deeply, it's really exciting to have it come back,” Campbell said.

The pool closed in May in order to repair a problem with the sand filter. During that time, staff decided to empty and clean the pool in preparation for the new system.

But while doing routine maintenance, a pillar that helps hold up the ceiling was damaged. That meant an engineering firm had to be brought in to assess the damage and determine solutions.

David Miles, one of TCAP's directors, said he is eager to get people back in the water with the repairs now complete.

He said heating the pool’s roughly 700,000 liters of water back up to temperature will take some time. The water has to be around 28 C for it to reopen.

“Can't nail it down, but we'll just wait for the water to do its thing and we'll be ready to go,” Miles said. 

The work on the filtration system had already cost $70,000. Along with the structural repairs, Miles said the total cost is expected to be more than $400,000. 

'People come from all over'

Having no place to swim nearby left a void in the community, said Campbell, who tried some other activities during the pool's closure.

Still, she longed for the day she could dive back into her daily routine.

“It's such an integral part of this fitness community and for our community as a whole, not only locally, but all of Kings County,” Campbell said.

“I'm very excited and I look forward to the day when I can jump in that pool and start swimming up to the other end." 

Steph Aitken, the facility's manager, said she receives calls almost daily asking for updates about when the pool would reopen.

“People come from all over. It's not just the Montague area or even the Three Rivers area," she said.

“I think we're really lucky in a rural area to have something like this. I think if we ever let go of it, we would never get it back."