An effort to replace Canadian’s 45-year-old swimming pool is gaining traction this summer from a coalition of elected officials who believe that a new facility, designed to be used year-round, could benefit the entire community in a variety of ways.

The existing municipal swimming pool was built in 1978. Its construction was funded by $300,000 in voter-approved bonds. Its estimated replacement cost today is a whopping $3-5 million.

The outdated pool is becoming increasingly difficult and costly to maintain, and has for years been a topic of discussion when the city council begins its annual budget planning. While there is general agreement that the recreational facility is an asset to Canadian’s quality of life, the estimated price tag has been tough for council members to swallow, given that the pool now operates at a significant loss each year.

“The older it gets, the more maintenance it requires,” said City Manager Joe Jarosek.

Jarosek said the city spends about $70,000 annually on the swimming pool. Of that, $30,000 is for payroll, and $40,000 goes to chemicals, maintenance and repairs, which recently have included replacing a portion of the boiler, and essentially everything involved with providing sanitary water—including rebuilding the filtration system, replacing the chlorine injection and filtration systems, as well as pumps, valves and piping.

“Some time back, our civil engineer recommended we do a structural analysis of the pool,” Jarosek said. “An analysis would tell us whether we can rehab the pool…or build a new one.”

Now, he said, if the city goes through with the proposal to build a new pool, it will save that expense—and any others incurred as a result of the findings. “If we don’t, though,” Jarosek added, “we will have to do [the analysis] whether we want to or not.”

Other problems loom. The pool is not in compliance with ADA regulations, the concrete surface requires repainting every year to mitigate rough edges and other hazards, and the slide is no longer safe and cannot be used—all issues that would require significant expenditures to resolve.

“It is simply an old facility,” Jarosek said, adding that newer pools are designed to avoid many of these problems, and to operate far more efficiently.

Canadian Community Center Director Ike Julian hopes that the construction of a new swimming pool might become a community-wide project. He has spent the last two years researching aquatic design, touring swimming pool facilities in other rural communities, and participating in Texas Parks and Wildlife grant workshops that could help identify possible funding sources. 

Original plans for the community center—which was opened in 1985 as the Canadian Area Family YMCA—included space for a swimming pool in the back of the parking lot. That concept was revived more recently when planning was underway for the CCC lobby renovation.

In doing his research, Julian became particularly interested in the possibility of incorporating an indoor pool in any future plans, which would allow the facility to be used year-round and to offer a variety of services to a broader sector of the community.

“This would afford us the opportunity to have inclusion among all of the entities and from the public itself,” Jarosek said, adding that the pool could benefit the hospital’s physical therapy program, as well as the school’s physical education and athletic rehabilitation.

Renovating the CCC’s existing dressing rooms and showers for use by swimmers, and staffing the pool year-round with CCC employees, would lower operational expenses.

A survey of the county’s elected public officials registered general interest in a collaborative effort, but it was only when he approached Mayor Terrill Bartlett this spring that Julian found the response he was hoping for.

“The mayor was really gung ho about it,” he said. “He was just like, ‘We’ve got to get going.’"

Since then, the aquatic study has gained the support of Hemphill County Commissioners, the Canadian ISD Board of Trustees, the Hemphill County Hospital District Board of Directors, and Canadian’s City Council. In June, the Canadian/Hemphill County Economic Development Council unanimously approved the expenditure of $29,950 in funds for the study, which will be performed by Counsilman-Hunsaker, the leading aquatic planning and design firm in the country.

The study is expected to begin in mid-September following a later summer kickoff, in which the local steering committee will discuss the project overview and their goals and vision, tour the community center, discuss various aquatic user groups, and review examples of other facilities. Meetings with various stakeholder groups will be conducted, followed by a community open house.

In phase 1, Counsilman-Hunsaker will develop a needs analysis summary and concept review, and present preliminary cost estimates and expense analyses. In the second phase, the firm will present an updated concept based on its first review meetings and input received, and will present operational analysis updates and revised capital cost estimates.

The study should be completed and the final presentation made by the end of the year.