It finally happened! Many of the outdoor swimming pools of the southeast are now open to the public. Even though it might have felt like forever, most of the pools were just a bit behind their regular schedule.
The Mercury reached out to the Lampman, Midale and Bienfait outdoor swimming pools to find out what people can expect from the 2020 summer swimming season.
Lampman recreation director Brittany Sutherland said that their outdoor pool has been open since July 3 and everything was going well.
“We didn’t have any large issues mechanically when we opened, so that’s always a nice start to the season,” said Sutherland.
She praised the maintenance man for doing an “incredible job getting the pool up and running in the little time” they were given by the government. While the Lampman outdoor pool usually tries to be open at the beginning of June, the last few years they were often doing some larger renovations which delayed their opening until July.
“So this year compared to the renovation years is similar, but typically, though, we try to be open for June, July and August,” said Sutherland.
Implementation of all the regulations required by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge.
“It’s been a learning curve, but working with public health, having close relationships with them has allowed us to have a smoother transition,” said Sutherland.
“Our staff and our community members have definitely been as good as can be expected.”
Explaining the importance of physical distancing to kids turned out to be one of the biggest challenges the pool staff has faced this summer. The Lampman pool has a designated lifeguard on deck who watches the distancing and reminds the kids to keep within their individual household groups.
The pool has also implemented an enhanced cleaning schedule. The public is asked to come and leave the pool in their swimwear and is also encouraged to try to avoid using cash for payments.
“We are just doing our best to implement the guidelines that were laid out for us through the government of Saskatchewan.”
So far, for the most part, people have been adapting to the new rules pretty well. Sutherland noted that people were so excited to have something open, that they were doing their best to follow the rules.
Children 12 and over can come to the Lampman pool on their own, but younger kids have to be accompanied by an older supervisor, which is not always that easy to accomplish as many parents are now back to work.
The pool keeps as busy as they usually were, but they can’t have more than 30 swimmers at a time.
“We have recommended that people call ahead, especially if they are travelling to the pool, to see where we are at,” said Sutherland, adding that so far, they didn’t have to turn anyone away.
Whenever they get close to capacity, they start a waiting list and once someone leaves, they contact people from the list to invite them to come over. The pool is open seven days a week. For a full schedule, check the Lampman Recreation Facebook page.
The Midale outdoor swimming pool recently went through major renovations as well and they were opening later the last couple of years. This season they were hoping to open in June, but due to COVID-19 the date was pushed back to July 13 and the schedule had to be changed.
Errin Goettling, who is the pool manager and volunteer, said everything they are doing this season will be on a booking basis by the hour.
“Whether you are booking for swimming lessons, or whether you are booking just to come for a nice refreshing dip, it will be by the hour, so no social groups cross each other,” explained Goettling.
People can book by extended household groups and come for a swim along with the people who are already in their so-called bubble. With such an approach, there will be no distancing while people are at the pool, which can accommodate up to 30 people. The lifeguard will be the only person who doesn’t belong to that group so the distance will be maintained.
The first few weeks were almost booked up before the pool even opened.
“We’ve had a really good response. By far the majority of it right now is swimming lessons,” said Goettling.
The Midale pool has three different ways people can do swimming lessons: private, semi-private and extended household units. It was advised that this year swimming instructors can’t go in the water and will be teaching from on deck. Any students from level 4 and under must have a parent or a guardian age 12 and over in the water with them.
“The instructor will be instructing the parent as to how to work with the child to go over those new techniques that they’ll be learning,” explained Goettling.
There were a few spots on the weekends still available for booking. The pool is open seven days a week from 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
The Bienfait outdoor pool opened its doors to the public on July 6, which was just a few days later than their planned opening date, and will be operating until the end of August.
Pool co-manager Christopher Sutter said that so far they are a little less busy than normal, but it’s still “fairly usual.”
The Bienfait pool offers swimming lessons, in which children that are level 4 and under also have to have parents or older guardians in the pool with them. And public swimming is limited to 30 people in the pool at the same time.
“No one needs to phone in to book time. You should just come to the pool, but on our Facebook page, it will say whether or not we are full. And if we are at capacity, then we can’t accept any more people into the pool,” said Sutter.
The Bienfait pool has also implemented all other SHA recommendations, and the public has been pretty receptive of the new style of recreation activities.
“Everyone seems to understand why there are rules,” said Sutter.
The pool is open seven days a week. The full schedule can be found at the Bienfait Swimming Pool Facebook page.
