Laurentian pool users hope for good news at next governors' meeting

A swim club in North Bay is calling for repairs to be made to the Laurentian University pool, ahead of an expected report about its condition.

Mike Blair, the president of the North Bay Y Titans Swim Club, recently wrote an open letter to the school's board of governors, outlining the importance of the pool to his club and similar groups across the region.

The school says it will deliver its next public update on the pool's condition on Feb. 28. Its next board of governors meeting is scheduled for Feb. 16, with some observers saying they expect to learn more about the pool's options at that point.

"It's more than just swim teams that are affected by this. It's the university ... and the regular users," Blair said.

The Jeno Tihanyi Pool has been closed since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Since then, the university has entered, and left, insolvency proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangements Act.

Pool a crucial asset

Blair said his swim club relies on the Laurentian University pool. It is the only Olympic-sized swimming pool in all of northeastern Ontario.

His team has had to travel as far as Ottawa, Toronto and Windsor for pool time since its closure.

Smaller teams with less enrolment, he said, might not have the resources to make those trips and have cancelled their long-course swim seasons as a result.

Dean Henze is the head coach of the Sudbury Laurentian Swim Club. He said besides his own team, university athletes, local swim programs and community members all made use of the Laurentian pool, so its loss has had a wide impact.

Travel costs add up

Henze's team has been using 25-metre-long municipal pools in Sudbury for some of its training in the meantime. Those are half the length of Laurentian's pool.

However, those pools are missing infrastructure like proper starting blocks for races. When the team has to travel to access an Olympic-sized pool, it becomes a costly endeavour.

"It's three nights of hotel, plus meals, plus mileage, all that stuff. And it adds up to, you know, a $1,000 weekend in a heartbeat," Henze said.

He said it has been a privilege to have a full-sized pool in the Sudbury area for many years, and he hopes to see the Laurentian University board of governors carefully consider the next steps.

Although the costs of the various repair options won't be shared publicly until the school reviews them, Henze said he expected the costs to be upwards of $6 million.

"My hope is that they take a good, long look at it, and I think that's what they're doing," said Henze.

Report expected soon

Laurentian University gave the last public update on the pool's condition on Dec. 20. It said its facilities department was still working with consultants to better understand the costs of reopening the pool.

It saidit was expecting a report on the repair options around the new year, which would be analyzed by several levels of leadership, including the board of governors. It promised the next public update by Feb. 28 at the latest.

A spokesperson declined to offer an update before that date.

In its first community update on the pool, from Jan. 31, 2023, it said it was unlikely that the university could cover the costs of the pool's operations on its own.

Henze said he would like the City of Greater Sudbury to consider putting money toward the rehabilitation, since it would be cheaper to support the rebuilding of the school's facility than to builda new one.