Goulbourn rec complex pool back in business

The swimming pool at the Goulbourn Recreation Complex will reopen Saturday, nearly two years after it was closed and underwent a multimillion-dollar overhaul.

The pool at the Stittsville complex has been closed since the fall of 2013, when workers found mould in the ceiling during scheduled repairs.

Other problems later emerged, including mould in the walls and significant rust on structural steel in the walls and ceiling. The repairs cost $4 million. On Saturday afternoon from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., the City of Ottawa will celebrate the pool’s reopening with carnival games, an aquatic-themed photo booth, live martial arts demonstrations and workshops, clowns, balloons, face painting, a group Wii tournament and snacks like cotton candy and snow cones.

The complex will also hold free swim times from 1 to 2:30 p.m. and 3 to 4:30 p.m., and an open skate from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Notable appearances at the reopening party will include Mayor Jim Watson and Stittsville city councillor Shad Qadri, along with Buckles, the Red Cross mascot, there to promote water safety.

The Stittsville facility has been beset by problems despite being only 15 years old.

The pool building needed a whole new steel structure to solve the rust problem, which meant demolishing the building ’s outer walls, along with other repairs to the building ’s foundation, doors and frames and roofing.

It also needed a new air distribution system.

Before then, problems with the pool’s outside wall discovered in 2004 resulted in legal action by the city and additional work from the contractor.

Watson and city councillors said last June, back when the funding for repairs was facing council approval, that it was surprising to see such work needed for a young building, and that it was likely rushed work that resulted in the building ’s structural problems.