CANORA - Staff at Canora Aquatic Park are looking forward to another busy year with the upcoming opening of the swimming pool.
“After a very successful grand opening in 2023, the park looks to build on that success by continuing to learn how to operate a much busier facility,” said Aaron Herriges, director of leisure services. “Personally, I thought we were going to experience a larger learning curve than we did. Being a big part of planning the layout and using the experience from the previous pool has eliminated all post-construction planning regrets.”
Herriges said a big part of the successful transition was having good staff leadership and experience “to help ease the operation transition from a $30,000 revenue pool to a $100,000 revenue pool. “
The added revenue from having over 8,000 people visit the new facility last year brings extra benefits.
“This means we are able to provide more jobs and more hours for our young employees. This also means we are bringing many new people into our community that can take the opportunity to explore our business district while they are here. It’s nice seeing our town busy.”
The new centre still ends up being much more cost effective than the previous pool, according to Herriges.
“We provide a better service to the community. And I’m confident as time goes we’ll be able to find ways to reduce our operating expenses even more.”
Breanne Woloshyn is returning to CAP as the facility manager. Experienced lifeguard Zoe Thomas is also returning in the assistant manager role. A total of 18 other lifeguards round out the rest of the staff.
“There’s a good blend of experience and youth in the staff once again,” Herriges said.
Inquiries for schools booking year-end trips are steadily coming in, according to the staff.
Woloshyn said the staff learned a lot from the first year at the new facility, and are putting that experience to good use as the 2024 season gets underway.
“The 2023 season was very busy, usually hitting over 100 people daily which is about five times more than our previous years.”
Swimming programs for 2024 began on May 15.
“This year we are offering Aquafit, Lane Swim, Swim Patrol and Swim for Life,” Woloshyn said. “Aquafit and Lane Swim will be on Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well as Saturday and Sunday mornings. The public can check out the Town of Canora website for up-to-date information on our programs or call the Canora Aquatic Park at (306) 563-6447. Our swimming lesson registration is online once again as last year was the first year we implemented it, and it went smoothly. The swimming lesson registration website can also be found at the Town of Canora page.
“Our staff is super excited to be opening for another season,” added Woloshyn. “After a hit season last year, we believe this season is going to be even better.”
Herriges said work will continue at the park during the summer, “to round out some of the small projects that never got completed last year. One example is extra parking lot space planned for the north side of the facility. This will be our main focus along with some other smaller projects.”
Opening day of public swimming is expected to be a bit earlier than in previous years.
“If the chemistry all checks out and the inspections happen on time, we should be open for the last week in May. Wait for the official announcement,” concluded Herriges.
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