The bulk of the March 29 Council meeting was used to address a proposal for the YMCA to take over the implementation of programming at Kemptville’s outdoor public swimming pool. The positive benefits of such a partnership were presented to Council, and it was also pointed out that such a relationship would be reviewed annually to ensure that it is still in the Municipality’s best interest.
Discussion took place at the meeting regarding the responsibilities of the YMCA and the continued responsibilities of the Municipality should the agreement proceed. The finances involved in running the pool every year were also discussed. One of the main benefits put forward is that having the YMCA as a partner will help solve the problem of staffing shortages for the pool, which has caused difficulty in previous years. The YMCA has experience in staffing across many different programs, and many locations, year round.
Local resident Sarah Godwin addressed Council after the presentation, speaking against the idea of contracting the running of the pool to the YMCA. One of her concerns was that there has been a lack of transparency about the potential agreement, particularly because she had to find out about it from emails that her children received, as workers at the pool in the summer. Sarah feels that not enough details of the logistics involved have been explored.
Deputy Mayor Barclay and Councillor Strackerjan provided some reassurance to her, noting that there will be a focus on putting “no fail” items in writing in the coming weeks to ensure that the logistics of the proposed agreement are better fleshed out.
No decisions were made at the March 29 meeting regarding the potential agreement with YMCA, with more discussions planned.
