Higher costs have Scotia Pool asking county for more money

BIBLE HILL - As she watched her children splash around in Scotia Pool yesterday Angela Stevens couldn't imagine a better afternoon for them.
Her children, Benjamin, 5, and Ava, 4, screamed, jumped, laughed and carried on as they played with friend Katerina Berry, 4, and their instructor Kathryne Taylor.
The family comes to the pool regularly, said Stevens, both for lessons and as a social event with friends.
"It's great, it's very clean and the staff is excellent," she said.
But what might look like a prosperous community facility on the inside takes on a different light when looking at the pool's account books.
In order for the pool to break even for the coming year the management team needs to find an additional $87,000.
"There are always challenges when running a swimming pool. It's a very expensive facility to maintain and to run," said Marg Rovers, chairwoman of the management team. "You're trying to keep it very warm inside when the weather is very cold outside."
Higher than expected costs for essentials such as heating, electricity and staffing are taking big bites out of the pool's bottom line.
Last year it cost $85,620 to heat the building with oil, $21,000 for electricity and minimum wage increased to $8.10 an hour.
This year's costs are expected to be even higher.
In a bid to save the pool from sinking, its guardians have appealed to Colchester County to increase the amount allotted by the municipality for the pool in the upcoming budget.
"The county as been very good to us in the past, they've been very supportive," said Rovers, who along with fellow board member Al Hanlon made the appeal during the last county committee meeting.
The municipality currently allots $100,000 yearly to the pool and the steering committee is asking they increase that figure to $187,000.
For the moment, the pool is just looking to keep its head above water in terms of paying its operating costs. The building itself, located in the AgriTECH Park in Bible Hill, is in good condition.
The prospect of a new civic centre, with a pool, opening within a few years also has the Scotia Pool's handlers hesitant about doing any improvements to the building that might make it more energy efficient.
It's also unclear at this point what would happen to the Bible Hill pool if the request was turned down. The management team would have to re-examine the situation.
But Rovers has one prediction if the money doesn't come from somewhere, whether that's the county or not.
"Probably we couldn't continue to operate without further funding. We made that clear at our presentation," she said.
Stevens, for one, can't stomach the thought of losing Scotia Pool, at least for the next few years.
"That would be terrible," she said, "that can't be allowed."