When swimming pools and arenas do eventually re-open across Chatham-Kent, several of them will feature some noticeable improvements.
A series of reports approved at Chatham-Kent council Monday night detailed dozens of maintenance projects and upgrades at local recreational facilities.
The total cost of the approved work at local arenas, pools, and parks comes in at a combined $1.93 million with all of that money coming from existing lifecycle reserves.
When it comes to local arenas, the approved projects (totalling about $843,000 in cost) range from the installation of two Big Ass Fans at the Blenheim Arena for better air circulation to new dressing room benches and rubber flooring at the Ken Houston Memorial Arena in Dresden.
There will also be some new paint in the hallway and dressing rooms at the Bothwell Arena and a new deep fryer for the canteen at the arena in Wheatley.
Several of Chatham-Kent's arenas will also receive some new LED lights to improve their energy efficiency and all of the arenas will have their defibrillator batteries and pads replaced.
You can find a list of the approved arena projects by clicking here: 2020 Arena Capital Asset Lifecycle Projects.
Some much-needed renovations are also expected to wrap up soon on the washrooms at Memorial Arena in Chatham. Chatham-Kent's Director of Parks, Recreation and Cemeteries, Jeff Bray, said that project was approved in 2019 and he's hoping it will be completed by September.
Another big chunk of the spending is going towards parks across Chatham-Kent. The approved parks-related projects make up about $806,000 of the previously mentioned $1.93 million total.
Once again, there is a wide range of work to be done, most of which Bray described as "long overdue operational or repair items."
You can find the full list of parks projects by clicking here: 2020 Parks Asset Lifecycle Projects.
One of the more notable projects, however, is the installation of a floating dock at the Government Dock in Tilbury (on Jeannette's Creek Road). Bray said the existing dock at Jeannette's Creek doesn't float with the river levels, so a new floating dock will help to address accessibility needs -- enabling people to launch their boat and access it safely from the side.
There will also be some masonry work done at the grandstand in Chatham's Rotary Park (Fergie Jenkins Field) because it was experiencing several water infiltration issues. Bray said the COVID-19 shut down ended up helping out with the project because it isn't being used by the public right now.
The shutdown at local pools in Chatham-Kent has also sped up the completion of some work in Wallaceburg and Blenheim.
Bray said the indoor pools are "typically only closed for a month and some of the larger projects can take longer than that -- especially when the pool needs to be drained."
Bray said as a result of the extended closures, staff have been able to complete pool retiling at the Sydenham Pool (which was approved in 2019) along with some interior roof deck repairs. At the Gable Rees Rotary Pool in Blenheim, roof repairs approved in 2019 have also been completed.
There are several maintenance-related projects set to take place at outdoor pools in Dresden, Thamesville, and Tilbury and you can find those here: 2020 Outdoor Pool Lifecycle Projects.