The ice rink and swimming pool at Adie Knox Herman Recreation Complex will be staying put, despite recommendations from consultants.
On Monday night, the proposed new 20-year recreation master plan was presented to Windsor council.
To the dismay of several councillors and residents, the plan included a recommendation to improve or reconfigure Adie Knox Arena, located at 1551 Wyandotte St. W, into a community-hub. This vision would have involved removing the pool and the ice from the arena to make it a dry-floor venue that would be available year-round.
The plan also recommended that any aquatic programming at Adie Knox be transferred to the Windsor International Aquatic Centre and the Gino and Liz Marcus Community complex.
At the start of the meeting, council heard from Ward 2 resident Caroline Taylor, who pleaded with councillors to rethink the closure of the ice and pool at Adie Knox, calling the facility a vital resource for those in the neighbourhood.
"Adie Knox is located in a high-density area with children making up a huge demographic. These children, according to Stats Canada, are some of the poorest in the country," she said. "The recommendation from the consultants to transfer swimming services from Adie Knox to Gino Marcus in Ford City or the Aquatic Centre downtown is not fair to Windsor's most vulnerable vicinity. The people in these west end neighbourhoods depend on these services."
Councillor Fabio Costante was an advocate for keeping the pool and ice at Adie Knox, saying that the impact the closure would have on the community was not being considered.
"There's a good business case why we should close certain facilities," said Costante. "But, when we look at it in the context of the neighbourhoods that these facilities are in, we have to give more weight to that. I didn't see any of that in the report...For me, this is about more than a pool and an ice pad. This is about how we decide to build our cities."
After lengthy deliberation, council voted in favour of a motion presented by Costante, to approve all the recommendations made in the recreation master plan, except those that deal with making any changes to Adie Knox.
The entire master plan draft can be read in its entirety on the city’s official website.
-With files from Mark Brown