Pools without walls.. hmmm

Quick shout out to Kathy Marshall for the lovely invite to join her at the new Aldergrove Credit Union Community Centre for a swim.

When I first heard about the "pool without walls" issue I thought everyone was crazy for being up in arms about it. Then I sat through a Council meeting and I thought Staff and Council were crazy - lol! The Citizens did not want a pool without walls, they were promised walls and they were willing to wait - easy, wait until we had enough money and build a pool with walls right? Nope, Staff, Mayor and the Majority of Council knew better - we are going to build you a pool you don't want!! So there :P

So the next step for me was that I heard there was a water park, and it wasn't just a little water park. So after dropping our eldest off at a friend's in Aldergrove I did a little recognizance and did a drive-by. Whoa, what was this garish, carnival type playground structure?!? This was no water park that we'd seen locally before, this was like Great Wolf Lodge or Cultus Lake Water Park but circus-style?!? I began to wonder about the impact on the neighbours.. hmm

Then the magical day came - it opened. I heard all about it on Facebook - great addition to the Community if you could get a parking spot, but then you had a challenge getting in. Once you were in you only had a limited stay - poor kids. Rumours that the majority of the patrons were from out of town chasing a cheap day trip with their kids, displacing us "Langley-ites". I watched, I tried to be excited for Aldergrove, after all they had waited so long for "something" - our little bedroom Community that feels ignored and undervalued as a part of the Township.

But something in me just could not "celebrate". I felt the water park should have been more "natural" looking, something that wouldn't look dated so quickly and didn't stick out like a sore thumb. I wondered how the neighbours felt staring out their windows at the bright colours that remind me of a pack of crayons. So I didn't celebrate and mostly kept very quiet reading the good, the bad and the ugly.

I decided in July that I wasn't happy with my options for Council in October as they were presenting themselves and stepped up to the plate to run myself. Then last week as the electioneering was gearing up I was invited to go swimming by Kathy - I could not ignore the elephant in the room anymore.

It was a nice night - we lucked out it was about 15 degrees Celsius with a light wind from the West and mostly clear skies. Honestly to date I had avoided this place like the plague and now here I was going swimming with who knew who?

Kathy had invited all the Candidates running but only Kim Richter and myself showed up (the Mayor's Gala was on the same night and most of the Candidates had tickets). So Kim and I and our husbands drove over the Aldergrove and joined Kathy for a swim.

Parking was good, the lot was nice and clean and well laid out. We paid for our pass which would have allowed us to skate, swim and workout in the gym all for the same price (who knew?). We proceed to the change rooms but got lost as there are change rooms for the skating and then a second set for the pool (we were tired). Barry and I went to the Family Change Room. They were clean and nice and big. I noticed the floors were quite slippery and there are no rails on the walls, which worried me for the older peeps.

I went outside (I was the first out) and went directly to the hot tub - which was only warm. Then I left Barry there and proceed to the gradual entry pool which was colder but not too bad. This was a nice medium sized pool with a very shallow end and the "deep" end was only up to my chest (I"m 5'6"). Then I braved the big pool where you find rope swing from the rafters, lap lanes and diving boards. It was colder again but still ok for me. However this pool had no gradual entry and the only way in and out were the ladders.

I moved back to the medium pool for a few minutes and then into the hot tub which then felt warmer after the larger pools, to visit with my fellow occupants. Many young families were using the pool that night and they all said they enjoyed it immensely but did complain that the hot tub was not as warm as usual.

We had planned to go out dancing that night so we had to get going. We went back to the Family Change Rooms and had a shower and got dressed. The shower was barely body temperature and after having been in the "warm" tub we got a chill - so we both had a very quick shower and got dressed. A couple complaints about the change rooms - not enough hooks to hang things (only one) and no separation of the shower from the changing area (the shower was splashing our dry stuff).

I looked at the communal family showers - they had no hooks for towels there - they need some.

So while the experience was not perfect - a late September swim was enjoyable and most of the people we met who were using the facility were very happy. We agreed to meet Kathy again in December or January to see if things were still so much fun outside without walls with hot chocolate and bath robes!

~ Michelle Connerty

#buildabetterlangley

p.s. We checked out the ice rink and the gym - very nicely outfitted and you can even watch Netflix or surf Facebook while you're on most of the cardio machines, who knew?!?

p.s.s. One good thing I forgot to add - we never smelled chlorine and our skin didn't feel all "bleached" and dried out afterwards. A nice change from most public pools and now I'm curious what the difference is?