With Westsyde Pool staying open this year, the President of the Westsyde Community Development Association is hoping residents won’t have to keep fighting for their pool in the future.

Diane Kuchma says while the Canada Games Pool is bigger, they want the city to help make Westsyde Pool a more vibrant place.

“Make it not just a Westsyde Pool but a North Shore pool. I mean if people come from all over the city to go to TCC, how come they wouldn’t come to Westsyde? If we provide vibrant programming to attract people from all over the place, and have it advertised. Its a pretty cool place.”

Kuchma says Kamloops is growing and notes the Westsyde Pool could take pressure off the Tournament Capital Centre.

“I think of the days when my son and every kid of the street would have a towel under their arm going to Wacky Wednesday to do jello tossing and just you know, those are the kinds of things that would bring more people,” she said. “Its pretty hard in COVID, but for the future. That’s what we’d like to see happen.”

Westsyde pool closed in February for about six weeks of renovations, but the reopening was delayed to September because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were plans to shut the facility down once the TCC reopened to try and save money in the 2021 budget because of COVID-19 impacts.

Kuchman says they’re open to suggestions from the city to keep costs down while ensuring the pool stays open.

“The city is growing and we have many more young children and seniors that love to exercise in a pool because its low impact. And so I think that we can work together and yes, in the summer, if they close down our pool for a couple of months as they usually do because they outdoor pool is open, good. We’ll support the outdoor pool. That just makes sense.”

The city’s largest pool has reopened for swimming lessons and for competitive swim clubs to use after a six month, $13.5 million renovation. The facility is expected to fully reopen on Jan. 15.