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Dartmouth Crusaders swim club looking for home during Sportsplex upgrades

The Dartmouth Crusaders are searching for other pools to use after learning the Sportsplex will shut its doors for 16 months starting next year.

Sportsplex will undergo a 16-month renovation starting in June 2017

Pam Berman · CBC News ·
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The Dartmouth Crusaders Swim Club has to find other pools to use after learning the Sportsplex will shut its doors for 16 months starting next year.

The Dartmouth facility will undergo a major renovation starting in June 2017 and will not reopen until September 2018.

The Crusaders are the second-largest swim club in Nova Scotia with 120 members. Swim clubs across the province are also expecting a bump in registration this year due to the upcoming summer Olympics.

"Unfortunately, pool space is tight in HRM," said Bette El-Hawary, executive director of Swim Nova Scotia.

A task force has been created to look for some lanes for members of the Crusaders. It will eye Cole Harbour Place, which does not have a year-round swim club, along with Centennial Pool and Dalplex in Halifax. Other options include Sackville Sports Stadium and the pools at CFB Shearwater and Stadacona.

"We'll be working with other facilities to find out what programming can be reshuffled for the interim for one year," said El-Hawary.

A design shows what the Sportsplex pool is expected to look like when the facility reopens in 2018. (Halifax Regional Municipality)
Most swimming practices take place in the early morning hours before school, or after school. The president of the Crusaders, Fiona Gibb, hopes to keep the disruption to a minimum.

Gibb, whose 12-year-old daughter is a member of the swimming club, hopes to have a new plan in place by early September. She's looking forward to the new pool facilities in the Sportsplex when it reopens.

"The pool itself isn't going to be changing, but the change rooms will be brand new and there will be some classroom spaces right on deck that we'll be able to use for our squads," said Gibb.

The Dartmouth Crusaders have been swimming out of the Sportsplex since 1982.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pam Berman

Reporter

Pam Berman is CBC Nova Scotia's municipal affairs reporter. She's been a journalist for almost 35 years and has covered Halifax regional council since 1997. That includes four municipal elections, 19 budgets and countless meetings. Story ideas can be sent to pam.berman@cbc.ca

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