From Save Inglewood Pool
There has been a lot of activity and conversation about the closing of the Inglewood Pool over the past couple of months. This message is to give you a quick update on current status and to make several calls for action for the community to help keep this important community facility running for the foreseeable future.
First of all, you may have heard that there was a Council meeting on Oct 8th that resulted in a narrow 8-7 vote to confirm the previously announced Dec 22nd closure. It was on the agenda as a closed meeting, but after some effort several of us were able to speak on behalf of the Pool. This caused some good discussions with information discovery that we can use going forward. Had this been done following proper protocol, we are confident that we would have won that vote. So, we lick our wounds, learn from what we heard and move on.
We have defined some near-term actions that we are pursuing to get the City to reconsider and/or delay that action. In the meantime, there are several actions that we ask of you the impacted communities.
1) Give input to the city's recreation strategy
The City has been working on a strategy for recreational facilities called Game Plan to define how they will provide sustainable recreational services into the future. They are seeking input into their plan until Oct 29th.
Please visit the site and give them your feedback - including your opinion on the importance of local, accessible, affordable inner-city amenities.
2) Rally on November 1 (2-3 pm)
We will be having another rally in front of City Hall on Nov 1 from 2-3 PM. In the Oct 8th meeting one of the Councillors said “to the residents who are here today, I hope you get very mad…public recreation is not an election issue…until people get really angry and start protesting out front, I just don’t see how recreation is going to make it (up the list)”. So that is what we are going to do.
We ask you to join us there, and we expect media to be in attendance to capture the sentiment.
3) Art poster contest
We have announced an art poster contest with $150 in prizes to get more supportive posters (and to replace the posters that the City improperly took down from the A&A fence this week). We have a contest for the best poster that we extended to Nov. 1. So bring your kids, bring their posters.
4) Get a lawn sign
4) We are getting 100 lawn signs printed to place throughout the community to help raise awareness. Anyone interested in having one of these signs - please reach out (Facebook, Instagram, or notyetdeadpoolinglewood@yahoo.com).
We also are looking for volunteers to help distribute/place these signs. These signs cost us just under $5 each, so if you are able to chip in to help cover the cost. Not required, but appreciated.
5) Support CKUA
5) Some of you will be aware that CKUA radio (93.4 in Calgary), another great community treasure, is having their fall fundraiser. Some of us have made several donations to their campaign. As part of the donation process you can make a comment, and we have said “I challenge other listeners who support saving the Inglewood Pool to also donate. “Each time that happens we get a mention of our cause on the radio. We also donated as a group $1000 dollars which will allow us to sponsor 1 hour of programming on the radio – The Alberta Morning Show on Nov 14 from 8 to 9 AM. We will have a swimming theme and will again get a number of mentions of our cause.
6) Sign the petition
If you have not yet done so, please sign the petition. We currently have almost 1300 signatures plus another 300 on our initial written petition. These numbers are important.
There are more details and ongoing information including video excerpts from the Oct. 8th Council meeting on our Facebook page.
Please help us to challenge this decision with your involvement and support, and spread the word!!
Save the Inglewood Pool Team
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