HawthorneVillager.com

If you are going to new leisure swimming pool at Milton Sports Centre forget about same fun as it is in our leisure Centre. It is not even close.
We went today.
New one is just square pool. Water buckets thing not working. And here is nothing else. Good for swimming lessons only. Which is good.
I don't think the word "fun" is appropriate use for this pool. Just "recreational".

One more thing. Hair driers in changing rooms are flat like flat panel TV. It is hard to get hands dry with those idiot boxes.

I visited the new pools at the sports centre on Sunday. Yes the new recreational pool is not as big as the leisure centers and it doesn't have the same multi slides or such. Buts it's still a nice local pool.

Haven't seen the buckets turned on yet or the 'water tunnel' as they were both still turned off.

I'll ask about the dryers! Maybe they are more Eco friendly? Don't know, sometimes newer isn't better.

See picture I tweeted on Sunday...

The leisure/rec pool is on the left with part of the competition pool on the right side.

http://twitpic.com/7bk7ki
.

i thought the leisure pool was supposed to have a beach style
shallow entry for kids?? not at all what i pictured by the term "leisure" pool...

It does, look on the right hand side of the leisure centre there is a very loooong ramp that you can slowly enter in. But it's not the "wide" beach style that a bigger pool would have. More a narrow shallow entry ramp into the pool.

On the opposite side they have the stairs being the whole length of the pool (so wide). It's also very shallow. Because of the smaller size of the pool that might be why they didn't make they shallow entry be the larger wide width (that's a guess on my part I didn't ask) and instead have the wide stairs and a shallow entry ramp?

I'm content with a comprimise on a leisure pool to get an 8 lane competion pool! It's nice to have variety to choose from as well. You don't need alot of "accessories" in a pool to have fun, particularly with kids.

I'm guessing the competition pool is 50m?

i guess i don't see the logic in building an 8 lane length pool (essentially a rectangle) and then building a square pool next to it. i really like the design of rotary pool - length pool next to leisure pool with shallow beach entry for kids. that is not a big space, so it makes me think it could have been done even with size constaints here.

just wondering if there was public consultation on the design?

i will have to go try it before i completely criticize the design

Yes there were full public consultations (around 70 local residents attended early 2009 during a public workshop). Originally I think the competitive lane pool was going to be either 25 or 50 meters (larger) but during the consultation process it was brought down to 25 meters with the addition as well for a smaller leisure pool (I might stand to be corrected on this, it's just my recollection).

Written submission comments were also welcome and accepted to provide feedback into the design for most of the 2009 year in addition to the earlier public workshop. The town also went to the local high schools to solicit feedback from students to take part in the process as well. The feedback was then consolidated & summarized in a report to town council (This was all pre-election so I wasn't there at council but I remember the process as a private resident back then).

No, 25 meter. 50 meter is an olympic sized pool and there are only a few of those in the GTA at the moment - U of T athletics, Etobicoke Olympium, and Sunnyville outdoor pool, and Mountainside outdoor pool (burlington). There's supposed to be one built in Hamilton as part of the Pan-Am games but i have no idea the status on that. Oakville,Mississauga, and Milton at one point looked at doing one together as part of the Pan Am bid but determined it wasn't cost-effective.

The debate about the pool at the Sports Center was whether to make it 6 or 8 lane. 8 lane was desired by the Milton Marlins and other swim teams (Milton Masters and there's another one that rents space at EC Drury pool) as it allows them to host competitions, and it's now only the second 8 lane pool in Halton (Iroquois Ridge in Oakville is the other). It also adds much needed capacity for swim lessons, which any parent with kids who's tried to get them into lessons at the Leisure Center or Making Waves knows is a challenge!

I think you have to make a comprimise in design with the space available. A pool doesn't have to have fancy bells and whistles to make it enjoyable, and I think these pools target where much of the demand for swimming is in town - lessons and competitive swimming.

I swam there yesterday and I'm happy with the new pool, its very specious. Having a pool and water in the pool produces 95% of the fun, just think of the inverse.

The dryers are annoying and it would be nice if they could be offset or angled from the wall with stainless steel boxes or something similar.
It would be a good idea to check if the dryers match the building design specifications, or if the contractor made a mistake or a mistake.

If it had been a 50 meter pool we probably would have gotten a lot of business from other communities/swim groups which could have helped cost recovery. Just a thought. Admittedly, I wasn't involved in the process, plus I know jack $h!t about competitive swimming so I'm not making a comment on whether the call to go with 25m was a good one or not. I'm just sayin'.....

We went swimming there yesterday and had lots of fun. The water buckets were working as well as the water tunnel. My 21 month old loved it. The wide steps leading into the pool are great for little ones as well as for future lessons. Having the two different pools are great especially since the competition pool can be a lower temperature then the leisure pool. I thought the design of the pool was great and this is coming from a former lifeguard/instructor.

Does anyone know what the family swim hours are?

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Patty's Playhouse, providing Before and Afterschool care for Lumen Christi school(416) 880-8133

See schedule online here http://www.milton.ca/commserv/csguide/recswim_FW.pdf