“And that is a conservative estimate. I wish I could snap my fingers and get it done next summer,” said Mountain councillor Terry Whitehead, during a public meeting held last week at the Westmount Community Centre.

“There is an urgency here. If any community needed the infrastructure, it is this community.”

City recreation officials shocked the community when they closed the heavily used Westmount pool in September because of structural problems. Recreation Director Diane Lapoint-Kay apologized to the 30 people who turned out for the public meeting hosted by Mr. Whitehead. But she said the decision was necessary because the pool, built in 1965, was a potential health and safety problem for people using the facility.

“It wasn’t our plan,” she said.

The city is initiating a feasibility study to determine how to replace the pool, she said. There are three main options to choose from: fix the pool and re-open it as it is; fix the pool, but also expand the facility to include enhancements, or build a new facility for the community. A new facility would include adding family change rooms, improved accessibility for seniors and the physically challenged, and constructing a warming pool. The facility would also be larger than the existing pool.

The study won’t begin until January 2009, said Ms. Lapoint-Kay, and it will take three to four months to complete. Once it is approved by council, the plans have to be designed, and the price tag identified.

“The key issue is the cost,” she said. “Then council will have to make some decisions.

“There will be an inconvenience,” she added. “But what will rise from this phoenix will be a modern pool.”

Most of the people attending the meeting recommended that a new facility be built that would serve the community, that could also host competitive swimming events.

“We should be looking at it the long term,” said Sean Baker, a Mountain resident for the last eight years. “We don’t need a band-aid solution. We have a community that is growing. Every user group can be accommodated.”

He said in Nanaimo, B. C., where he is from, it took six years but eventually an Olympic-sized pool was constructed, that included a hot tub and weight training space for the entire community to use.

Andrew Vowles, who has three children involved in the Hamilton Aquatic Club, said the city needs to look at the big picture.

“There is a big need for a larger facility,” he said. “Hamilton’s aquatic tradition is strong.”

Hamilton doesn’t have a competitive swimming pool, he said, which forces elite swimmers to train outside the community. Mr. Vowles pointed out 10 members of the Hamilton Aquatic Club competed in the recent Olympic Trials.

But for Rick Lunc, the principal at Westmount Secondary School, waiting for a new and improved facility could mean the end of the school’s medal-winning water polo team.

He said Westmount’s boys water polo team recently won a gold medal at the OFSAA championships. One of Mr. Vowles’ children played on the team.

Mr. Lunc said since the pool closed, the school has had to spend about $200 per day busing kids to other facilities for swimming programs. He said the school can’t afford to continue paying that cost.

Already, some students have decided not to return to the team or take part in water sports because of the pool closure, he said.

“We will lose kids,” he said.