The Town of Midale has received $25,000 from the Richardson Pioneer Foundation to reopen its paddling pool that was closed five years ago. The town has been functioning with just the main pool and that pool has been overcrowded at times.
“The money will be used to refurbish the paddling pool back to a usable state; the main pool has been finished for awhile but it’s great to get funding for the other pool so we can put it back into service for the community,” said Midale Mayor Allan Hauglum.
The community of Midale has many families living within it and the paddling pool is perfect for children.
“The young kids will be very happy to have the paddling pool running again; it will be great for summer and parents in the community will be happy as well to be able to bring their younger children to their own pool,” said Hauglum.
The paddling pool was closed because it fell into a state of disrepair and it could no longer function as a pool used by the public.
“When it closed there was no money at the time to fix up the pool and we had to close it,” he said.
It is hoped the return of the paddling pool will ease some of the overcrowding in the main pool, which reopened to the public on Canada Day after being shut down for nearly two years.
“We seen it last year with our main pool, that the lifeguards we hired had to turn people away because the main pool was getting to full. Having the paddling pool back is going be great for 2018,” said Hauglum.
An application was submitted to the Richardson Pioneer Foundation on behalf of the town to receive funding for repair and reopen the paddling pool.
Randy Riege and Mike Sarada from Richardson Pioneer were in attendance during the cheque presentation. There were representing the company and Sarada lives in the Midale area.
“There was an application put forward to us on behalf of the Town of Midale to the Richardson Foundation who approved the $25,000 donation,” said Riege.
Richardson Pioneer has been doing charity work in the areas it operates in for a long time and they believe the work they do is important.
“At the Richardson Foundation we do numerous acts of charity across Canada; I think to date we have given out about 1.6 million dollars to various communities and we believe the communities we operate in do need funding and we are proud to be part of that,” said Riege.
The reopening of the paddling pool will create some important jobs for students looking for summer jobs.
“Getting the pool up and running is great. As Randy mentioned the kids are going to have something to do this summer and also some employment can be brought the community and provide some summer jobs for students,” said Sarada.
“The value this brings to the community is the kids are going to have something to do all summer and they will have a place to cool down on those hot days we get sometimes,” said Hauglum.
