Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum says if he and his Safe Surrey Coalition are elected to council on Oct. 15 a full-size indoor swimming pool will be built at the Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre in Whalley.
“I would hope that we’ll have it finished within two years,” he said Wednesday, adding it “probably” will replace the skateboard park on site.
“The reason I say it probably will, if we can fit it in over on the side over there we’ll do that but if we can’t it probably will be right here,” he said, speaking to reporters at the southwest corner of the recreation centre, located at 13458 107A Avenue.
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum says if his Safe Surrey Coalition is re-elected a full-size indoor swimming pool will be built at Chuck Bailey Rec Centre in Whalley. pic.twitter.com/osGmhnejD0
— Tom Zytaruk (@tomzytaruk) September 28, 2022
Amid the din of construction and seagulls, McCallum announced from a podium that the “number one thing” people want to see in Surrey, “especially here in North Surrey,” is a pool.
“It far outweighed any other infrastructure that the people wanted to do,” he said in reference to a survey. “So we looked at our budgets for next year and we are officially announcing today that we are going to build an indoor full pool right on this particular location at Chuck Bailey for the residents of North Surrey. We will start the design on it and the work on it immediately after we get elected on Oct. 15, if we’re fortunate to be elected by the public. It’s a facility that is needed.”
SEE ALSO PHOTOS: Surrey’s expanded Chuck Bailey Centre no longer a ‘sports complex’ once promised
McCallum said once this pool is built, there will be an indoor pool “in every one of our communities in Surrey.”
Asked how much this pool will cost, McCallum replied “we haven’t really looked at it,” but added, “I’ll give you a figure, it’s in about the $40 million-$50 million for the pool.”
Asked how it would be paid for, McCallum replied, “Well, it will be in our capital budget that we do every year.
“We have room in that budget for this pool.”
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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