Fritz Sick Pool closing for accessibility upgrades

By Lethbridge Herald on October 29, 2024.

The Fritz Sick Pool, the only facility in the city that features a ramp that goes into the exercise pool, will be closed from November through February to undergo accessible-friendly upgrades. Herald photo by Justin Seward

Justin Seward – LETHBRIDGE HERALD

Fritz Sick Pool is temporarily closing its doors from Nov. 1 through late February 2025 to allow for necessary improvements to make the facility more accessible friendly for its swimmers.

The City announcement on Tuesday says upgrades will include barrier-free showers and toilet stalls, two additional women’s showers, which will amount to five in total, plus a universal shower, widened access points to the pool and locker rooms, new open and accessible entrance into a larger lobby with a barrier-free counter and non-slip flooring throughout all locker, washroom and shower areas and updated wheelchair ramps.

“It’s one of the most accessible pools in Lethbridge if you can get on to the pool deck,” said Sunni Belle, Recreation Excellence’s Lethbridge general manager.

“So one of the challenges that we have at this facility is the age and it has a lot of barriers. From the doors, to the change rooms to accessing the pool deck. With these upgrades the accessibility will improve greatly, allowing all people to use the facility.”

Belle said it’s very exciting.

“The pool’s very accessible because it has a ramp that goes into the exercise pool and there isn’t another pool in Lethbridge that has a ramp,” said Belle.

“So this alone creates space for many different demographics. So having the ability to get people on the pool deck to access that area is huge for our community.”

Fritz Sick’s programs will transition over to Nicholas Sheran and Stan Siwik pools for the duration of its closure.

“We really didn’t want to take programming away from the people who love to swim at this specific facility,” said Belle.

“I do think that it will be a good transition. People are starting to understand and are excited to participate in their program in another facility because they know that this one will be open soon and they will be able to return.”

“We understand the short-term closure is an inconvenience,” says Travis Grindle, Recreation Services manager. 

“We appreciate the community’s patience and support. We believe this is short-term pain for long-term gain, and we’re excited to see the updated, more accessible version of Fritz Sick Pool.”

The estimated budget for the project is $900,000.

“There’s a very confined amount of space in there to be able to change so many things,” said Elizabeth Songer, Songer Architecture principal.

Songer highlighted that anything to make things barrier free, which involves a lot of space, or anything to do with movement and grabbing open doors costs money.

“So in order to do that we had to literally move walls that were never wanting to be moved,” said Songer.

Updated schedules can be found at http://www.recex.ca/lethbridge.