Families looking to spend time in the pool on Thanksgiving Monday were left disappointed. Drumheller’s Aquaplex was closed on Thanksgiving Monday, leading to frustration for a number of area residents and a lot of discussion on social media about the topic over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Mayor Yemen confirmed that the Aquaplex was closed this year, as it was for Thanksgiving in 2012 and 2013.
“I haven’t been able to find out all the information yet. I’m assuming it goes back to the staff shortages we have. Obviously we haven’t been able to re-hire all the kids that we lost for going back to school,” said Mayor Terry Yemen.
“We’re actively recruiting, but it’s tough to hire people with that expertise, especially in a small town.”
The Mayor said the Town of Drumheller lost eight staff members who returned to school in the fall.
Former pool manager Ann Wade said occasionally the pool would close on Thanksgiving when she worked there, but it was also open the other times that it’s currently closed for.
Wade said the pool is operating on limited hours, and she’s heard from a lot of pool users who are speaking about it.
“It’s frustrating people because they keep getting less and less hours for what they purchased their passes for.”
Wade was pool manager for 15 years and finished work at the pool March of 2014. She said she wasn’t necessarily looking for a career change, but her leaving had to do with the (town) administration and the frustrations that she dealt with.
Wade said that she never had problems with staffing the pool.
A staffing restriction was put into place or began being enforced after Wade left to prohibit families working together to avoid nepotism, Wade explains, but wonders if that policy is still valid as she understands there is a mother and daughter now working there together.
“There’s a policy where you can’t hire people to work in the same business unit if you already have a direct family member working there,” said Yemen.
“That does bring some challenges again in a small community, because you just don’t have the resource pool to dig into.”
The Mayor said even with that critieria, a one-off exception could be looked at.
“Staffing has been a challenge for a number of years,” he adds. “This isn’t the first time the pool’s been closed in recent history because of staffing issues.”
Former Aquaplex employee DeBona resigned from the Aquaplex after several years of service, she said at the same time another long time staff member resigned. The reason appears to be the same as former manager Wade - difficulties in dealing with administration.
“I truly feel enforcing the family policy is causing the shortage of staff,” said DeBona.
Calls to the Director of Community Services, the Town of Drumheller department responsible for overseeing the pool, were not returned as of press time.
