When Nipawin’s pool reopens this summer, it will no longer be known as the Irene Manley Swimming Pool. Thanks to an unanimous vote by council, it will be The Pool @ Central Park.
Chelsea Corrigan, Nipawin’s parks and recreation director, said at the May 23 council meeting the renovations have replaced most of the pool, basically making it a new facility.
“We thought it was important to give it a name that signifies the new build,” she said. “There’s not a lot left of what used to be the old facility.”
The pool has had the Irene Manley name since it opened in 1963. Corrigan said that while Irene Manley was a big contributor to the pool, there have been others since then that have also contributed that should be recognized.
“We felt that we wanted more than just one individual identified as significantly contributing to the pool,” she said. “With placing a [new] name on it, we could recognize those other individuals with a plaque on the wall or something like that. Then we can also explain what they did for the pool.”
The recreation director said that not as many people know what Manley did for the pool nowadays, so that by placing a plaque in the facility, there can be a place to explain that history.
There was another reason why council voted to change the name.
“It was also to emphasize that it was in the park,” Coun. Joyce Watts said.
Corrigan said the importance of that aspect was something that was made clear when they talked to the public at a chase-the-ace fundraiser aimed at raising funds to renovate the building at the pool.
“We did survey participants that were at that fundraiser what names they would like to see on the new pool and definitely the one that was given the most votes was a name with Central Park in it.”
As for naming the name after a corporation or other bodies in exchange for money, that wasn’t something that was really discussed, as there was no one that offered such a deal. Melfort passed a policy in June 2016 allowing corporations to buy naming rights to some of its facilities. No one has acted on that policy.
