Yorkton water park reopens after maintenance shut down

The waterpark at Yorkton's Gallagher Centre re-opened on October 17 after a significant maintenance project. (Photo courtesy City of Yorkton)

After its shutdown in late July, Yorkton’s Access Communications Waterpark re-opened on Oct. 17.

“I’ve taken quite a few walks through the waterpark here in the last week or so, and I’m already noticing a difference in the clarity and just the cleanliness of the water,” said David Balysky, Gallagher Centre’s general manager.

The waterpark shut down in late July for its scheduled biannual maintenance and deep cleaning. This year, however, a major project was added to the laundry list.

“The current filtration system was installed, I believe, in 2004, so we’ve gotten just over 20 years of life out of it,” Yorkton mayor Aaron Kienle told CTV News in July. “And we’re now upgrading from what was an ozone filtration system to an ultraviolet filtration system, and hoping to get another 20, 25 years off of that.”

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The construction went according to plan, with only minor hiccups. According to Yorkton’s ‘Shape Your City’ website, two double doors needed to be removed to allow the new filtration tanks to fit through.

“We had some delays here towards the end of the project, once we started putting the water back into the pool,” Balysky said. “You know, balancing the chemicals for over one million litres of water isn’t an easy task.”

After months of work, the pool reopened on Oct. 17 with no closures planned until the next biannual maintenance.

“First thing in the morning, bright and early. We had our aqua sized group in here, and they were happy to be back,” said Balysky.

He added that they’re looking forward to receiving feedback from their patrons.