BY RICK PUSIAK
When Copper Cliff residents huddle tomorrow night (Thursday) to discuss ways of keeping the R.G. Dow pool open, one person in particular will have a special interest in the proceedings.
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The pool is named after Richard Godfrey Dow. His son Peter will be at the 7 pm meeting which is being held in the church hall at St. Stanislaus Church on Balsam Street in Copper Cliff.
Councillors have voted to close this recreation facility and others as a way to save money in the 2003 budget.
Peter Dow has continued his fatherÂ?s political legacy and served with distinction for numerous years on city council and on the police services board. His father was a respected Copper Cliff mayor and later regional councillor.
The pool opened Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1971. Peter was in his 20s when the ribbon was cut on the Copper Cliff pool located on land donated by Inco on Market Street.
The Dow family watched with pride. His dad was serving his 13th term in office.
Â?(The ribbon cutting) was a big deal. We had the whole town there. The place was just jam packed with people. Of its size (the pool) was probably the most modern of the day.Â?
Dow remembers championship diver Beverly Boys of Pickering was brought in for the opening to put on a demonstration.
Boys was fourth in her event in the 1968 Olympics and 1971 Canadian Division Champion.
The pool is three quarters Olympic size.
Construction started in May 1971 and was paid for by a municipal fund started years earlier. Cost of construction in 1971 dollars was pegged at $350,000.
The depth of the 130,000 gallon heated pool ranges from a minimum of three feet to a maximum of 15 feet and can hold 125 people.
The pool, the first of its kind in this part of the province, was one of many gems in Copper Cliff.
A first class arena, curling club and Legion branch were also constructed over the years all on property donated by Inco.
Dow said discussion on the future of the Copper Cliff pool has gone on for some time.
Â?I used to have to fight for it year after year after year,Â? said Dow.
Â?It would have gone down sooner than it is going to now by the looks of it simply because they (the city) made a deal with the YMCA to run it.Â?
The municipality has covered annual utility and maintenance and repair costs as well as capital repairs.
The YMCA provides staffing, scheduling and runs pool programs.
But Dow said with declining usage in recent years the pool never paid for itself and has been in the red.
Â?IÂ?d hate to see it closed,Â? said the former politician.
There is a fair bit of nostalgia in Copper Cliff for the days before annexation by the City of Sudbury and later the creation of the Regional Municipality.
The town was a vibrant community with the largest police force in the area.
The police department was in fact rented out to Inco to provide security for the nickel giant that in those days employed over 20,000 people.
Copper CliffÂ?s population came close to 4,000 in those halcyon days.
But now the community is a little tired. Dow said when Inco ran into hard times, it stopped putting money into its rental properties.
In time, the houses in Copper Cliff would be put on the open market starting in the late 1960s.
Ward 1 Councillors Gerry McIntaggart and Eldon Gainer will attend Thursday nightÂ?s meeting.
