SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Decades after a significant leak damaged the old Yellowknife city pool beyond repair, Coast Fraser Tower has decided it is time to reclaim that space.

Coast Fraser Tower manager Jenni Bruce foresees an exciting future for the city's former pool, including possibly re-opening it as a golf driving range. - April Hudson/NNSL photo

Currently, chairs, couches and doors are piled high in the pool area, which has been used as a makeshift storage facility since its closure. But lately, staff have been working to clean out the clutter in a bid to bring the area to life again.

Jenni Bruce, who has been the hotel manager since July 2014, said the pool's future is still fuzzy. Although fixing it would be prohibitively expensive, the leak that originally shut it down would not affect a different type of facility.

Bruce's personal vision for the space, as an avid golfer, is to turn it into an indoor driving range.

"There's nowhere for us (golfers) to keep our swing up all winter. I think we could get four or five tees up, if we put them down in the pool area. I know that would be a draw for our residents," she said.

"Everyone has their two cents on what they'd like to see. Some people want it to be a meeting room; others tell us to turn it into a restaurant ... If we get a guest who lived here years ago, or contractors who come to do work, they always want to go back and see the pool. They say that as kids, they used to play in it."

Mayor Mark Heyck isn't a golfer, but said he might take up the sport if the hotel opened a driving range.

"I think if it could be put to any sort of public use - whether a business or some sort of recreational space - we can always use more of that in this city Opening it up would be neat," he said.

Heyck's own memories of the old pool stem back to childhood, when he took his first swimming lesson.

In those days, the shallow end of the pool was too deep for small children. Heyck recalls the pool staff put a metal table in the water for the children to stand on, which led to his own sink-or-swim encounter.

"During one of my very first swimming lessons, we were standing on that table and I got a little too close to the edge," he said.

"I stepped off and had to start doggy-paddling - that was the first time I ever swam in my life."

The hotel is still deciding what to do with the space.

Bruce is working to put together a budget for the project, which she wants to see finished in a year or less.

"Personally, I'd love to have it up and running by November," she said.

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