Cochrane councillors were given another status update on the opening of the aquatic centre.

While swimming most likely won't happen until at least the week of July 24th, things are progressing and Mayor Brooker summed it up by saying "it was one of the best updates to date."

Suzanne Gaida, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, says while they are working through a few challenges everyone is working hard to get the pool open as soon as possible.

All pools are filled, circulating, and being treated; Alberta Heath Services has received samples of all four pools and while the green light was given to the lap pool, the other three need some tweaking before their final stamp of approval which will hopefully come by end of the week. Although the lap pool meets AHS standards, the water is green, so some exploring will be done, shares Gaida. "It turned green last week for no apparent reason. There is a number of things that can cause a pool to go green so what we're testing for is metals so a lot of times if there is copper occurring and it has gotten into the filter medium because it's new they need to flush it; so we've sent some of the filter medium away to test it and we'll know more of that by Wednesday and fix that once we know. The pool that's green passed Alberta Health Services testing so it's not bacteriological we know that. If we get that under control and figured out Friday is scheduled for Stantec building and fire final inspections, so once that is complete and everything's fine there Monday afternoon is when Alberta Heath Services comes in and they are final inspectors of the project."

Councillor Mary Lou Eckmeier suggested a notion which may appease the public for the delay in opening. "What is the possibility that we could with all the delays and the public waiting with bated breath and bathing suits in hand, of having the spray park free just for this summer as a goodwill gesture to the public?"

While Gaida is not sure if that would be a possibility, she will take it back to the Spray Lakes board who is handling operations.

If all goes well with final inspections, training staff will be next week's focus.