Cancellation of water aerobics left some patrons feeling all wet

By Craig Westcott

Carbonear councillor Danielle Doyle is none too pleased that a water aerobics class was cancelled at the Recreation Complex recently without any notice to the participants.
Doyle added the matter to the agenda for Tuesday’s public council meeting after she received calls from people who were disappointed the class was cancelled because not enough people had registered.
“You had people who travelled significant distances,” Doyle said. “One person drove 30 minutes to get the Carbonear pool, put on their bathing suit in the winter, to get ready to go out to water aerobics and it was cancelled due to the minimum number that was set up. To me, that’s not a good precedent to be setting because you don’t want people driving long distances to get here and it be cancelled, because word will get out. Why would you go through the trouble of going to this if it’s cancelled? I just want to reaffirm that as long as anybody is there, really, I feel that session should be going ahead. We have staff there who can deliver the aerobics session. And good word goes a long way. If you’ve driven any distance, even if it’s just locally, and you show up and the instructor goes ahead with it and you’re getting your workout, then they’re going to share that positive news… I just think that if the sessions are not going to be going ahead, more notice needs to be given, because it is on the schedule and the schedule needs to be adhered by.”
Councillor Malcolm Seymour, who chairs council’s recreation committee said the matter was discussed at the group’s last meeting.
“We went to our director of recreation and that was all taken care of, and we got that straightened out,” Seymour said. “We told him that from here on in, no matter if it’s one or 10 (who show up), our program is a program, and it will go ahead.”
Seymour said he too received calls about what happened.
“I apologized to one person in particular who did call me,” he added. “I got back to that person, and I gave them a great response and they were satisfied with the response and from here on in operations will follow as normal and there will be no more cancellations, unless there is a storm or things that happen beyond our control.”
Doyle said consideration should also be given to maximize the usage of the pool. “If you only have a small group showing up for water aerobics, you can still have a lane swim on one side of the pool and water aerobics probably on the other side,” she argued.