By Angela Brown

Meota Lakeshore Lions Club helping repair shoreline

May 23, 2017 | 12:00 PM

Visitors to Meota Regional Park will once again be able to plan a dip in the man-made swimming pool at Jackfish Lake this summer with help from the local Lions.

Meota Lakeshore Lions Club members were busy over the weekend repairing the concrete barricade at the shoreline. It was breached by heavy ice chunks in April.

The barricade protects the man-made swimming pool members created at the public beach around 2004.

“This is the worst it’s ever been,” Lions president Lawrie Ward said. “It’s something you don’t expect. But if the wind comes around the wrong way there is nothing you can do. We never expected it to do that.

“We had great big chunks of ice that were four feet deep and seven or eight feet long. That took all the [barricades] we had up to keep the water and ice out, but it didn’t help. We had to replace a whole bunch of pieces.”  

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Ward said about 10 pieces of the concrete barrier were displaced by the moving ice chunks, but repairs are close to complete.

The Lions Club is covering the estimated $7,000 cost for materials and labour to repair damages to the pool barricade.

Ward credits member Terry Shury and Art Jones for volunteering to complete much of the recent repairs, adding they were also instrumental in having the pool installed more than 10 years ago.

“It’s looking good now,” he said.

The next plan is to pump water from the lake to fill up the swimming pool.

“When we first built that berm we had to pump water into it [the pool]. It was to keep the water in it. Now you pretty much have to keep the water out,” Ward said.

While the water levels are currently high he puts most of the blame on high winds for causing the damage to the barrier.

“When the ice comes in – it blows it, and if the wind is coming pretty strong from one direction you can’t stop it. We’ve had it before but not as big chunk that came over this time.”     

He said several years ago the Cochin side of Jackfish Lake also had problems with high winds.

“The ice came in there and moved a two-storey house three feet off its foundation. You can’t stop the ice when it comes,” he said. 

Ward added while the water levels are a little high at this time of the year near Meota the dam is open to help control the levels.

Meota Lakeshore Lions Club provided the funding for both the swimming pool and the playground at the beach when they were initially installed.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW