The ribbon was finally cut at the new Vanderhoof Aquatic Centre this morning.
Over 100 people gathered to watch Mayor Gerry Thiessen open the doors for the first round of swimmers ever to use the facility.
The new pool has been 25 years in the making and has come with no shortage of hurdles or hardships along the way.
“This facility means so much. It’s been something that’s been worked on by people in the community for over 25 years and we’re finally there. We have water in the pool, it’s working and it looks great, it will be there and be an added feature in our community,” said Thiessen in an interview with MyPGNow.
“Oh it’s great, if we want to see our community grow then we need stuff like this,” said one person in attendance.
One mother in attendance said her family had to travel to get to a swimming pool before today.
“We’re excited about it! As a family of seven it’s exciting to have this in town, because before we had to go to Prince George.”
The accomplishment is even more satisfying after everything the community went through to get it built.
“I think we appreciate it more just because we worked so hard as an entire community for it and whenever you really want something really bad and you work really hard to get it, it’s just a real neat experience,” said Thiessen.
The total cost of the facility is 12-million dollars and will be run by the YMCA of Northern BC.
It will include a six-lane 25-meter lap pool, a 1,500 square-foot leisure pool and a 35-person hot tub.
With files from Brendan Pawliw, MyPGNow