Dear editor:

So, letter writer Buddy Andres (“Indoor pool group needs a reality check,” Sept. 21), thinks that an indoor pool owned and operated by the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake would be too expensive and we (old ladies) need a “reality check.”

Our recurrent petition was launched as NOTL residents have been excluded from paid membership in the Vintage Inns’ indoor pools (the only such indoor pools in town).

As one “hockey dad” mused, “How come that NOTL can afford two hockey rinks but no indoor pool?”

I think NOTL is trying to attract young families to town and an indoor pool with swimming lessons and water safety is an important incentive.

One excuse is that there is a scarcity of lifeguards.

At least one older teen in NOTL travels to St. Catharines as a lifeguard as work is available there year-round, not just in the summer months.

Niagara-on-the-Lake is surrounded by water and we boast of much boating activity.

I think that swimming instruction is necessary and water safety important for all of us.

So, please Mr. Andres, sign our petition and help us raise money to complement our tax money for an indoor pool for all of us. Sign up at notlindoorpool@gmail.com.

Elizabeth Oliver-Malone
NOTL