During Monday's regular meeting of Weyburn City Council, Paradise Pools of Regina was awarded the contract for installation of a UV system for additional filtration at the Weyburn Leisure Centre.

Andrew Crowe, Leisure Services Director for the City of Weyburn, explains what this means for patrons.

"It's a piece of equipment that actually connects to our water system for the indoor and the outdoor swimming pool, and what the UV light actually does is helps us maintain safe water," he noted. "So it helps with the disinfection process in the water."

"The UV light actually attacks the different bacteria and viruses and whatnot in the water system, so it's just one more component to help us along with the other systems that we already have in place," explained Crowe.

"It'll work along with the the chemical and the chlorine that we already use within the pool to maintain those safe levels for our swimmers, but what we're hoping for is that it should cut down the amount of chemical that we use to maintain those safe levels quite dramatically, so we should see not only some cost savings, but also a more inviting atmosphere for our patrons and our regular users."

Crowe said the UV light should also provide the City with some more efficiencies in maintaining the air quality specifically in the indoor pool setting.

"It's installed on our closed pool system, so it just acts as another disinfectant tool to look after those swimming pools," he explained.

Now that Council has given the go-ahead on the $46,786.14 contract (budgeted for 2021 at $40,000), Crowe said there will likely be some waiting time yet.

"We're running into some significant delays as far as manufacturers and shipping and whatnot, so we've got the award, and now we are working with the supplier to see when it will be here and installed.

Crowe added the City included this in the budget as part of the overall objective to make the pool more efficient and more inviting, and a safer environment for patrons in any way they can.