Heather Wright/The Independent

St. Clair Township has found more cash to deal with corroding pipes at the Moore Sports Plex pool.

The township received a $1.5 million grant in 2025 from the province to repair the pool deck. As the Community Services department prepared for the upgrade, officials found the iron pipes in the change room were in critical condition and in need of replacement and more money would be needed to complete both projects.

Councillor Holly Foster made over a dozen suggestions during budget deliberations, but in the end council agreed the pool deck reno should move forward and if there was money leftover, the change room work would begin, possibly using reserve funds.

At the Feb. 17 council meeting, Mayor Jeff Agar suggested the township could use money recently received from Clean Harbors – a yearly payment based on tipping fees from the industrial waste site. Agar said this year’s contribution was $1 million.

Council agreed to use that money to complete the pipe repairs Kendall Lindsay, director of community services, told council while the timelines will be tight, staff hopes to complete all the work in six months.

Lindsay says the pool will be shutdown in April to being the work and he’s hopeful it will be completed in September.

He says right now, they’ve only been able to do exploratory work on the pipes .“Originally the grant is to end at the end of 2026… originally we hoped to get it done between April and September…it’s going to be hard to get it done by the end of September.”