Facility safety and use guidelines

When you visit a Recreation Centre it’s best to avoid bringing your valuables with you and leave them at home if possible.

• Lock wallet and keys in a wallet locker. Free tokens are available at the front desk.
• Lock team dressing rooms. Keys are available at the front desk.
• Report any suspicious activity to staff
• Report any thefts to the RCMP

• Park your car in well lit areas.
• Hide valuables out of sight or carry them with you.
• Lock your car at all times.

The trends change and sometimes thefts will happen in waves. We work with the RCMP Crime Prevention Unit to continually monitor and address ongoing crime trends.

Recreation, Parks and Culture (RPC) works with the RCMP Crime Reduction Team to continually review the crime stats, evaluate our prevention measures and look for innovative ways to combat theft including:

• Installing pry prevention lockers and steel plates on lockers
• Video surveillance
• Bait lockers and bait bike campaigns
• On-site security when theft is on the rise
• Convex mirrors in changerooms to increase visibility
• FREE wallet lockers near the front reception desks
• Parking lot patrols
• RCMP patrols inside and outside the facilities
• Staff training and theft prevention procedures
• “Theft Happens” educational awareness campaigns including front line staff:guest direct communications, AMA placards, facility posters, banners, parking lot road signs, TV screens

• Theft is a crime of opportunity. The best prevention is to remove the opportunity and avoid bringing valuables with you.
• Lock your wallet and keys in the FREE wallet lockers located near the front reception.
• Lock team dressing rooms.
• Report any suspicious activity to staff.
• Report any thefts to the RCMP.
• Ensure valuables are out-of-sight in your vehicle or carry them with you.

• Most common are personal items stolen from unlocked lockers or unattended items stolen
• Other types of theft that has been known to occur, but is not typical include personal locks being cut or pried open, vehicles stolen from the parking lot, or bike locks being cut (seasonal)

Strathcona County works to provide a spectrum of change room options to ensure the comfort of all visitors to recreation facilities. There are a number of factors to consider including infrastructure, accessibility, ages and gender.

• Strathcona County aims to provide a welcoming environment to all users of our recreation facilities. 
• We encourage guests to consider their own comfort, as well as the comfort of others when using change rooms. 
• Strathcona County suggests children ages 6 years and older use their gender appropriate change room. 
• Newer facilities (Millennium Place, Emerald Hills Leisure Centre, Kinsmen Leisure Centre) have either universal, family or specialty change rooms, with individual changing stalls available for use.
• Specific to Millennium Place, the following changerooms are available:
  • Male/Female – Aquatics/Pool changerooms, with individual changing stalls available
  • Male/Female – Wellness Centre changerooms, with individual changing stalls available
  • Universal – individual change rooms available, with a group shower area
  • Specialty change rooms – change room equipped with special needs shower equipment that can also be used for a private change stall, when required.
• Older facilities have male and female change rooms and dressing rooms, with individual stalls available for changing.
• Arenas have dressing rooms and referee dressing rooms (often used for female players or female referees) – Ardrossan, Moyer, Strathcona Olympiette Centre, Sherwood Park Arena/Shell, Broadmoor, Glen Allan.
• Staff are available to assist with addressing specific inquiries.
• As older facilities are upgraded, planning will consider the widest range of patron needs as possible.

Use of personal recording devices (Eg: smart phones, tablets, cameras, etc) is permitted within the following guidelines:

• Photo(s) or video(s) include members of your family or group only.
• Expressed permission is granted from other public participants featured in the recording. Be considerate of others who may be in the background of your recordings, especially when photographing/recording an activity such as swimming lessons.
• Use of recording devices within any facility washroom, changeroom and/or dressing room is not permitted.

Staff have the authority to dismiss any persons who do not abide by these guidelines. Public participants are encouraged to be courteous of other people’s rights to privacy and vigilant by reporting any suspicious use of recording devices to a staff member immediately.

As an organization committed to the delivery of high quality public services, Strathcona County promotes and expects respectful and responsible behaviours of all its employees when interacting with each other and with facility guests during the course of County business. All employees of Strathcona County and facility guests have the right to enjoy an environment based upon mutual respect, dignity and fairness, and one that if free from actions and behaviours that are contrary to respectful, dignified and fair treatment of the individual.

Children need to be supervised in our recreation facilites. Find out how much supervision is required in our Age Access Guide.

All staff in our recreation centres are certified in and routinely trained on first aid, CPR and emergency procedures.

• In the event of health or safety emergency, first aid assistance from trained individuals is always available.
• AED’s are mounted in public locations throughout our recreation centres.
• If you witness someone in need of your help and you feel it is safe to assist them, please do so.
• If you see a dangerous situation or emergency, please immediately notify a staff member so they can get the appropriate help.
• If a major emergency were to take place, an alarm will be sounded throughout the facility in order to evacuate. It will be important to follow staff direction.
• If you are a witness to an incident, please be prepared to provide a statement to staff or emergency responders. This will assist in dealing with the situation appropriately and help prevent it from happening again.

Strathcona County is proud to use leading edge technology and innovation to provide world-class water quality. However, it is always important to do your part to keep our pools clean and the germs out.

• Lotion, sweat, cosmetics and dirt use up pool chemicals' power, leaving less power to kill germs and this is why it's important to take a 2-3 minute cleansing shower before you swim.
• Stay out of the water if you have diarrhea or feel sick.
• Poop contamination = pool closure for 7 to 24 hours to maintain a high-quality of safe and clean water. This can result in cancelled lessons and recreation swims for hundreds of people.
• Don't pee or poop in the water.
• Check swim diapers every 30 to 60 minutes. Swim diapers are available for purchase at the front desks.

Public Health Act AR 247/85 s22