As a brand new swim­ming pool was opened in Laven­tille on Mon­day, there was hope that the fa­cil­i­ty would help the com­mu­ni­ty shed the stig­ma of a crime hotspot.

“To­day is a his­toric day for the peo­ple of Laven­tille,” said Deputy May­or Hil­ian More­an.

More­an said the open­ing of the pool is part of the Gov­ern­ment’s vi­sion to see sport de­vel­op­ment for the peo­ple of Laven­tille.

“Ini­tia­tives like these of­fer op­por­tu­ni­ty, where there was none be­fore,” said Deputy May­or More­an.

13-year-old Sher­mer Grey has the same vi­sion. He thinks this pool can pro­duce great ath­letes from his com­mu­ni­ty.

“You could get many George Bovells out of Laven­tille,” said Grey.

The teenag­er ad­mit­ted that he was afraid to en­ter the pool but said he has faith in the Coast Guard.

Just be­fore the pool’s open­ing, the Coast Guard was seen prepar­ing for the task ahead and mem­bers of the T&T De­fence Force were seen guard­ing the premis­es.

“This a joint ef­fort and in this in­stance, we are part­ner­ing with the youth,” said Com­mand­ing Of­fi­cer Dou­glas Archer.

He said life­guards will be sta­tioned at the pool every day once peo­ple are us­ing it and se­cu­ri­ty will be tak­en care of.

At the pool’s launch on June 23rd, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said the pool re­quired dis­ci­pline and need­ed in­puts from the TTDF and the TTCG.

Over the week­end, a team of 27 TTCG and TTDF of­fi­cers re­ceived train­ing in prepa­ra­tion for Mon­day.

Dr Row­ley said chil­dren must meet au­thor­i­ty when they vis­it the pool.

And ac­tiv­i­ties at the pool start­ed that way. Some chil­dren were un­able to bathe be­cause of their at­tire and oth­ers were seen form­ing sin­gle-file lines to en­ter the pool, lis­ten­ing to the in­struc­tions from the Coast Guard.

“I’m wait­ing for the Coast Guard to say right chil­dren time to come,” said Grey.

UDe­COTT hand­ed the key to the pres­i­dent of the So­gren Trace Vil­lage Coun­cil and swimwear was giv­en to chil­dren with­out any.

Kurt Pierre of the Emer­gency Train­ing In­sti­tute of T&T said his com­pa­ny will pro­vide emer­gency CPR train­ing for in­struc­tors.

“I lived in Co­corite for over 35 years so I can re­late to Laven­tille,” said Pierre.

The pool will open for 8 hours dai­ly from 8.45 am to 4.45 pm and will op­er­ate on a sched­ule where dif­fer­ent ac­tiv­i­ties will be of­fered.

“There is the learn to swim pro­gramme for chil­dren and adults, aqua aer­o­bics and ther­a­peu­tic swim­ming,” said Archer.

In 2016, 16-year-old Mark Richards of So­gren Trace was shot dead on his way from school. He has not been the on­ly young­ster to fall vic­tim to crime.

One res­i­dent be­lieves more fa­cil­i­ties like these can keep the youth oc­cu­pied and off the streets, say­ing the area has al­so pro­duced the likes of bas­ket­baller Ash­ton De­mur­rell who grad­u­at­ed from Jack­sonville Col­lege.