I don't mind an aquatic center per se at our beach just as long as it does not eliminate competitive swimming and our ability to market national meets and it is affordable. I don't want to see some waterslide getting in the way of national swim meets or granny taking a dip. To say that the idea of a competitive pool with national meets is antiquated, is far from the truth. Right now, what we planned when we spent $450,000 is completed, paid for and almost ready to go.
What has been a big mistake all along is no night swimming. This is the time when kids and families are free. When I was a kid, the pool was always opened at night and it was packed. For Commissioner Golden to say kids that want to swim can use the Lake Worth High School pool, is true only to the extent that the high school pool is limited to students that attend Lake Worth High School as well as those schools they compete against, according to a source there. Besides, why shouldn't they, as well as all residents, use our own municipal Olympic pool if they so choose? The high school's pool could never hold any national or champion meets not even a County event and those are the events that bring the $$$ to a city.
Building an aquatic center is very expensive. Multi-millions. We already have our facility virtually ready to go for national meets. We designed this pool for competitive swimming. All we have to do is hook up the electricity and do repairs to the Pump House and perhaps get decent timers.
According to the NCAA, "the events that make the biggest impact on hotels and restaurants come through youth swim and diving associations, which could bring dozens of teams, hundreds of athletes and families. The groups most often compete in youth and masters competitions for swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming."
Getting a national meet here would mean national publicity and would attract tourists and visitors from all over the country and even internationally. We would be in every Sport Magazine around. We want our city to become a destination. We have NEVER tried to get a swim meet here so how can anyone say that our location or this vision is not working? I would wager to say that there are very few Olympic size pools on a beach, a place that everyone wants to visit. Can you imagine competing for a national meet with a city say in West Virginia? There is no comparing when you have an oceanfront facility.
We just completed our pool for the purpose of national meets and now some are complaining we are not making enough money to sustain the pool and some want to change its purpose. Well, we didn't have a heated pool. We lost out all season long. Do they think that changing direction now is wise? Money to fund an aquatic park doesn't grow on trees. Can we have some conservatism here please especially when our budget is short by $1.7 million dollars.
The City Manager came up with the idea of an aquatic park. Perhaps it is a great plan but it takes money and it should be decided by the people. Let's give the original plan a chance. We already agreed on this vision. Why then are there always people who want to change direction in mid-stream?
When we become a wealthy city, we can think about Disney World at our beach but hopefully we will all realize by that time that keeping our small town charm is best and the decision we made to become a national destination for competitive swimming-meets was a great decision.
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