|
|
Martin County
Community Pool |
|
|
|
| ||||
|
Pool Information History - History: Soroptimist International of Stuart started a project in the late 50’s to fund two pools for Martin County. They eventually turned over their funds to the Kiwanis Club of Stuart and helped them continue to raise funds for a Community Pool. The pool was constructed by a joint effort between the Kiwanis Club and the Board of County Commissioners in 1975. Since then the Martin County School Board has funded the ongoing maintenance, repair and staffing of the pool facility at an average annual cost of approximately $190,000.00. Donations to improve the facility have been received from private individuals and companies who have believed in and supported the pool.
Condition of Pool Facility: There have been recent renovations in the locker rooms, showers, lights, roofs, pumps, seating and two covered areas. The parking lot changes at Martin County High School included a separate parking area for the pool with its own access that precludes school security requirements. The pool has just been resurfaced with a vinyl lining at a cost of $70,000.00. Everyone who uses our pool comments about the excellent water clarity and temperature control. The water is maintained to perfection for swimming workouts and diving. It always has been. It’s important to keep the temperature at about 82 degrees. Even two degrees above that diminishes the quality of a workout for both competitive and recreational swimmers.
If this pool were to be closed the alternative would be the YMCA pool. There are multiple deterrents to using that pool. 1st, the pool is intentionally kept at a higher temperature for water aerobic and arthritic swimming programs. The temperature is much too high for a good workout swim. 2nd, the pool is too small to hold the high school and age group team workouts. 3rd, Florida High School Athletic Association rules do not permit race starts in pools that shallow. 4th, the hours of operation do not compare to those at the Community Pool.
Usage: There are three high schools using the pool now for interscholastic swimming and diving practices & competitions. There are as many as 13 such competitions each year. There are two age group teams that use the pool 5 to 6 days a week, at times twice a day. Their memberships are 60 and 82 swimmers from ages 4 to 18. Several swimming meets a year (for both club teams and high schools) necessitate that swimmers and their families utilize local restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues, stimulating our economy and bringing in tax dollars. A Masters swimming program has been at the pool for over 25 years. Many tri-athletes use the pool for training throughout the year. The Red Cross and Local Firefighters use the pool for teaching and training Their numbers are 8-12 and 30 twice a year. Other classes such as water aerobics use the pool periodically. Colleges from across the nation come to use the pool for their Christmas training (excellent for recruiting local high school swimmers to continue toward higher education while swimming.) These college swim teams spend a week or more using our restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues contributing to the local economy. Also, the pool is used for Special Olympics, Senior Olympics, Martin County’s Golden Games, Chiro(practic) Games, Scuba diving programs… The hours of usage are 5:20 AM to 9:00 PM on weekdays, 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday and 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Sunday. This is very accommodating to allow people to exercise before work/school; dedicated staff - only closed 4 holidays out of the year. School/Education Usage: All of this usage and we are missing one of our most important groups of swimmers. It has been in the newspapers several times that “Martin County Schools no longer want to be in the business of swimming.” Quite to the contrary, swimming should be a vital program in the education of our school children. “To educate” means to draw out knowledge and in the case of swimming- self knowledge; just look at the Pool’s Record board- it reflects individuals learning to improve themselves, setting & achieving goals, believing in their talents/abilities, experiencing results, reinforcing self-esteem and consciousness, etc.- which are all self-mastery skills mirrored in academics. We are surrounded by water, have great beaches, many residential pools (some unfenced) and many unfenced water retention ponds; many families spend the week-ends boating, sailing, skiing, swimming and diving. Yet we are not ensuring that all of our children can swim at least safely enough to avoid drowning. Swimming should indeed be taught, and in a very structured program. Our students in K-6 should at least be skilled in the basics of drownproofing. Our Middle School students should be required to pass a moderate endurance swimming program and by the time of graduation every student should be able to swim with enough endurance to survive an open water mishap. High school students have swimming as an elective and the state mandates that each school should have a course in Pool Operations/Maintenance. Educational swimming programs have a side benefit. The discipline and strength acquired in these programs go a long way towards improving self-confidence. Our best competitive swimmers come from programs like these when most would never have had an idea that they would love swimming. We have a Masters swimmer who started in one of the pool’s summer programs, joined the age group team, swam at MCHS, held a school record for over 11 years, received a college scholarship and is now a National caliber women’s Iron Man competitor; she is one of the best swimmers in those competitions. A number of our students have attended college on swimming scholarships. Swimming is for Life: The fitness benefits of swimming are well known. It is one of the top cardiovascular exercises with the least burden on joints while providing excellent musculoskeletal maintenance and development. Even for those who never swim competitively, keeping it up as their main form of exercise will bring the benefits of health and reduced medical problems and expenses for a lifetime. Revenues and Expenses: We have to find a way to continue funding the pool. Now that the idea of building an Aquatics Center is on hold, this pool needs to stay open. It was discussed that the funding of an Aquatics Center could come from the ˝% sales tax money that is to be spent for buying sensitive lands and buying/improving recreational areas. Keeping this pool open using those funds would require a fraction of the money that would be spent for a new center. Many people have expressed that they voted for the tax increase just for the idea of funding an aquatics center. We think it would be reasonable to ask for operating funds from the ˝% sales tax revenue and perhaps treat the yearly funding as payment to switch pool ownership from the School Board to the County and to consider it a County Recreation Facility, at least until an aquatics center can be funded. The current figures for Revenues and Expenditures indicate that an annual funding of approximately $190,000.00 would be required to keep the pool open if the School Board stopped its funding.
Summary: The benefits of swimming and of encouraging more people to swim for recreational and health reasons cannot be measured, cannot be overstated. With an aging population and an obesity problem among our youth we need to make great forms of exercise more popular, accessible and available. Swimming should be considered among the very best of those exercises. A Florida community without a Community Pool? There may just as well be a New York with no Broadway, a Chicago with no wind or a Los Angles with no Hollywood. Florida is about outdoors, exercise, health and fitness. Florida is about swimming.
This web site is maintained by Webs by Mike. All content is copyrighted by either the owner or the referenced providers. Please send any inquiries to info@saveourpool.org .
|
