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A lot of us have fond memories related to this place. Please help us restore this iconic location to swimming glory! Wouldn't it be great to have another Masters Nationals here?
Please share with EVERY swimmer you know worldwide!!!
The legendary Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Facility is in jeopardy of soon becoming history. We need your help and advocacy efforts to prevent this from happening. If this facility is to be saved and rebuilt to meet today’s standards for a word-class facility, swimmers and divers world-wide MUST SPEAK UP! The Fort Lauderdale City Commission will make a final decision on the fate of the Aquatic Facility at their City Commission meeting this Tuesday, December 1st which begins at 6:00pm. To date, a small group of advocates have kept the project alive. However, the final vote will be taken and if we are to succeed, everyone must inundate the Fort Lauderdale City Commission with e-mails of support for the Aquatic Complex.
For more than 12 years, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission had been pursuing plans for rebuilding the Aquatic Facility. Now that costs have escalated and other projects seem to take priority, the Aquatic Facility has been relegated to a low priority and perhaps scratched in its entirety with the land being repurposed for other uses. We cannot allow this to happen.
There are numerous opportunities to help offset construction and operating costs. Municipal governments world-wide have been engaging in public/private partnerships to make development and facility operations affordable. To date, the City has not discussed this as an option although a number of advocates from the Aquatic Facility have made the suggestion.
You can make a difference by writing to the City Mayor, Commissioners and the City Manager to express your feelings about the importance of the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center. E-mail addresses are as follows:
Mayor Jack Seiler: jack.seiler@fortlauderdale.gov
Commissioner Bruce Roberts: broberts@fortlauderdale.gov
Commissioner Dean Trantalis: dtrantalis@fortlauderdale.gov
Commissioner Romney Rogers: rrogers@fortlauderdale.gov
Commissioner Robert McKinzie: rmckinzie@fortlauderdale.gov
City Manager Lee Feldman: lfeldman@fortlauderdale.gov
Swoomer, sent this a few minutes ago, hope it helps:
Dear Mayor Seiler; Commissioners Roberts, Trantalis, Rogers, and McKenzie; and City Manager Feldman;
I’m writing to you concerning the restoration of the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex. I’ve been a competitive swimmer since the mid-1950s and I’m a long-time admirer of your facility. Regrettably, although I’ve seen many swimming events at the complex on TV, I’ve never had the chance to swim at your facility. More recently, I’ve tried to follow your progress towards restoration and read articles about the relocation of the ISHOF and your valiant efforts to restore the complex.
I am a practicing civil engineer (and geologist too) for more than 40 years and perhaps as importantly, an elected Councilman in the City of Woodbury, NJ. Woodbury is a much smaller municipality than Ft. Lauderdale and far less well known. Our City dates back to the 1600s; our founder Henry Wood from Bury England (hence “Woodbury”) fled to the colonies seeking religious freedom. He somehow managed to sail up our “Woodbury Creek” from the Delaware River and build his home among the Quakers, Germans, Swedes, and Native Americans in southern New Jersey. As you might imagine, the City has many historic structures. We are constantly attempting to balance historic preservation with the need to modernize and redevelop our community. In these tough economic times all municipalities have gone through, we are struggling more than ever to simply make ends meet and to continue to preserve our past.
In a somewhat parallel situation, the City of Woodbury just lost one of its oldest recreational facilities, the Woodbury Country Club and golf course. It was an historic fixture in our City dating back over 100 years, among the first such clubs in the nation, the location for our High School golf team, and host for many social events for over a century. However, after numerous attempts to save this historic recreational facility over more than 5 years while it lay dormant, we were unsuccessful. Permanent losses of such historic municipal spaces are very sad, indeed. We’ve lost an irreplaceable part of our history and community.
I’m hoping that the City of Fort Lauderdale will fare better than the City of Woodbury did, and that you will find a way to restore the aquatic complex. I know how tough it is for a governing body to make these decisions and wish you the best in your attempt to restore the complex. If there is a way to avoid losing such connections to your history, I encourage you to take advantage of it.
And, let me know if I can be of any help.
Take Care,
Bill Fleming,
Councilman, City of Woodbury, NJ
Swoomer, sent this a few minutes ago, hope it helps:
Dear Mayor Seiler; Commissioners Roberts, Trantalis, Rogers, and McKenzie; and City Manager Feldman;
I’m writing to you concerning the restoration of the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex. I’ve been a competitive swimmer since the mid-1950s and I’m a long-time admirer of your facility. Regrettably, although I’ve seen many swimming events at the complex on TV, I’ve never had the chance to swim at your facility. More recently, I’ve tried to follow your progress towards restoration and read articles about the relocation of the ISHOF and your valiant efforts to restore the complex.
I am a practicing civil engineer (and geologist too) for more than 40 years and perhaps as importantly, an elected Councilman in the City of Woodbury, NJ. Woodbury is a much smaller municipality than Ft. Lauderdale and far less well known. Our City dates back to the 1600s; our founder Henry Wood from Bury England (hence “Woodbury”) fled to the colonies seeking religious freedom. He somehow managed to sail up our “Woodbury Creek” from the Delaware River and build his home among the Quakers, Germans, Swedes, and Native Americans in southern New Jersey. As you might imagine, the City has many historic structures. We are constantly attempting to balance historic preservation with the need to modernize and redevelop our community. In these tough economic times all municipalities have gone through, we are struggling more than ever to simply make ends meet and to continue to preserve our past.
In a somewhat parallel situation, the City of Woodbury just lost one of its oldest recreational facilities, the Woodbury Country Club and golf course. It was an historic fixture in our City dating back over 100 years, among the first such clubs in the nation, the location for our High School golf team, and host for many social events for over a century. However, after numerous attempts to save this historic recreational facility over more than 5 years while it lay dormant, we were unsuccessful. Permanent losses of such historic municipal spaces are very sad, indeed. We’ve lost an irreplaceable part of our history and community.
I’m hoping that the City of Fort Lauderdale will fare better than the City of Woodbury did, and that you will find a way to restore the aquatic complex. I know how tough it is for a governing body to make these decisions and wish you the best in your attempt to restore the complex. If there is a way to avoid losing such connections to your history, I encourage you to take advantage of it.
And, let me know if I can be of any help.
Take Care,
Bill Fleming,
Councilman, City of Woodbury, NJ
