So I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the new rec center up the road to open. I've been thinking how cool it will be... walk a mile and a half to the pool, work out, walk a mile and a half back... think of all of the calories burned! Think of the workout to be had!
Didn't really think they'd rip me off on the pool.
When they said "warm water fitness pool," I thought "25x25 pool warm enough to keep the blue hairs happy." I did not think "warm puddle just big enough to wave around your pool noodle." After all, all of the high schools in the area have swim teams and they use the rec center pools for practice. It would only seem logical to have a pool of an appropriate size to use for that purpose. Um, no.
What we have is a warm puddle (which I didn't even bother getting into) then we have a kiddie pool with all of the accompanying stuff to climb on, and then we have this "current area" (that's what they call it) which is sort of like a thin lap lane that winds around and through the kiddie area, and has a current to it, to add to your workout when you're walking around with your pool noodle.
Of course, sticking the "current" area in the middle of kiddie land makes absolutely no sense, being that the blue haired ladies don't like to get their hair wet... and being in the kiddie area ensures that you're going to get wet!
I was pondering the merits of trying to swim against the current, but it's not really a wide enough channel to pull that off. Not to mention that I'd probably get whacked with a noodle if I tried that.
Oh well, I guess I'll just go back to the old pool. At least it's quiet and generally noodle-free.
What an interesting thread. Beth, Dorothy, Bob, and Anna Lea I agree with all of your comments and will add some observations that I have made reguarding this. It seems to me that multi purpose pools with water slides, tubes, and lazy rivers seems to be getting built in more areas of the country than 50 meter muti purpose pools.
In the metro area where I live in the last 8 years there were suppose to be three 50 meter indoor multi purpose aquatic facilities. They were suppose to be built in Canton, Dearborn, and Livonia. Also Battle Creek had one on the drawing board but it got defeated and water park & 25 yard pool was built instead.
Anna Lea is right it always helps to have someone on the planning board, but it does not always guarantee that the project that you want will be successful. The two cases that I am real familar with are Dearborn and Livonia. They both had plans for a 50 meter indoor facility and a bond issue was passed for the project but it started to change when bids to build the facility were sought. Something happened in the reconcilitation of bids of the contractors that changed minds with the city planners. What happened is that both cities did not get what the voters originally wanted. The people that were on the planning board were very heavily involved in swimming.
Sheila Taormina, an Olympic gold medalist in swimming from 1996 and a member of the 2004 USA Olympic Triathlon team was a very active member. Joe Aristo, a building contractor whose daughter was a HS All American swimmer and a member of the Stanford womens team. Joe did a lot of the ground work and with his construction background brought a lot of expertise to the project. It didn't matter because in the end they did not get the 50 meter facility. Same thing happened in Dearborn except they have a bigger water park. In fact the square footage area is more than a similar 50 meter aquatic complexs being built.
Here is the link to the Livonia story. www.detnews.com/EDITPAGE/0011/29/3edit/3edit.htm and www.detnews.com/2000/metro/0011/28/c01-153913.htm
From reading these stories, I am always suspicious of conflicting agendas of the politicans. That is why my recommendation is to vote a big FAT NO when plans and budgets are not set in stone.
What an interesting thread. Beth, Dorothy, Bob, and Anna Lea I agree with all of your comments and will add some observations that I have made reguarding this. It seems to me that multi purpose pools with water slides, tubes, and lazy rivers seems to be getting built in more areas of the country than 50 meter muti purpose pools.
In the metro area where I live in the last 8 years there were suppose to be three 50 meter indoor multi purpose aquatic facilities. They were suppose to be built in Canton, Dearborn, and Livonia. Also Battle Creek had one on the drawing board but it got defeated and water park & 25 yard pool was built instead.
Anna Lea is right it always helps to have someone on the planning board, but it does not always guarantee that the project that you want will be successful. The two cases that I am real familar with are Dearborn and Livonia. They both had plans for a 50 meter indoor facility and a bond issue was passed for the project but it started to change when bids to build the facility were sought. Something happened in the reconcilitation of bids of the contractors that changed minds with the city planners. What happened is that both cities did not get what the voters originally wanted. The people that were on the planning board were very heavily involved in swimming.
Sheila Taormina, an Olympic gold medalist in swimming from 1996 and a member of the 2004 USA Olympic Triathlon team was a very active member. Joe Aristo, a building contractor whose daughter was a HS All American swimmer and a member of the Stanford womens team. Joe did a lot of the ground work and with his construction background brought a lot of expertise to the project. It didn't matter because in the end they did not get the 50 meter facility. Same thing happened in Dearborn except they have a bigger water park. In fact the square footage area is more than a similar 50 meter aquatic complexs being built.
Here is the link to the Livonia story. www.detnews.com/EDITPAGE/0011/29/3edit/3edit.htm and www.detnews.com/2000/metro/0011/28/c01-153913.htm
From reading these stories, I am always suspicious of conflicting agendas of the politicans. That is why my recommendation is to vote a big FAT NO when plans and budgets are not set in stone.
