MORGAN HILL
– The much-anticipated $12.9 million Morgan Hill aquatics center
is coming to life.
The complex, located on Condit Road between Tennant and Dunne
avenues, is slated for a Memorial Day weekend opening.
MORGAN HILL – The much-anticipated $12.9 million Morgan Hill aquatics center is coming to life.
The complex, located on Condit Road between Tennant and Dunne avenues, is slated for a Memorial Day weekend opening.
The aquatics complex will offer a range of services to a diverse clientele, from competitive swimmers to recreational swimmers and from youngsters taking swim lessons to seniors swimming laps, said new City Recreation Supervisor Aaron Himelson, brought on board in January to run the facility.
Himelson said such versatility will be essential to making the facility accessible to the entire community and to meeting the facility’s 100-percent operating cost-recovery goal.
“We want to create an environment with our programming where we can draw as many different segments of the community as possible,” Himelson said. “We want to achieve a balance.”
Himelson said specific programming is still being developed, but likely will include junior lifeguards, day camps, water aerobics, day use and recreational swim times, competitive swim practice and events, SCUBA and kayak lessons, CPR classes and even yoga classes on the complex’s lawns.
For Gilroy swimmers, the Morgan Hill pool could serve as a convenient cooling off spot in the summer. This summer, the Gilroy High School pool will be renovated, leaving South Valley Middle School as the only public swim spot in town.
“It’s hard to predict what impact the aquatics center will have on us,” said Cheryl Bolin, the recreation superintendent for Gilroy. “People tend to stay local.”
To alleviate overcrowding at the South Valley pool, Bolin said the city may open the pool for longer hours in the summer, including Saturdays.
“We may keep the pool open past 5 (p.m.) since the it stays light in the summer months,” Bolin said.
As for Morgan Hill, Mayor Dennis Kennedy said the aquatics complex has been one of the council’s top priorities ever since community members identified it as such in the mid-1990s.
“One of the strongest requests from the community when we did the ‘visioning process’ was for more recreational facilities and more pools,” Kennedy said. “We’ve really been hurting, over recent years especially, from not having enough facilities for the swimming community and the water polo players.”
Kennedy also said it is important for the aquatics complex to live up to its promise to meet the needs of the entire community, as well as to accomplish its goal of being self-sustaining.
“There is the potential for many uses, but it’s important that the facility be primarily available to the community,” he said. “Self-sufficiency is very important in today’s economic environment.”
Himelson, 37, said he knows how important accommodating a wide range of users is for such a facility, not only for good public relations but also for a solid bottom line.
Because the facility is expected to be self-supporting, it is not being planned as a year-round facility. Instead, the city’s recreation department will concentrate on offering the facility’s full range of services from May through September, or as long as its revenue can support its operations.
The Aquatics Complex’s projected budget for 2004-05 is about $921,000, and projected attendance over a 16-week summer season will be about 4,125 people per week.
Himelson said the complex likely will be open from about 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., with lap swimming in the mornings and evenings, recreational swimming from about 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and lessons focused on mornings and evenings.
Himelson said he thinks it will only be a matter of time before the new facility is “packed” because of the support for swim programs in the community. The facility will blend nicely with other new swimming venues in the community, including a new indoor pool (in the proposed indoor recreation center) and the Live Oak High pool, because it occupies a different niche, he added.
Meanwhile, the city’s Recreation Department is busy hiring staff for the complex, including new Recreation Coordinator Teresa Magno, who will be in charge of the day-to-day operation of the complex’s programs. The recreation department also recently held a job fair for prospective lifeguards and other swim complex employees.
After the pool opens Memorial Day weekend, a June 12 grand opening will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and includes a ribbon-cutting, speeches, food and perhaps tours of the facility. The facility won’t be open for swimming during the ceremony but will open at noon for full use.
Season passes are now on sale and a registration fair will be held on April 24 at the Community Center. Details: 782-0008.
