Columbia Association pools have been fixtures in their respective villages for decades. But now, CA is considering changing how the pools are operated and what amenities they offer their customers.
Columbia Association pools have been fixtures in their respective villages for decades. But now, CA is considering changing how the pools are operated and what amenities they offer their customers.
CA staff and a volunteer task force have spoken to experts, hosted workshops and focus groups and invited ideas to be submitted online, all as part of developing a master plan for improvements and changes to the association's pools.
That conversation will continue at public meetings scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 11 at Slayton House, in Wilde Lake, and Wednesday, Oct. 12 at the Owen Brown Community Center. Both meetings start at 7 p.m.
The master plan is scheduled to be presented to the CA board in January. At the public meetings, residents will learn about two scenarios: one keeping the 23 outdoor pools and SplashDown open and spending money to repair, renovate and maintain them, and one closing three outdoor pools and SplashDown and dedicating money to replacing them with new facilities.
"The task force wants to figure out what are the facilities and programs that are most important to Columbia," said Carlton Haywood, the task force's chairman.
The public meetings will help decide the direction of the master plan, whether it is along the lines of one of the two scenarios or a combination of both.
"There's really not one right answer," said Jane Dembner, CA's director of community planning. "They're both good. Both are plausible. Both are doable."
But residents can't have everything they want.
While some residents said they wanted the pools to be kept as they are, Dembner said the feedback has also included people asking for more facilities. In addition, some people had asked for membership fees to be reduced, while others asked for facilities and hours to be expanded, requests that are economically contrary to each other.
"It's very easy to say, 'We want everything,' " Haywood said. "We really want to hear people tell us what's most important, bearing in mind that resources are limited."
Though details of the scenarios could change before the public meetings, the most recent draft of the alternatives lays out blueprints for the future of CA's aquatics facilities.
One idea is to keep all 23 outdoor pools open and to increase attendance at the least popular pools by adding more features and marketing them more. Other suggestions include upgrading snack bars and installing in-pool climbing walls, spray features, exercise areas and spots poolside for grilling and eating.
But keeping all of the pools open and spending money on upgrading and marketing means there might not be money for new facilities and programs, Haywood said
Another idea is to close three pools that have consistently had low attendance and to "repurpose them for another community use," such as a "water recreation facility or pool-less water park," the draft said. This would be done gradually, allowing CA to see how one repurposed facility is doing before starting on its next project. One of the three closed pools could be enclosed and turned into a year-round indoor pool for swim teams. Having such a facility would free up space at other pools where swim teams had been practicing.
SplashDown could be closed because of its structural issues, the cost of operating and maintaining the facility and the declining number of people using it. Other features could then be put in place at the Columbia Swim Center, in Wilde Lake, where the water slide is located. The CA board recently voted to fix the SplashDown stair tower, which will cost an estimated $120,000 and should keep SplashDown open through mid-2013. More costly repairs loom, though, including an estimated $250,000 for fixing the two flumes.
Closing pools and SplashDown would free resources "and put them back into aquatics programs and new facilities that we think will do a better job of meeting the community's wants in the future," Haywood said.
The drafts include some suggestions that could be included in both scenarios, such as making the facilities more energy efficient, adding spas to two outdoor pools, modernizing bathhouses, designating one outdoor pool on each side of Columbia for lap swimming, upgrading landscaping and furnishings and adding wireless Internet access, retaining and maintaining CA's indoor pools, and adding an "aqua play area" for children at Supreme Sports Club.
An indoor 50-meter pool also could be built, but with the high cost of construction, that project would require partnerships with the county, the public school system and Howard Community College, according to the draft.
And while the scenarios largely deal with facilities, the master plan will also include recommendations involving CA's aquatics programming.