As the aquatic director for the Columbia Association, I have found the recent discussion about tax credits for outdoor swim clubs to be very interesting. And it seems to me that this would be a good time to remind the community how vital and important CA's pools and CA's aquatic programs and services are to the entire Howard County community.
The Columbia Association currently operates 23 outdoor swim clubs and five indoor pools which include two pools and the four-story Splashdown water flume at the Columbia Swim Center, an eight-lane, 25-yard pool at the Supreme Sports Club, Howard County's only beach-entry indoor pool, at The Columbia Gym, and Howard County's largest hot-water therapy pool at the Columbia Athletic Club. There are currently almost 2,500 kids swimming in the Columbia Neighborhood Swim League, over 300 members of the Columbia Clippers (CA's year-round competitive youth swim team), over 100 adults in the Masters Swim program, and over 1,000 children enrolled in swim lessons.
The Columbia Association also runs over 30 aquatic exercise classes weekly and hosted over 300 Splashdown birthday parties this past year. And currently CA has over 400 people employed in our aquatics department. Over 300 of those team members are Howard County high school and college students who are enjoying their first employment experiences with CA.
The Columbia Association is committed to serving the aquatic needs of our community now and into the future. To that end, CA has embarked on developing an aquatics master plan to ensure that CA responds to demographic changes, serves the needs of the aquatic community and stays abreast of current trends as CA's aquatic facilities, programs and services evolve over the next 10-20 years. You can learn more about the aquatics master lan, submit input to CA and/or volunteer to participate in the development of the plan at http://www.ColumbiaAssociation.org/AquaticsMasterPlan.
John Herdson
Town Center