Stakeholders Share Input On Aquatic Center Project
Friday, October 21st, 2022
Plans for a new aquatic center continued to take shape this week with a stakeholders meeting for the project hosted by the City of Dalton. City leaders and design firm consultants met on Tuesday with 40 representatives from local school districts, Dalton State College, the Hamilton Healthcare System, and also swim coaches to discuss what each group is hoping to see in the new facility. The aquatic center will be built adjacent to the Dalton Convention Center.
"It was nice to see interested individuals from various organizations and backgrounds come together to provide input towards the facility," said Caitlin Sharpe, Dalton's Parks and Recreation Department director. "On my end, just as the advocate for the parks and recreation department, I especially enjoyed hearing the ideas for potential programs we could offer to the community... just seeing so many people in the room that are passionate about swimming and the aquatic center it’s pretty energizing to be a part of it."
"The great thing about having this active stakeholders group is learning what the swim community really liked and disliked from other facilities," said Dalton city administrator Andrew Parker who has been leading the development of the aquatic center project. "We’ve heard a lot about the air quality being an important issue [with the chlorine in the air], and then the locker room space, having enough locker room space to adequately support a large meet where you’ve got a lot of people swimming."
Caption: A concept drawing shows a possible layout for the aquatic center and its parking lot just south of the Dalton Convention Center site
Much of the planning for the aquatic center so far has focused on developing a facility where the local swim community can host practices and competitions on a local and also regional basis. Both the city and county school systems have high school swim teams and there is also the Carpet Capital Aquatics Club that boasts nearly 150 swimmers in the community. Tuesday's stakeholder meeting also went beyond competition and focused on amenities the aquatic center should have to serve the community as a whole. Play spaces for kids with indoor splash pads, recreational and exercise swimming areas, and a "current channel" more commonly known as a "lazy river" were among the features that were discussed.
"What we’re understanding quickly is that to make this an amenity that the entire community can use and have access to we also need to have some robust programming for exercise, therapy, and have spaces where kids can play and the possibilities are endless," Parker said. "Our consultant (aquatics engineering firm) Counslman-Hunsaker has designed probably over half of the 21st century aquatics centers in the US and they have shared with us what they’ve done in other communities that has been really successful in terms of zero depth entry for residents with mobility issues or having ADA compliance. In the meeting, the consultant gave an example of being in a facility recently with a current channel (lazy river) and an elderly man came up to him and said, 'thank you for having this facility, this is the only place I can walk' because the buoyancy of the water helps strengthen his legs. We're real excited that this can be an amenity for uses like that."
Of course, the aquatic center will have racing at its heart and members of the local swim community shared their wish list for what they hope to see in the new facility to serve local swim teams and also to attract regional or national swim meets. Dalton High School and the Whitfield County high schools have swim teams that have produced championships and college athletes, and Christian Heritage School is also interested in starting a team that could use the facility. Dalton State College is also interested in potentially starting a swim program of its own in the future. Spectator seating, ready rooms for swimmers, and adequate locker room space to accommodate visiting teams were all discussed in the stakeholder meeting.
"Another big thing that folks may not know is that there is an active masters swimming group in our community. and right now they have to go down to Calhoun and swim. These are your senior adult swimmers and it's for recreation and fitness but also they compete. They’re affiliated with USA swimming and go to meets and stuff like that. So, the opportunities are really endless," Parker said.
Planning for the construction of the aquatic center have been in the works since March of 2021 when city leaders originally explored building the facility on land near the Dalton Mall. City leaders also explored the possibility of building the facility on the campus of the John Davis Recreation Center on Civic Drive before finally taking shape with plans to build just to the south of the Dalton Convention Center. The City Council voted to approve that site in a Finance Committee meeting in June. A tentative timeline for the project that was presented this week to the Finance Committee calls for site work to begin in the 2nd quarter of 2023. Construction of the facility would hopefully be completed in late 2024 or early 2025.
"It’s so fun to hear others put an emphasis on the fun part of the aquatic center," Caitlin Sharpe said when asked to sum up Tuesday's meeting. "The competition part of it will come, the tournaments will come it’s going to be a top-notch facility and that’s great. But what we really want to see is that we’re offering something for the community and that fun element is absolutely going to be so great to be able to offer year-round. I’m excited about that part and I’m excited to see other people be excited about it."
