Given all the Michael Phelps mania, now would seem a great time for advocates to accelerate their campaign to get the county to build an indoor aquatics center with a 50-meter pool.

On the other hand, the timing is lousy. With the economy in the tank, the last thing county officials want is a new expenditure.

The center's advocates say they're willing to try to raise the money from private sources, but with a minimum price tag of $17 million, bake sales won't cut it. They're hoping the Howard County Revenue Authority -- formed ostensibly to fund a parking garage in old Ellicott City, but authorized to issue bonds for cultural or recreation projects -- might help, and county officials confirm a swim center is on the radar. But the authority is still in its infancy, its capabilities still a question mark.

People who are pushing for this facility, of course, have a vested interest: They or their children are involved in competitive swimming. But they are quick to point out that such a facility would generate numerous benefits for the community at large: greater access year-round to an ideal form of aerobic exercise, the ability to make swimming a varsity sport in the high schools, warm-water therapy for a growing population of aged residents.

"It's not like we're asking for something that wouldn't pay for itself or will only benefit the Columbia Clippers," says Alex Solomotis, of Hickory Ridge.

He adds that the regional meets Howard County could host in such a facility would provide a shot in the arm for the local economy. "When I go to a swim meet, I rent a hotel room, eat out two or three times a week."

But even if the center did eventually pay for itself, somebody's got to put up that money up front, and as Gary Arthur, the director of the county Department of Recreation and Parks, points out, "It's a down time for public funding of such a facility."

Arthur noted a Baltimore Sun analysis published this week that found only one in 11 houses in the region that were on the market during the first six months of this year actually sold. "We saw a 75 percent cut in local transfer tax revenue this year."

The four options the county considers in a preliminary report -- the most cost-effective of which would be an outdoor leisure pool, according to the consultant -- all assume brand-new construction. But it seems crazy to build something from scratch when Columbia is chock-a-block with pools, many of them underused. Why not lengthen one of the Columbia Association's existing outdoor pools and throw a bubble over it for wintertime use. Better still, with the Wilde Lake Village Center on the verge of a facelift, what about incorporating a renovation of CA's Columbia Swim Center?

Rob Goldman, who heads CA's Sport and Fitness division, doesn't like that idea. Four years ago, the association sank $3 million into a facelift and plans to spend another million this year on heating-ventilation-air-conditioning and dehumidification work. "The Swim Center is a facility that is in very good shape."

Goldman says CA would be open to the possibility of lending some expertise or even donating some land to help the county stick another toe into the water (the county's lone public pool is at the Roger Carter Recreation Center, in Ellicott City), but it's the county government's turn to pony up.

"CA has, in a large sense, relieved the county of the responsibility of providing aquatics," Goldman says.

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user comments (1)

user milton says...

The consultant hired by Howard County to investigate this matter came to the conclusion that an Olympic-sized indoor pool would not even generate sufficient revenues to pay for the cost of keeping it open, let alone the cost to build it in the first place. Therefore, there is NO WAY that the pool can pay for itself. The writer of this editorial, along with the few vocal supporters of this pool, is spreading misinformation to even suggest that the pool could possibly pay for itself. I have to wonder if Mr. Miller reads his own newspaper: http://www.explorehoward.com/news/10130/swim/ Furthermore, anyone who thinks that it is the job of the taxpayer to boost revenue for hotels and restaurants does not have the interest of the public in mind. If a pool is good for hotels and restaurants, let hotels and restaurants pay for the pool. An Olympic-sized indoor pool is too expensive and serves too narrow of a niche to be built with public money.

Posted 12:23 PM, 08.28.08 | Permalink