Wednesday, February 25, 2004
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Wednesday, February 25, 2004 |
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Private indoor swim center hopes to serve school teams By J. FRANK LYNCH The exploding popularity of competitive swimming in Fayette County’s high schools has pushed the Kedron Fieldhouse indoor pool in Peachtree City to the limit, and has forced taking the annual county swim championships to a public pool in a southwest Atlanta neighborhood. But next year the championships could finally come home again — to a brand new, private indoor swim facility being planned for Jenkins Road in Tyrone, directly across the street from Sandy Creek High School. The owners of Peachtree Diving Center in Peachtree City plan to break ground within 90 days on Peachtree Swim Center on an eight-acre tract between Hopewell United Methodist Church and Flat Rock Middle School, members of the Board of Education were told Monday night. Kim Carawan, who owns Peachtree Dive Center with her husband Robert, said the 31,500 square-foot indoor facility will feature three pools, including a competition-sized junior Olympic pool that the owners hope will at least temporarily meet the needs of Fayette County’s high school swim teams. She did not give a cost estimate for the project. Carawan said the 25-meter, eight-lane competition pool will include plenty of deck space, spectator seating and concessions areas which local swim team boosters can utilize for fund-raising. Currently, the Kedron facility is grossly lacking in all three areas. Also to be included are a 30x60-foot regulation-size training pool and a smaller, 20x40-foot therapy pool, as well as changing facilities and retail space. “It will be a very functional building,” said Carawan, describing it as a metal prefab building with lots of interior glass. She said it could be operational within six to seven months of groundbreaking, or by next December. The popular Peachtree Dive Center operation on Ga. Highway 54 West next to Club Peachtree Fitness will remain, Carawan said. She and her husband have been working with the various local swim coaches, primarily those at Sandy Creek, to fine-tune the swim center plans, which already have the blessings of Tyrone officials, she said. Carawan said there won’t be any “home” competitive swim team based at the facility. “That’s not the purpose of the facility for us,” she said. Instead, it will be used primarily to teach swimming and provide physical therapy, as well as to serve as a place for the local school teams to practice and compete. “From experience, we have learned that one pool cannot meet the needs of the many different applications that an aquatic environment can provide,” said Carawan. “Aquatic therapy is becoming increasingly more popular among physicians, chiropractors and orthopedic specialists.” “Fitness swimming, being primarily an aerobic sport, with benefits to both the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, is also gaining popularity,” she said. Still to be worked out is the financial arrangement between the school system and Peachtree Swim Center for use of the indoor pool, but Carawan said the revenue that might be provided by rental agreements with the swim programs wasn’t necessary to make the project a reality. “We really didn’t make the connection of the tremendous need among the high school swim teams until recently,” she said. Also being considered is a shared parking arrangement, so that swim center patrons can utilize the adjoining school parking areas, especially when large meets are being held. Superintendent John DeCotis welcomed the private venture, though he has been working independently with the Fayette Family YMCA to build a similar indoor pool adjacent to the YMCA’s property at Huiet and Lester roads. “There’s a real need for this in the county, and it will definitely benefit the schools,” said DeCotis of the Peachtree Swim Center. “The more the merrier.” Last year, the Board of Education agreed to lease 10 acres of surplus property once earmarked for a high school on Lester Road to the YMCA, in exchange for use of an indoor pool at that location when one is built. In other business Monday night, the board voted to put up for sale the remaining 40-odd acres of that same tract of land. Land on the north side of Lester Road adjacent to Cleveland Elementary School has already been reserved for a future middle school, to be included in November’s bond referendum for school construction. A 60-acre tract for a future high school was bought two years ago on the north side of Ga. Highway 54, near Fayette Community Hospital.
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