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.

A possible location would be Western Regional Park, if the pool could be fit into the remaining open areas. One plus is existing locker room facilities at the Glenwood Recreation Center, potentially expandable.

And when thinking "location, location, location," consider that this location is approximately 25 miles from downtown Frederick and 20 miles from both downtown Columbia and downtown Westminster (ask hockey parents if this is a long distance).

I'm sure there are down sides and negatives, but it's an idea that could get it built a lot sooner than Howard by itself. Facilities of the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission are available at resident rates to residents of both Montgomery and Prince George's County, so perhaps a regional partnership would be feasible in this case.

Jim Acker

Elkridge

user comments (1)

user milton says...

Your focus on the lack of pools northwest of Baltimore is self-serving. Go southwest of Baltimore and there are several Olympic sized pools. Why can't the residents of Howard County who want to use a 50 meter pool make use of the nearby pools in Montgomery County? That is the solution that makes the most sense. Instead, the few citizens who will use a 50 meter pool want to make us spend $20 million to save themselves a short drive to a neighboring county.

Posted 12:54 PM, 09.11.08

• Permalink

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.

I'm not a Super Swim Parent. My kids are on a summer swim team at the West Laurel Swim Club and participate in a weekly stroke-and-turn clinic during the rest of the year at Fairland Aquatic Center in Prince George's County. My kids are not superstars to anyone else but their parents; their swimming achievements are not measured in medals, but in personal bests and legal strokes.

My kids are still a few years away from high school, but having witnessed the camaraderie and diversity of the kids who swim for Prince George's County high schools on our summer swim team, it does seem a shame that this opportunity is currently not available in Howard County. Unless things change in the next few years, it will not be available for my children either.

In this day and age of rising youth obesity and extremely competitive youth sports that often discourage all but the most competent athletes from participating, swimming provides an inclusive athletic alternative for our youth as well as for the rest of us. In high school, swimming could become a great melting pot of athletes from other fall and spring sports who join to maintain or increase aerobic conditioning, along with kids who just like to swim.

Unlike many sports, it is a lifetime sport that could be enjoyed at any age by all residents of the county if sufficient public facilities were available.

Sondra Ailinger

North Laurel

Does Mr. Harbin realize that the existing pools in the county are privately run and, except for a few facilities, are open only three months a year? Is he aware that thousands of kids who expressed a wish through petition to participate in high school swim programs will be denied that opportunity without a new pool in the county? Is he aware that other aquatic activities such as water polo and water aerobics are so limited in Howard County that many can not partake in such activities? That the county's geriatric population has minimal access to swim facilities?

I was recently in Montgomery County at one of their many indoor public-financed Olympic-sized pools. Swimmers from Maine to Virginia converged on the county last weekend to partake in a regional swim meet. They stayed in hotels there, ate at restaurants and paid for use of Mongomery County's facilities. After the meet, the pool was crowded with many lap swimmers, with kids going on the large water slide, with a variety of other kids and adults engaging in the many aquatic activities that such a pool permits. Nothing like that exists in Howard County, despite Mr. Harbin's imagination.

A pool such as the one suggested would not be the financial drain that Mr. Harbin suggests. It could be built through a cooperative effort, using private and county funds, perhaps even partnering with the Columbia Association or even Howard Community College. It will generate revenue. And all those competitive swimmers that Mr. Harbin so callously dismisses will descend on Howard County and spend their money here and help us to have the pool that we desperately need. It is really a win-win situation for everyone.

Andy Lazris

Dorsey's Search

Prince George's County, like Montgomery County, has four indoor pools and numerous outdoor pools. So why are we so far behind?

Montgomery and Prince George's are fortunate to have a commission responsible for the acquisition and management of recreational facilities. The Maryland General Assembly chartered the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1927. The administrative consolidation in the two counties has netted 52,000 acres devoted to recreation. We should look to this success story for guidance.

Unfortunately, the Howard County Recreation and Parks budget tends to be cut when times are tough. Thus, it behooves the county planners to be creative and develop some independent support and partnerships within the county or we will continue to lag behind.

Recreational and exercise facilities are not an option. They are a necessity. Physical activity improves quality of life. It helps prevent obesity and keeps us healthy. Facilities can provide additional sports for high school students, with a concomitant increase in the potential for scholarships. Let's build some world-class athletic facilities.

Lynn Bosco

Ellicott City

On the surface, Megan Schoepfer appears to be an average 13-year-old girl. She swims for the West Howard Swim Club and is getting ready to begin high school at Mount Airy Christian Academy.

She has two younger siblings, 8-year-old sister, Morgan, and 10-year-old brother, Matthew, and two loving parents, Robert and Donna. And she loves sports. Beneath her skin though, Megan is no average 13-year-old. Where the average person's blood zigs, Megan's zags.

"The right side of (her) heart was too small to allow adequate flow through the tricuspid (entry) valve on the right side. (She) also had a VSD (ventrical septal defect) -- a hole between the two pumping chambers. As a result, the VSD was closed and flow from (her) upper body was diverted directly into the lung blood vessels without having to go through the heart, an operation called a Glenn procedure," explained Megan's doctor, Joel Brenner, in an e-mail.

In layman's terms, Megan, who was born with a congenital heart defect, had the tubes attached to her heart rerouted.

"At the top it flows by momentum, and the bottom it's pumped," her mother says. "She can't stand on her head for a long time."

After the initial surgery, fluid developed around Megan's lungs and she spent her first birthday in the hospital. She obviously doesn't remember it, but has seen videos of herself at the time.

"It's scary seeing myself with all those tubes," she says.

Thanks to medical science, Megan now lives a wholly normal childhood, aside from taking one baby aspirin a day to thin her blood and going in for a yearly check up.

Megan is able to sustain a healthy dosage of sports including basketball (her Mount Airy Christian Academy middle school team won the league championship this year), volleyball, soccer and field hockey.

"I'm going to start lacrosse and softball (soon)," adds Megan, who likes to read books about sports when she's not competing.

"She likes to stack the sports, she says 'I can do two or three at a time' ," says Donna, horrified by the logistics.

This summer, Megan joined the West Howard Wahoos swim team for the first time. At first she could barely make it across the pool. Now she can do every stroke and improved her times at every meet, culminating with the season-ending novice meet, where she posted her best performance of the season. She was twice named Wahoos Swimmer of the Week.

"I didn't know anything at all when I first started, now I know strokes, turns, starts," Megan said. "I really like (swimming) ... you get to compete against yourself and others."

The only limitation is that Megan has to be careful not to overexert herself and strain her heart.

"All her coaches know that she can only do what she can do, and she has to tell them when she has to stop. She just can't push herself too much, but she does," Donna Schoepfer said.

For a time, Megan's doctors thought they might try to reverse her Glenn procedure, so that her blood flowed the usual route now that her heart is getting big enough to handle it. But they eventually decided against it.

"There hopefully will be no further surgeries, her heart function should continue to be good, and there hopefully will be no heart rhythm disturbance," Dr. Brenner wrote.

"They said as long as she's doing well this way and she's functioning, there's no sense in setting her back, because it will for months, if she has another heart surgery," Donna said.

With the fall sports season approaching, Megan has no time for the sidelines.

My jaw drops when I read that there are some among us who insist that a 50-meter indoor swimming pool that costs $20 million must be constructed to meet the needs of the "under served" in Howard County ("County prodded to ponder building Olympic-size pool," news, July 17) .

We already have many swimming pools in Howard County, at least one of which is taxpayer-funded. An Olympic-size swimming pool will provide nothing more than a narrow range of specialized uses over and above the benefits we receive from our existing pools. Those specialized uses are related to competitive swimming.

Given that most residents of Howard County are not competitive swimmers, I believe that an Olympic-size pool is something that offers few county residents anything new. Those few who have a need for an Olympic-size pool could utilize the Olympic-size pools in nearby Baltimore and Montgomery counties. Therefore, I hope that our elected officials show some fiscal responsibility and reject the call to construct such an expensive item that benefits so few.

Steve Harbin

Woodbine