Pool plan makes Olympic-size splash

People in the swimming community call it “new water.”
Lumpkin County Manager Stan Kelley calls it a huge opportunity.
The Lumpkin County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to do what they felt was making the most of that opportunity, opting for a more state of the art indoor swimming area of the future Cottrell Aquatic Center that county officials say would make Lumpkin’s pool a draw for the entire southeast.
“About two, two and a half weeks ago an opportunity came our way to obtain a superior type pool that we believe will be beneficial and certainly will be a feather in Lumpkin County’s hat and so we have been looking into it,” Kelley said at the last county meeting on March 23. “We were approached by two companies actually...wanting to put that into our facility and get a foothold in Georgia to showcase their type of pool.”
So what kind of pool is it?
The idea is to have the pool walls and liner constructed of steel rather than traditional concrete, which provides swimmers with "faster" water, making the pool an ideal destination for swim meets of all calibers.
“We believe if we go with this type of pool, it will certainly increase our revenues,” Kelley said. “This pool will be greatly desired by for swim teams and other individuals to utilize for swimming. That’s a big deal. I’ve talked to some people that are very involved in swimming in our community...I mentioned this pool to him this weekend and he said it will attract people from all over the southeast.”
Kelley says there will be an additional cost, but he projects the decision will both literally and figuratively pay off in the long run.
“There is an additional cost up front, but we believe we will recoup that upfront cost over time and operation,” he said.

SECONDS SHAVED

It’s estimated the decision to upgrade to the steel pool concept will cost the county at least an extra $900,000, with redesign fees as well as the increased cost overall contributing to the increase. Special Projects Director Allison Martin expounded on the projected cost recuperation.
“We felt that it was a great product and wanted to bring it to the board to let you have that opportunity to make that decision for our community,” she said. “We feel this will have a greater economic impact. We can host potentially larger caliber meets that will be of an olympic level venue that will host these so you can attract a different clientele. Then your fast pool people will come here and swim because they can get great times in them.”
Former collegiate swimmer and self-proclaimed “total swim nerd” Hollie Lytle, who now owns downtown Dahlonega’s Canopy + The Roots says that in the world of swimming, folks take every fraction of a second seriously.
“I’ll put it this way, swimmers grow out and then shave their leg hair to reduce drag,” she said. “This is a noticeable difference, so for sure, the investment to reduce wake and improve the pool quality for racing will make bigger meets with out of state team participation and travel teams possible.”
Lytle swam competitively for 14 years leading up to her collegiate career at East Carolina University and then later became a coach. Now that her son is following in her footsteps, Lytle says she’s seen the quality of a pool make a difference in scheduling meets.
“My son swims year-round and their invitational was turned down by some Georgia teams because the pool is believed to not be ‘as fast as’ another team’s who was hosting a meet on the same weekend,” she said. “It sounds competitive because it is.”

OLYMPIC LEVEL

Tracy Sanford, who is a part of the county’s “pool team” responsible for researching and helping the county to plan the design and build of the aquatic center, said this pool will put Lumpkin County at the top of the competition for all of North Georgia and beyond.
“I spent several days at Georgia Tech and watched all the Georgia High School State Swimming meet,” Sanford said. “I talked to all the Swim Atlanta folks who do all the timing for just about everything across the state for high school events. They are extremely excited that we would have the possibility of this pool...They were very excited for the possibility of us having this state of the art pool in North Georgia. Now keep in mind, this is the type of pool that the olympics has used ever since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and they are going to do the upcoming Olympics, so that’s the caliber of this type of pool versus the old type of pool. So I think it’s a great move.”
The vote passed unanimously, marking some much needed consensus after the rest of the meeting set a contentious tone with a heated debate about a potential noise ordinance being adopted in the county, which led to a committee being formed to look into the issue further for a solution.
Members of the board expressed their excitement for the opportunity, matching the enthusiasm of the pool team that brought the idea before them.
“I’m pretty sure that was part of our original scale was not just to have a first rate pool facility for the county to break even every year, but to generate economic development and get some of the flow coming in and more people getting exposed to our community and falling in love with it like we have,” Commissioner Bobby Mayfield said of the proposal.
Martin also explained that while the initial cost is more than the traditional pool option, the maintenance and operational costs of the steel pool concept would cost less per year to maintain. Martin’s presentation cited potential savings of between $25,000 to $30,000 per year, which excited Board Chairman Chris Dockery.
“I’m certainly not taking $900,000 of tax money lightly, but when you spread that over a period of years, then it’s an easier pill to swallow,” he said. "I consider it an investment, and you’re spreading that over the period of the bond, while simultaneously increasing your revenue and reducing your operation and maintenance cost. So to me, I don’t see how you could go wrong by doing the metal frame pool.”
The total cost of the aquatic enter, which will be partially funded by the Cottrells, is projected between $6.2 and $6.6 million, depending on which company the county decides to go with for the pool.
Other upsides presented by Martin were a faster installation time of the pool, which she said could allow the interior pools to open up to two months earlier.
“Those liner systems will save two months on construction time, that’s about the average. So for us, that means instead of being able to open in June or July [of 2022], we’ll now be able to open in an April, May timeframe,” Martin said. “Maybe not on the exterior part, but you could open those interior pools and begin to generate revenue for people that want to come for swim lessons or therapy programs for seniors... So you’d have a lot of opportunities to go ahead and start selling those passes to generate additional revenue that we didn’t plan on in the first year of operations.”

ROAD READY

Also passed at the meeting was the name of the new road that will lead up to the aquatic center. After some lively and lighthearted discussion, the board finally landed on the name Aquatic Center Road, after debating between Aquatic Center Road and Aquatic Center Way.
Mayfield cited wanting to differentiate between Pinetree Way and the eventual Aquatic Center Road as his reasoning for not choosing Aquatic Center Way. This logic turned out to be the deciding factor in the lighthearted debate, leading to a unanimous vote in favor of Aquatic Center Road.
“People are going to be thinking, ‘the board put a lot of thought into this,’” Dockery joked after the vote.