Cary Needs a Pool

It can be difficult to measure the quality of a pool. Do you do it by size, age, water temperature, etc?  When I’m traveling and looking for a pool where I can workout, the thing I look for is whether a USA Swim team practices there.  For a USA Swim team to practice effectively at a given facility, the pool must meet some minimum criteria regarding size, water temperature, and anti-wake properties.  So I thought it would be interesting to take a look at pools in the Triangle where USA Swim teams practice.  Thankfully, the USA Swimming site makes that pretty easy to do.  Here are the results.

Swim team members will typically travel farther than lap swimmers, learn to swim participants, or other recreational swimmers. For this reason, the map above uses a standard 5-mile service area radius for participants on a USA Swim Team.

As you can see from the map, Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill are all well covered by USA Swim Teams. Town of Cary is partially covered by clubs at three pools in Cary: Cary Family YMCA, Cary Swim Club, and Triangle Aquatic Center. Cary Family YMCA provides the bulk of the partial coverage for central and western Town of Cary. It should be noted, however, that the club at Cary Family YMCA does not offer practices for the 3 highest levels of the program: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. For those, you have to travel to Raleigh.

So why isn’t central and western Cary better served by USA Swim teams?  The simple fact is that there aren’t any decent pools in that area.  The Cary Family YMCA pool is an older pool and it’s bubbled in the winter.  And that’s the best pool in that area other than the UNC Wellness Center which was not designed to accommodate a team (no deck space, starting blocks, or desire to rent lanes).  Clearly these two areas could greatly benefit from a new pool and the new pool would have no competition attracting USA Swimming clubs wanting to rent lanes.  This is where Town of Cary should step up and provide a quality facility for its citizens so they don’t have to drive all over the Triangle to find a decent pool.

Sometimes I hear this when asked why Cary doesn’t have a municipal pool, “Private industry already covers the Town’s aquatics needs.”  This reasoning is usually provided by people who either don’t have aquatics needs or live in a certain area of Cary.  So here’s the coverage map for indoor pools in and around Cary.

Couple notes regarding how a pool made the list and the coverage area. To make the list, the facility must offer year round access to pools. So outdoor pools are not included since they only provide access 3 or 4 months out of the year. The exception is a pool that bubbles during the winter to provide year round access (e.g. YMCA, Cary Swim Club, and Morrisville Aquatic Center).

To determine the coverage area for a pool, municipal commissioned aquatic studies from other areas were consulted as a guide and then applied against the Town of Cary pools. In general, the larger the pool and aquatic complex, the larger the coverage area.

As the map shows, the Northwest and Southwest portions of the Town of Cary are quite underserved. Southwest Town of Cary has no close options and Northwest has only one relatively expensive option (UNC Wellness Center).

While central Cary appears well served, it should be noted that the four pools serving this area are more limited use types of pools. Morrisville Aquatic is an older pool, has fewer than 6 lanes, is bubbled in the winter, and lacks wave-reducing gutters. Sport2Sport has very narrow lanes and also lacks wave-reducing gutters. Rex Wellness – Cary not surprisingly caters more to a water aerobics crowd and not lap swimming / learn to swim. The fourth pool, Cary Family YMCA is arguably the nicest of the four, however, it’s an older pool that’s bubbled in the winter and is only available to those with a monthly membership (no drop in day passes).

Eastern Cary benefits greatly from the Triangle Aquatic Center as well as supplemental coverage from Cary Swim Club and Life Time Fitness. Because Triangle Aquatic Center is such a nice pool, it does suffer from crowding during peak usage times. This is less of a negative regarding the facility and more of a statement regarding the high demand for quality swimming pools in the area.

The Town of Cary 2011-2012 Parks Recreation and Cultural Resources Master Plan compared the Town of Cary against seven other communities. According to the plan, “Comparative data from the following seven communities was collected and analyzed in relation to the Town of Cary. The Communities were chosen because they are known for having quality parks and recreation systems.”

Let’s see how the number of municipal pools compared…

It’s worth re-iterating that I didn’t pick these cities to compare Cary against.  These were picked by the group authoring the Parks Recreation and Cultural Resources Master Plan.  You’d think they would have used at least picked one other community without a municipal pool.  Anyway – the numbers sort of speak for themselves.  Town of Cary continues to stand out amongst its national peers

Town of Cary has grown leaps and bounds over the past 3 decades.  A reasonable question might be, does Cary have the population to support a public pool?  Here are some population stats from other Triangle cities followed by public pools in these cities.

So why does Cary even need a pool?  Here are just some of the reasons:

Better Access to Pools

• Town of Cary aquatic needs are under-served by current privately run facilities.
• Town of Cary currently does not own or operate any indoor or outdoor pools.
• Of the closest Triangle cities, Cary and Apex are the only ones without a municipal pool.