This weekend the family and I visited the Homestead Aquatic Center in Chapel Hill.  I view the Homestead Aquatic Center as possibly the best example of a smaller aquatic center that serves the community tremendously well.  Here’s why:

• Lap pool is a perfect size at 25 yards by 25 meters.  It’s depth is at most 9 feet and it’s shallow end is 4 feet.  This is the perfect size for swim practice, high school swim meets, and small USA Swimming meets.
• Deck Space is just enough for swim meets without being so big that it becomes an unnecessary cost.
• Instead of just building one pool, Chapel Hill had the foresight to build a second pool beside the lap pool for: kids, learn to swim, water aerobics, therapy, etc.  The pool has a large zero entry ramp perfect for kids not ready to explore the deep and others with accessibility needs.  The rest of the pool varies from a depth of 0 to 6 feet.
• Pool temperature is perfect.  Because the center has 2 pools, the lap/competition pool is at the correct temperature for swimming.  This is never the case at centers with just one pool because they have to accommodate other uses that require a higher temperature.  But Homestead has the second pool, and they keep it at a much higher temperature for the kids/water aerobics crowd.  So I was happy there, my kids were happy there, a win-win situation.
• The rest of the facility was just about perfect in size.  Reasonable locker rooms, some office space, a few multiple purpose rooms for meetings / gatherings.

The total cost for the facility was $6.5 million in 2009.  So in today’s dollars, roughly $7.2 million.  I mention these numbers because just last week the Town of Cary approved a downtown parking garage for $9.35 million (Town of Cary will pay $8.35 million).  That’s right, an almost 10 million dollar parking garage.  So while downtown Cary continues to be a money pit, the rest of Cary continues to do without amenities that could easily be met with less money than what’s being spent on downtown.  It’s frustrating to see such warped priorities.

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.