Cary Taylor YMCA New Pool Blog Post

April 14, 2017 at 7:18 am

The Taylor YMCA in Cary finally posted something about their new aquatic center project.  And by something, I mean very little.  They never responded to email inquiries about the project either.  The few details can be found here:

TAYLOR FAMILY YMCA AQUATIC CENTER

Not much more than what we already knew.  8 lane “cool water” pool (their words) and a 4 lane warm water pool that wasn’t pictured in the plans pulled from the Town of Cary site.  Hopefully this means they’re actually moving forward with the project and will publicize it more in the near future.

It was nice that they included, “currently, the Taylor Y cannot meet the year-round aquatic needs for the growing community.”  I wish Town of Cary also recognized this and would help do something about it.

Cary Family YMCA New Indoor Pool?

March 13, 2017 at 10:09 am

Is the Cary Family YMCA building a new indoor pool?  Well while the Cary Family YMCA hasn’t posted anything and there haven’t been any news articles about it, the Town of Cary development site has a plan submission for a new indoor pool.  The Cary Family YMCA currently bubbles their big pool during the winter.  However, as everyone knows, that’s not a great solution for indoor swimming.  The proposed new pool is housed within a new permanent structure attached to the existing YMCA.  Design documents show an 8 lane x  25 yard pool wide enough to have lane ropes between the end lanes and the wall.  I emailed the YMCA but haven’t received a response back confirming the project or timeline.  Town of Cary Project Number: 16-SP-087

Why Project Pool – WHY?

November 17, 2015 at 11:01 am

Crosspointe Church is building a new fitness facility in NW Cary which will be leased and operated by the YMCA.  That’s pretty awesome and should serve as an excellent example of how organizations can partner to provide amenities.  Town of Cary should take note and be more active in seeking these partnerships in order to more rapidly provide its residents recreational amenities.

So that’s the good news.  The bad news is the pool that is planned for the facility – a single outdoor 6 lane pool.  While a pool is better than no pool, it’s really only barely better than no pool.  Here’s why:

  • Outdoor pools can only be used a third of the year.  Why limit swimming to 4 months out of the year?
  • Outdoor pools only support summer league teams and do nothing to alleviate the need for USA Swimming team space in the area.  Why ignore such a pressing need?
  • A single pool drastically constrains aquatic offerings.  No single pool can adequately accommodate learn to swim, water aerobics, swim team, therapy, etc.  In fact, no modern aquatics plan ever advocates a single pool.  So why build such a pool?
  • The anticipated users of the pool all have community outdoor pools of similar size or bigger (Cameron Pond, Weycroft, Cary Park, Amberly, Greystone, Hilliard Forest, Copperleaf, Carpenter Village, Highcroft, Weldon Ridge).  Why duplicate what is already readily available?

So while what Crosspointe and the YMCA are doing for the community is great – they’ve completely missed the boat with the pool.  It’s a blown opportunity for aquatics needs in NW Cary and should leave people asking, “WHY?”.

Why Project Ground Breaking