June 30, 2008
www.northfulton.com
FORSYTH COUNTY -- Despite past differences, both the city of Cumming and the Forsyth County Commission can agree on the fact a public pool is a top priority.
"We definitely need an aquatic center up here," said Forsyth County Commissioner Brian Tam.
The need has been a major topic in the rumor mill for years, but the time has finally come to make the new Cumming Aquatic Center a reality.
Just recently, Forsyth County swim teams had to travel all the way to the Georgia Institute of Technology to hold its county swim meet since there was no area pool that could contain the event. That will no longer be a problem when the new aquatic is built near the North Georgia College campus.
"It's going to be conveniently located just off of Georgia 400, so it won't be a burden to residents," said Tam, who is looking forward to taking his family for a swim when the center is complete.
The city of Cumming -- which is in charge of the major project -- is currently in the process of hiring The Howell Group, an architectural and design firm.
"By partnering up with the city of Cumming, which already has $4.8 million for the project, and then with the $10 million [from the latest SPLOST] we are putting toward it, I think we are going to be able to create one really great aquatic center," said Tam. "The government really doesn't have any business running two pools within the same area. We are pooling our resources, literally."
The city is calculating costs and negotiating service fees for the center now.
"We are figuring out how much money will be spent on site work, but initial plans are for spending $12.8 million in actual construction costs," said Cumming Parks and Recreation Director Greg Little. "We sort of have a bullet list of what we're looking for, but we're going to have to work with the architectural firm a little more to see the dollar figures."
The center is expected to contain at least two 50-meter pools, one for indoors and one for outdoors. The outdoor pool will be designed for leisure swimming and could potentially boast some type of water feature, such as slides or diving boards.
"It would be a very [family-fun] type of atmosphere outdoors," Little said.
The indoor pool would be used mainly for competitive swimming, some recreation and possibly even therapy.
Those are ideas Tam can get behind.
"I would love to see a therapeutic pool incorporated with the hospital for rehabilitation and a diving well, too, if we can stretch the dollar that far," he said.
No completion date has been set as of yet.
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