City Builds New Swimmin' Hole

By Jorge Casuso

Prepare for a big splash!

Next week, construction is expected to begin on a new Olympic-sized Municipal Pool that will replace the City's smaller, 50-year-old swimming pool on the campus of Santa Monica College.

The $6.1 million project also includes an 80-foot by 75-foot instructional and recreational poll and an aquatics building with showers, lockers, office and support areas. The facility will move from its current location in the interior of campus to the surface parking lot just south of the garage at Pico Boulevard and 16th Street.

Construction, which is being bankrolled by a City Community Development Block Grant and Federal Emergency Management Agency Funds, is expected to take one year to complete.

"It's a whole more water," said Brett Horner, senior administrative analyst for Parks and Community Facility Planning. "It's a big project. We're looking forward to it."

The project was approved in concept by the City Council and College District Board of Trustees in December 1998 and is the result of an extensive design process that included the college, groups of pool users, parents, seniors, persons with disabilities and 16th Street neighbors.

Replacement of the 1951 pool, which is too small and shallow to host regional swim meets, is part of the City's Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The 20-year plan calls for more than $142 million worth of improvements to the city's parks, open spaces and community facilities. The new facility also is part of the college's 1998 Master Plan.

The existing pool facility will be used until the College moves ahead with its plan to expand Parking Garage C, which is tentatively set to begin by late summer or early fall next year.