BVSD school board

Jan. 20—It should come as no surprise that a city as active and athletic as Boulder has a strong and passionate aquatic community.

Swimming, especially, is popular. There are swim teams in the city with more than 100 swimmers each, full to capacity, unable to accept new members. But these teams often have trouble finding time and space to practice in Boulder's pools.

Currently, there are only five publicly owned pools in the city, two of which are only open during the summer, but there are hundreds of people who want to swim regularly. A couple of private pools scattered throughout the city create a few additional places to swim, but aquatic aficionados say the total supply of pool space in the city isn't enough to meet the demand in the community.

Recreational swimmers who just want to swim laps can't always find a lane. Swimmers on teams must pack into crowded lanes in order to spend time in the water. Some teams stagger practices for swimmers of different age groups to give everyone time to swim. Some even have their swimmers practicing outdoors during the winter because there's nowhere else to go in town, while other teams hold practices and meets outside of the city.

The city government is understandably working to meet critical needs, such as increasing the stock of housing and addressing the soaring rates of homelessness. But a lack of recreational facilities can come at a cost to the community. For aquatic athletes, the shortage of pool space in Boulder diminishes their ability to take part in a sport they say offers personal fulfillment, social connection and a way to stay active well into old age.

'I'm not sure where they're going to put us'

The number of swimming pools in Boulder has steadily dwindled over the years, even though the community's interest in doing aquatic sports has done anything but.

Susan Einberger, a native Boulderite and lifelong swimmer who also coaches for the Mesa Swim Team, said she has watched as one pool after another has closed.

"I've been directly impacted by at least four of the pool closures. Basically every pool that I swam in as a child growing up here has now closed, and I've identified nine pools that have closed (in the city) since the late (19)90s," she said.

"The rate of one pool closing every three years is concerning and has contributed to the current lane supply issues," she added in a later conversation.

According to Einberger, the High-Mar pool on Moorhead Avenue was closed around 2000, and the city housing authority bought the land and built the High Mar affordable senior apartment complex there. She said she knew of other pools that met a similar fate, including the pool at the RallySport fitness center, which was closed last year and is being redeveloped into the Rally Flats affordable apartment community.

Now, Boulder has five public pools: one at each of the city's three recreation centers plus the Spruce and Scott Carpenter pools. While the indoor rec center pools are open year-round, Spruce and Scott Carpenter are outdoor pools that only open during the summer months.

The Boulder aquatic community relies heavily on the pools in the city's three recreation centers, and even those are not always reliable. Last year, the South Boulder Recreation Center was closed for months due to a leak that needed repairing. The East Boulder Community Center is also due to close for significant renovations within the next couple of years, and during that time, the community will lose access to yet another pool.

As a result, swimmers have been squeezed for space. Team practices are often a crowded affair with five to 10 swimmers sharing each lane. One team, the Boulder Swim Team, staggers practices with different age groups to allow everyone to swim.

Ainsley Dye, a 15-year-old synchronized swimmer, said the lack of consistent pool availability has limited her team's ability to practice for competitions.

"It puts us at a disadvantage in terms of how well we're able to perform and how confident we feel in what we're doing," Dye said.

And with recreation center renovations and pool closures scheduled within the next few years, many in the swim community worry about the future. Jill Tappert, president of the board of the Boulder Swim Team and a mother of a swimmer on the team, said she's worried about what the next few years could look like with even less lane availability than there is now.

"In the next couple years, we're going to lose, for months at a time, our swimming pool. So given that we're already constrained in this case, ... I'm not sure where they're going to put us."

A solution that would 'solve a ton of problems'

The Boulder Community Aquatics Coalition formed as a direct response to the pool shortage. The group, which represents some 1,300 swimmers on four swim teams, one synchronized swim team and one water polo team, aims to work with the city to find a solution for the many people who want to swim in Boulder.

Pablo Calderon, a spokesperson for the coalition, said he's aware the city has long-term plans to renovate the recreation centers, but those plans will take years, and a solution is needed in the meantime.

"We are extremely concerned about the current generation, the (kids who are) 10 to 15 years old right now. Right now, they're swimming and they cannot wait for amazing changes. We need to address the problem."

Members of the coalition have approached the city with an idea that they believe could help the situation: adding a retractable shelter to the Scott Carpenter pool to make it usable in the wintertime. Doing so would add 10 additional lanes for people to swim in during the colder months of the year.

Parks and Recreation staffers said they researched this possibility extensively in 2017 but determined that it was not an efficient use of city dollars. They said it would also not align with the city's climate goals to expend the energy that would be needed to keep the pool warm and usable during the winter.

"Scott Carpenter is a family-friendly, outdoor summer pool. People don't want to change that. And so, to winterize it, you would have to have ... a bubble (or a retractable roof), ... (and a bubble is) not environmentally friendly," said Boulder Parks and Recreation Director Ali Rhodes. "They don't retain temperature, and so the operational cost and the climate impact does not align with our feasibility."

She said staff also explored the possibility of a retractable roof, but determined that that option was also not feasible at the site.

Coalition members have been less than satisfied with the city's response. Tappert emphasized that the coalition is open to cooperating with the city but said the city has yet to come forward with a workable solution.

"We don't see that there's a meaningful solution in mind. We've tried to engage in a very solution-focused conversation and the Boulder Community Aquatics Coalition has not made a lot of headway, which is disappointing."

Heather Novickis, a masters swimmer and mom of two swimmers on the Riptide swim team, said the coalition has asked the city to reconsider winterizing the Scott Carpenter pool, even temporarily, since the demand for pool space has changed since the city last researched that option.

"(Even) if they can't commit to it long term, it is a solution that would really solve a ton of problems, right now, immediately, for thousands of people," she said.

'We still need to get there'

The East Boulder Recreation Center is set to undergo major renovations starting in 2026, which allows a couple more years for the city to determine a plan to serve the aquatic community while that pool is closed.

Rhodes said she recently informed the aquatics community that her department is looking to conduct a feasibility study in partnership with the Boulder Valley School District on a possible new pool in the city. Where that pool would go or where funding for it would come from is unclear. The point of the feasibility study would be to examine the need and potential funding sources for a pool. Currently, the city does not have the funds for a new pool.

Novickis also said the city has plans for an aquatics facility that will take 10 more years to build. But the aquatics community remains anxious to find a nearer-term solution for the next few years.

"I just hope the city isn't so focused on their shiny 10-year aquatic center plan that they forget that we still need to get there," Novickis said. "We still need to make sure that there's lanes today and next week and next month, or else people are going to not be swimming and are sadly going to lose the opportunity. And I hope my kids aren't part of that. I hope they don't lose their competitive swim opportunity."