WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Watertown YMCA officials are promising a new lap pool to replace the one they closed after 109 years.
“It will be six lanes, it will be regulation length,” said Denise Young, Chief Executive Officer of the YMCA.
“We will have a competitive lap pool for our community,” she said.
Young’s comments came a day after the ‘Y’ announced it had permanently closed the downtown Y’s lap pool.
The lap pool is a Watertown institution.
“I hear that from people all the time. ‘I learned to swim here. My parents brought me here as a tiny child. I was a guard here. This was my first job,’” Young said.
“This was he first job for a whole lot of people in Watertown – the people who made friendships here, swimming in this pool, meeting other people. There’s 109 years of history.”
The pool is actually part of the Y building on Public Square, built into the second floor.
“It’s amazing,” Young said. “The engineering at that time, and how this was built is really a remarkable thing.”
An inspection two weeks ago led Y officials to conclude the pool, which is basically a big steel tank, could spring a leak.
“There’s a small, small possibility that if we left this tank full, the tank could get a hole and dump the water from the pool onto the people downstairs,” Young said.
The Y’s new aquatic and community center will have a lap pool, but it will have six lanes instead of four, and be regulation-sized, “so we will have a competitive lap pool for our community,” Young said.
The aquatic center is going into the old Stream call center building on Arsenal Street. Y officials plan a ceremonial ground-breaking in a couple of weeks, with a goal of completing the $27.5 million project by November, 2023.
The Y will also announce a new community fund drive for the aquatic center, with a goal of $500,000.
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