LA PLATA, Md. – On Tuesday, November 28th, the members of the Charles County Board of Commissioners were presented with a plan from Kelli Beavers, director of Charles County’s Recreation, Parks and Tourism Department. The plan involved the return of a pool facility to the county.
Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, the loss of the swimming pool facility at the College of Southern Maryland’s La Plata Campus has been deplored by residents.
Surprisingly, the plan does not include reopening the campus pool. Instead, Beavers has proposed moving the planned build dates for the county’s planned multi-generational aquatics facility from 2028-2029 to 2025-2026.
“We need bigger facilities with more amenities,” Beavers told commissioners during her proposal.
The plan requires reallocating over $50 million in funding. According to Beavers, this move could create a more durable facility with far more amenities than any previous aquatic center projects.
This facility would have multiple bodies of water that serve different purposes, allowing the facility to serve many different types of guests. This design choice would also increase the revenue generated by the facility.
The CSM La Plata pool has been closed since 2020. The college has stated the main reason for this lengthy closure is that the state of the building and pool were not yet feasible for use.
A test was conducted on the pool in 2023 to find out if there were viable options for repairs.
What they discovered was that the $1 million allocated to make repairs would not be enough to also fix the HVAC system and filtration system. Renovating the six-lane pool alone would cost more than $3 million. A reconfiguration or complete rebuild of the facility could cost tens of millions of dollars.
“That money won’t come close to covering the cost of the repairs,” said Sam Drury, Charles County Chief of Recreation.
The commissioners have decided to pen a letter to the state legislature to find out if repairing the La Plata facility is indeed infeasible, as well as to get support for the construction of a larger facility.
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I’m confused why they’re pushing ahead with this idea. They haven’t even offered swimming lessons in the past two quarterly “Guides”
Where are the instructors/staff going to come from?