Community-wide effort could help build an indoor pool

Time and again, Elkin town officials have been approached with the idea of building an indoor pool.

Time and again, Elkin town officials have explored their options only to come back and say "no" because of the high costs involved.

For that fiscal responsibility, Elkin's leaders should be applauded. In this day and age of "if you want it, put it on credit," it's way too easy to build up piles of debt which come back to bite you later.

But at the same time, Elkin town leaders -- and Elkin community leaders as a whole -- would do well to continue to explore ways to make this project a reality.

An indoor pool would be a tremendous asset for Elkin, one that would serve every facet of the population, not just fill a niche or two.

An indoor pool would be a place for year-round swim lessons and swim classes -- further promoting health and teaching a lifetime sport to our youngest generation.

It would add to the fitness opportunities for Elkin's adult population. Swimming is one of the best exercises for any age, working nearly every muscle, and one of the easiest on joints and bones.

One of the biggest beneficiaries, of course, would be competitive youth swimmers in the area. The Elkin Wet Lightning summer recreation team is the biggest in rural northwest North Carolina and arguably the most successful, having dominated its conference for most of the last decade.

Yet right now, these young butterfliers, freestylers, backstrokers and breaststrokers are among Elkin's biggest exports.

Despite the handicap of not having an indoor facility, Elkin High has built one of the stronger programs in 1A swimming.

Imagine how much more competitive those squads could be, and how many more student-athletes these teams would attract, if an indoor pool were located within a five-minute walk of Elkin's campus instead of the next county over.

Of course, none of this is news to Elkin's town board or recreation staff. In fact, Mayor Lestine Hutchens was a swim mom herself for awhile, having to take her daughter to year-round practices in Wilkesboro three times a week.

But town leaders again point to the price tag of not only building an indoor facility (which could run in the millions of dollars) but also the yearly upkeep and staffing (could be in the $50,000 to $100,000 range) as the big deterrent.

It would take an eye-opening tax increase to make an indoor pool reality, they say. Some residents might be willing to bite the bullet to have a year-round pool in Elkin but many others likely would not.

Here is where the rest of us come in. There has been talk for years that the "money is there" to build a pool, and that a host of residents and businesses in the community would come forward with private donations to support the cause.

Certainly, Elkin's town board would take notice of a list of private donations that would cover most, if not all, of the cost to build an indoor facility. The project may then move way up the town's list of priorities.

The town's recreation and parks department would then be responsible for making sure to get as much out of the pool as possible to keep it afloat financially. Here is where places like Reeves can provide a good model.

Imagine an Elkin indoor pool offering not only swim lessons for a modest extra fee on top of joining the recreation center.

Businesses, churches and families could rent the pool out for parties and special events. An Elkin indoor pool could be a hub for competitive swim meets year-round, which would be an economic draw for the town as a whole.

A senior couple might choose a retirement home in Elkin because they know they'll have year-round exercise options at the pool just five minutes down the road. A family of five might move to Elkin because their kids will have year-round swimming options (as well as mom and dad, too).

Or each might choose to live elsewhere because that amenity is missing in Elkin.

The town's Wet Lightning summer swim team, which reached a record with 122 swimmers this season, might have 200 or more kids involved in the years to come if families knew their kids could have year-round training options after the summer ended.

Who knows, maybe people from northern Surry, Wilkes and Yadkin counties would come to Elkin to swim because of its high-class treatment of the sport, rather than the other way around.

It can all happen. In fact, Elkin could come to be known as much for its dedication to swimming as it already is for things like high school football, tennis and the arts.

But it's going to take an aggressive community-wide effort to make such a splash.