Olympia City Hall

Possible plans for an Olympia aquatics facility

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OLYMPIA –– The Parks and Recreation Department is working out preliminary plans for a new aquatics facility in the Thurston County area, according to city officials. 

The Olympia Parks & Recreation Committee held a meeting late Thursday evening where a feasibility study for the facility was presented by Lacey's Director of Parks and Recreation Jen Burbidge, who represented the department. Lacey and Tumwater both would benefit from joint use of a shared aquatics facility, officials involved in the meeting said. 

“I felt it was important to have the discussion with the Board of Park Commissioners and also update this council so that you felt informed and have the opportunity to ask questions and find out more about it,” said Burbidge. “But most of all, just to make sure that we’re all on the page as we’re out talking with our neighbors and in the community as the topic comes up.”

The parks department has seen interest in the prospect of such a facility.

“They do see this facility having a regional draw and they did invite the city of Lacey and other agencies to come to the table as a funding partner,” said Burbidge. “Not a funding partner for the study, but for the actual facility.”

The purpose of the feasibility study is to flesh out possible locations and partnerships. This means the project is in the beginning stages of planning.

“We are already at the table for the study,” said Burbidge. “For the facility itself, they’re obviously trying to line up their funding partners which will inform the scope of the project and the facility that they’ll be able to potentially build.”

The Parks and Recreation Department recognizes the challenges that the city of Olympia would have in joining into the project. However, according to Burbidge, the Park Board hopes to move forward with the project while still being sensitive to the budgetary concerns of different municipalities.

“The park board recommends that the city [of Olympia] not commit as a funding partner at this time but continue to have staff be a part of the conversation regarding the project,” she said.

Of course, the current pandemic has added complications. 

“The board gave thoughtful consideration and, however, saw some pretty significant challenges,” explained Burbidge. “The first and probably most obvious being that we don’t have an identified funding source for an aquatics facility, but also it could be confusing to the public if that was a project selected to move forward at this time. And, our department still needs to complete our community outreach project. This project was supposed to have already taken place this year, and be completed by now really, but COVID had different plans for all of us.”

The council expressed concerns regarding priority. Some council members suggested that now may not be the best time for Olympia to consider such a project given other pressing concerns and the presence of other pools and lakes in the area.

Of course, the prospect of a facility could benefit local high schools. Students of Tumwater High School usually utilize the North Thurston facility, and Olympia High School students make use of the Evergreen State College facility, according to city officials.

It has not yet been decided whether the facility would house competitive swim lanes or be a more leisure-type pool similar to the Federal Way Community Center, which has a warm water side with slides and recreational areas. However, the location is one of the next steps to parse out.

“The City of Olympia has some great park properties so I would assume it would be on a current park property, as opposed to acquiring a property,” explained Burbidge. “We’ll flesh that all out with this study.”

This story has been corrected to state Jen Burbidge's correct title, the City of Lacey's Parks & Recreation Director, not that of the City of Olympia's. This was also an Olympia Parks & Recreation Committee meeting, not an Olympia City Council work session. 

Olympia City Hall, Olympia Parks & Recreation Department, Olympia City Council, Parks & Recreation Director, Jen Burbidge, Park Board, aquatics facility, aquatics facility feasibility study

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  • JohnOuthouse

    Seems like a great idea. There are very few places to swim that do not require expensive membership fees or lakefront property.

    Friday, September 18, 2020 Report this