New Nonprofit Floats Idea For Indoor Swimming Pool In Harwich

HARWICH – The idea is admittedly in its earliest stages, but a new nonprofit group has formed with the goal of creating and managing a regional aquatics center, and organizers say Harwich appears to be a viable location.

Carolyn Burnett of Upstream Aquatics made a presentation to the recreation and youth commission last week, saying she hoped to “plant the seed” for a swimming pool project that would serve the Mid and Lower Cape.

“Our effort is to have the community as a whole recognize the need for an aquatics facility on this side of the Cape,” she said.

That effort appears to be well underway. Last week, Harwich resident Patrick Otton submitted a nonbinding resolution petition for the May annual town meeting aimed at gauging voter sentiment about adding a pool at the community center. On Tuesday, Chatham resident Roz Coleman submitted a similar petition for Chatham’s annual town meeting asking if voters are interested in exploring participation in a regional swimming pool.

A mother of young children from Yarmouthport, Burnett said there is a need for year-round aquatics programs on the eastern end of the Cape.

“It’s a pretty serious concern right now,” she said. “We’re raising children on the Cape who don’t know how to swim.”

While most towns offer swimming lessons at the beach in the summer, and the YMCA of Cape Cod offers aquatics programs at its facility in West Barnstable, Burnett said there’s a growing recognition that a facility is needed closer to the Lower Cape.

“Have you spoken to Brewster about their public pool, being able to use that facility?” Commissioner Leah Mercurio asked. Brewster operated an outdoor pool for the first time last summer at the former Cape Cod Sea Camps property on Main Street; it is available to Brewster residents who pay a membership fee, and will be open this summer from June 15 through Aug. 18. Burnett said she and other swim enthusiasts actually started with a conversation with Brewster officials. At the time last summer, they were operating the pool on a trial basis, and were not willing to task a brand new nonprofit like Upstream Aquatics with managing any programs there, she said.

“We thought, OK, if Brewster has an outdoor pool, maybe Yarmouth could have an outdoor pool. And we spent all of the fall presenting to the town of Yarmouth,” Burnett said. What she learned was that, at the highest levels of town government, “the town doesn’t want to manage a pool,” she said. In addition to the upfront costs of building a pool — and potentially a building to house it — towns face the significant cost of staffing and insuring a pool, as well as the high utility costs associated with such a use.

“So are you proposing a pool in Harwich?” Commissioner Brian Wentworth asked. Burnett said Upstream Aquatics is lobbying for a feasibility study with a market analysis that would determine the need for a pool, as well as a review of potential sites in various towns.

“I would say, based on another nonprofit’s research, that Harwich is a pretty viable location that would meet the needs” of the region, she said.

Presenting to Brewster officials last April, a representative of the YMCA of Cape Cod said their study indicated that an ideal pool location would be somewhere close to Route 124 in Harwich. There were talks between the YMCA and Cape Tech about sharing a facility, but the school lost interest when it became clear that a shared wastewater treatment facility would likely need to be built to accommodate an aquatics center. Officials with the YMCA of Cape Cod could not be reached in time to comment for this article.

Burnett said that while an outdoor pool would be less expensive, “I’m mindful of the demographic on the Cape.” An indoor aquatics center would promote year-round swimming as a lifetime sport, she said.

“Someday our knees will all be gone from pickleball,” she said with a laugh.

Commissioner Phyllis Thomason said her son grew up with access to a community indoor pool, and excelled as a member of a swim team.

“I know the benefits and what it does for kids, too. Being on a swim team is huge,” she said. “I see that as a good thing. I just don’t know how it’s going to happen.”

Nauset High School has a swim team that practices at a private gym in Eastham, but the Monomoy schools do not have a team.

“I think it’s a worthwhile pursuit that needs further study and research,” Commissioner Frank Crowley added. “I support it.”

“So where is the funding going to come from?” commission chair Vahan Khachadoorian asked.

Burnett indicated that her group may seek Community Preservation Act funds from several towns to help advance the idea. While the CPA can fund projects for recreation, it has a number of requirements that would likely restrict spending on an indoor pool. It is possible that those funds could be used only to acquire land for a facility, not the building or pool.

Recreation Director Eric Beebe said there is precedent for towns collaborating on CPC projects for recreation purposes, “similar to the press box project that’s going on, that’s a Chatham and Harwich CPC project.”

“Or we just forget CPC altogether and look to privately fund it,” Burnett said. “Dennis has a huge history of looking to build a town pool using tax dollars, and they weren’t able to push it through,” she said. The key issue seems to be that towns don’t want to have to manage a swimming pool.

“We just learned historically, based on what has not worked in the past, this has to be an initiative that is privately managed,” Burnett said.

A regional collaboration is possible, said commissioner David Nixon, who also serves on the Harwich Community Preservation Committee.

“What it’s going to come down to is, ownership of the property,” he said.

Khachadoorian said the commission would take Burnett’s presentation under advisement, but said there is nothing to be acted upon immediately.

“There’s still a lot of questions that need to be answered,” he said.