Searcy Swim Center hits 1-year mark

Sarah Brister is one of 11 lifeguards at the Searcy Swim Center, which held its grand opening Oct. 23, 2017. The facility has almost 8,000 members, said Chad Price, director, a number that he said exceeded everyone’s expectations. He plans to add pool yoga in the next couple of months.
Sarah Brister is one of 11 lifeguards at the Searcy Swim Center, which held its grand opening Oct. 23, 2017. The facility has almost 8,000 members, said Chad Price, director, a number that he said exceeded everyone’s expectations. He plans to add pool yoga in the next couple of months.

— Chad Price, director of the Searcy Swim Center, had hoped for 2,000 members when the facility opened. A year later, the center has four times that number.

With almost 8,000 members, that’s one-third of the city’s 24,318 residents.

“I never imagined we’d have this. I thought if we had 2,000, that would be great,” Price said. “When we hit 4,000, other pools said we’d be overrun. We doubled it and have been able to handle it.”

The $5.5 million Searcy Swim Center held a grand opening Oct. 23, 2017. Price said it would be a great day for Searcy, and he still believes that.

“It’s been a big, big plus for the community,” he said.

The pool was paid for with an eight-year, 1-cent sales tax, said Mike Parsons, director of the Searcy Parks and Recreation Department.

“We’ve got three or four years left; we’re about halfway through,” he said.

Parsons shares Price’s surprise at the Swim Center’s number of members.

“It has been more than we anticipated in a good way. We expected a couple of thousand members, and we’re almost to 8,000,” Parsons said. “We’ve done our best to please everybody, which is hard with 8,000 people. Chad and his staff have done a great job with it.”

Price and Parsons said different demographics use the pool — from triathletes to senior citizens who enjoy the water aerobics and lap pool. This summer, a wave of kids came to the pool.

“I didn’t think an indoor pool would be used as frequently in the summertime; it was packed every day,” Parsons said.

Parents enjoyed sitting in the air conditioning to watch their children swim, he said. The membership fee is $5 a day or $12 per month for an individual and $20 for a family monthly membership for up to four people.

Jeff Box, 65, of Searcy uses the facility more than any other member, Price said.

Box, a former triathlete and college track coach in southern California, moved to Searcy two years ago.

“As soon as they opened up, I joined,” he said. “I came up one day and saw on the display board about master swimming. … Chad said, ‘Be here tomorrow morning.’ I’ve been in the Masters Swim Club ever since.

“I go four times a week, and I have my own practice on other days.”

Box said masters swimming is a swim team for those 18 and older, “but mostly designed for older people who want to be somewhat competitive, get in shape and enhance what they’re doing without the pounding like running is.”

He said the masters swim coaches are Price and Phoebe Campbell, assistant manager.

“Chad and Phoebe and the staff are very personable. I know them better than I know some people in the neighborhood, for sure,” Box said, laughing.

His favorite part of the facility is that it’s new, he said, and the modern equipment keeps the water cleaner.

The 19,085-square-foot center, at 525 Recreation Way in Searcy, includes an indoor multipurpose pool with a basketball hoop and an inflatable climb-on piece that is available on Fridays and Saturdays; an indoor therapy pool; and an outdoor zero-depth-entry pool that goes from zero to 2.8 feet and has a play structure.

The pool can be rented for parties, with different rates for members and nonmembers, and only on Sundays. “That way, you don’t have people showing up and not get to use the pool,” Price said.

He coaches the Searcy Sharks Swim Team, which practices in the pool, as do the Harding Academy and Searcy High School teams.

The Sharks team has meets in the pool and will have its first USA swim meet Dec. 29, which Price said will bring visitors to the city and boost economic development.

“We always like to bring the people in to showcase Searcy. The pool itself has done that; the swim team has people on it from Heber Springs, Batesville, Wynne, Cabot, all over.

“There are places that people travel up to us from that even have pools of their own, but they come up to Searcy to be part of the Sharks. They go eat in Searcy; they go shop in Searcy.”

On the flip side, the facility helps keeps Searcy residents at home, he said. “People in this area are wanting something to do without having to travel. We’ve done it and showed there was a need for a facility like this. People are willing to drive to do something that doesn’t cost a lot.

“They don’t have to travel to Batesville, to Cabot, to Jacksonville.”

Searcy’s only municipal pool was closed about four or five years ago, Parsons said.

Price, who had been with the Searcy Parks and Recreation Department for 15 years, managed that pool. He said it was built in the mid-’60s and “survived as long as it could.”

“It was leaking water like a sieve,” he said. “It had an 80,000-gallon leak per day. We ran a 3-inch line of fresh water into the pool 24 hours a day while it was open.”

“With an indoor pool, you can make them last. … There are indoor pools from the ’20s and ’30s.”

Price’s goals for the Searcy Swim Center include adding programs, including those that teach swimming safety.

“I knew a person who died in a lake last year, and he was a professional athlete, so it can happen to anybody,” he said. “I’d like to get more kids involved in the safety aspect of water; that way they can enjoy it more by going out to lakes but be safe when they’re doing it.

“We’re looking into doing a yoga program; they make these boards that go into the pool, and they do yoga on them. We’re doing that during the next couple of months,” he said.

Price said he plans to purchase another inflatable play structure.

Parsons said one of his long-term goals, and that of the parks and recreation advisory board, is to build an outdoor pool.

“I would love to see an outdoor pool or water park in the future,” he said.

“You could host bigger swim meets if you had it outside, and outside could help pay for inside year-round. The city already owns a lot of land out there. It’d be nice to see even a community center out there.”

Parsons likes to dream, but for now, the Searcy Swim Center is a dream come true.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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