The Plymouth Community School Corporation has officially agreed to be part of the city’s new Aquatics Center. The project is a collaboration involving several entities, with funding from a number of sources. Once it’s complete, it will be shared by the swim teams from Plymouth High School and Ancilla College, along with the general public.
The school board Tuesday approved a terms of use agreement, along with a non-exclusive sublease. Superintendent Andy Hartley explained that the school corporation will rent the space from an organization called Marshall County Health and Wellness, while a group called the Dr. Susan Bardwell Aquatics Center will operate the facility. “We’ll have 17 hours of practice time a week, and then this says at least five home meets,” he said. “We’ll certainly be striving for more. As we look back, one of the final years when we had our pool, there was a year where we had only five, and so, I think once this facility’s done, it will certainly garner additional bigger meets within the school system and conferences and things like that, we’ll be advocating for.”
In exchange, the school corporation will pay a yearly rental fee of $90,000. “For us, that will come, as of now, [from] our Capital Projects Fund, as we have other leases that come out of that fund,” Hartley explained. “It’s a 25-year lease, as well. That rental payment helps support the debt on the project, and then there could be some additional things that may arise. If we’re hosting events and it’s requiring more from the coordinators, then there could be some other arrangements there for reimbursement of costs and things like that.”
Most of the different partners were in attendance during Tuesday’s school board meeting, including representatives from the City of Plymouth, the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission, and Ancilla College. Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter said the project comes after six years of planning. “This is very important to our community,” he said. “In my opinion, this is economic development at its best, in that we can bring in an age group meet, for instance, of 500 people . . . and they will be eating at our restaurants here in town. Some of them will stay in our hotels here in town.”
Marshall County Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Jerry Chavez added that the Aquatics Center got a major funding boost from the Regional Cities Initiative and new market tax credits. He said the groups plan to close on the financing by May 17 and then break ground in June or July. From then, construction will take another 12 to 13 months.
