Stanwood swimmers left high and dry when pool closes

STANWOOD — Stanwood High School’s Spartan swim teams, the local Special Olympics team and the Steelhead Swim Club are now without a pool.

Outside of Marysville, the only 25-yard, six-lane regulation-size swimming pool in north Snohomish County is the one at Team Fitness, located in the east Stanwood business park.

The 15-year-old private pool recently was drained and locked, the result of a broken ventilation and heating system and a failing electrical system.

Young people, including dozens of children in swim lessons, aren’t the only ones upset about the pool. Club members and senior groups, whose elderly members find swimming the only way to get exercise, have been hurt by the closure. The pool also is used for lifeguard lessons and firefighter water rescue training.

Team Fitness pool manager Tina Meyer estimates that it would cost more than $200,000 just to get the pool running again. And that doesn’t include some needed pool and deck resurfacing, roof repairs and a lot of new paint.

With the closure, Meyer has had to lay off eight lifeguards and six swimming instructors, some of whom are single parents, she said.

The Stanwood-Camano School District leases the Team Fitness pool for high school swim team practices and meets, said Spartan girls swim team coach Rita Brennan. The high school has 55 girls who compete in the fall and 35 boys who swim in the winter. Some on the high school team also swim with the Steelhead Club, a 50-member group that includes kids ages 5 to 18, Brennan said.

The high school teams have become very competitive in recent years, and it would be tough to see them without a place to practice, she said.

A mother of three, Brennan said she and her children used the pool nearly every day.

The family can go elsewhere to swim, she said, but finding a place for the swim teams is going to be tough.

The closest pools are in Mount Vernon and Marysville, but so far no room is available for the Stanwood teams. Even if there was space, it isn’t clear whether the school district could fund a bus for swim practices for six months, she said.

“It’s sad because the (Team Fitness) pool was never maintained at the level it should have been,” Brennan said. “This is devastating to our community.”

Team Fitness club owner Mike Liberato told a gym full of people Tuesday that his business has no money to fix the pool. The economy, declining club memberships and inherited building problems have all played a part in the pool closure, he said.

“Even if the money was available today, it would take about 15 weeks to get the pool open,” Liberato said. “We do care about our community and the health of the people who live here. We don’t yet know what will happen.”

The club’s landlord, Brett Olson of Everett, said he also inherited a mess and hasn’t collected rent from Stanwood Team Fitness for more than a year.

“This isn’t a city pool, so we are not eligible for grants or any public help,” Olson said. “The rest of the building needs to be repaired, too. I have told people I want to be optimistic and that I will not close the building, but I’m a realist, too, and whatever happens it’s not going to happen overnight.”

The Stanwood-Camano Island community is at a crossroads and people need to get involved to find a solution, coach Brennan said.

“We need to save the current pool or ask the YMCA to come in and help build us a community pool,” Brennan said. “I am not sure saving this pool is the way to go. I just know that we need a pool for our children and our elderly.”

Pool manager Meyer, a longtime swim teacher, agreed as her eyes filled with tears.

“I hope we can resolve this somehow,” she said. “Besides, my skin is getting dry not being in the pool.”

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.

How to help

To volunteer, donate or join the effort to keep the Team Fitness pool open or fund a community pool in Stanwood, contact high school swim coach Rita Brennan at 425-220-8406 or Steelhead Swim Team director Steve Jenkins at 360-387-2721.