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There's
something in the water in Hartland Township.
In fact,
for the roughly 122 hours each week that the Peter Caroselli Aquatic and Fitness Center is open inside Hartland High School, there's plenty of
somethings in the water.
"I
think it's great," said Todd Cheney. "What they've done with this
pool has been really
incredible."
Cheney
is probably most widely known as a the wrestling coach at the high school,
but Tuesday evening he was donning the role of doting father as his
5-year-old daughter began swimming lessons in the leisure pool of the
aquatic center. At the other end of the facility, the Hartland High School swim team practiced laps in
the aquatic center's competition pool.
"The
ability to use the second pool for something like swimming lessons is
really a big thing," he said.
In the
slightly more than three years that the Peter Caroselli Aquatic and Fitness
Center — named after the former superintendent of Hartland
Consolidated Schools — has been open, it's gained a quality
reputation as a draw not only for residents within the Hartland school
district, but also as a destination stop for an entire region.
"It's
not even just the county," said Julie Hill, the center's
director. "I get people from Ann Arbor, from Flint. I just got a
rental from Royal Oak. It's just been
phenomenal how far people will travel for this."
The recipe
to the success is that the Hartland facility is more than just wet; it's
also wild — and wildly accessible for water-watchers of all ages.
"The
secret is that there's something for everyone," Hill explained.
"Conventional pools have limited offerings for all ages. You can't
take a toddler who can't swim to a conventional pool, but, here, you have
something for every age, from 2 to 92."
The larger
pool — kept at 82 degrees, the typical temperature for a high school
competitive pool — goes from 4 feet deep to 12 feet deep.
The
smaller, neighboring leisure pool — kept at a comforting 86 degrees
— goes from a zero-depth up to 4 feet deep, and features water-park
type features and a twisting water slide.
"Between
the ages of 10 and 14 can be tough (to accommodate). Typically, those
children might get bored in a conventional pool. They'll swim for a while,
and then say, 'Now what?' " Hill said. "Here, there's so much
more. They can go to the diving board, or the water slide, or the
basketball net."
Hartland Township parent Carol
Taggart noted that the separation of the pools plays a big role in making
the facility successful. It allows her 3-year-old son to enjoy the water
away from older children.
"It
just an amazing pool," she said. "Before Christmas, we were
coming here a lot. It's just been great. It's a real nice place."
Because the
facility is so heavily used — for swimming lessons, for water exercise
classes and for open swims — everyone gets what they want out of it,
said Michelle Otis, director of Hartland Community Education.
"The
philosophy when the place was built was to build a combination of a school
pool and a community pool," Otis said. "We got the best of both
worlds."
Not to
mention a nearly nonexistent tax burden.
While other
aquatic centers can be a drain on school district resources to the tune of
hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, Hartland's facility nearly pays
for itself because of its constant and continual use, Otis said.
"Pools
cost money, even when they're just sitting there," Hill said.
"You have to pay to keep it heated. You have to keep it clean."
The best
way to get the most out of the facility, she added, is to do what it was
designed to do: Use it.
Cost was
one area specifically studied by the school district when planning out the
bond issue that built the pool and the new high school, Otis said.
"When
we were doing our analysis on the new high school, every school district
said that the pool was going to cost the general fund upwards of
$100,000," she said. "We were scared to death, realizing that
school funding is on the downslide."
Some areas
of the aquatic center — the size of the hot tub, the seating originally
eyed by the district — were trimmed to save on costs; however, Otis
said it's the way the pool is managed that has made the difference.
"Julie
has done an awesome job of keeping that place going seven days a
week," she said.
Contact
Daily Press & Argus copy editor Christopher Nagy at (517) 552-2826 or
at cnagy@gannett.com.
Originally
published January 28, 2007
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