Griffith Public Schools are getting a new aquatic center, and the Griffith community will have access to the facility.
So, in addition to being the new home of the Griffith High School Swimming and Diving Team, residents will be allowed to use the eight-lane competition pool at designated times.
“We want it to be a community pool and create and family atmosphere,” said Superintendent of Schools Leah Dumezich. “We surveyed our community, and they want a body of water.”
The current pool is 60 years old and its mechanical system is more than 30 years old. The pool hasn’t been functional in two years, so the swim team has been using the pool at Calumet High School.
“It was a constant investment for us,” Dumezich said. “The equipment we needed to keep it going was so outdated that we couldn’t even get it. Our cost analysis showed it would be betting if we used some existing space and added onto the school.”
Dumezich said that opening up the school’s pool to the community will go a long way toward teaching water safety and people how to swim while giving people a fun recreational outlet any time of year.
“We want to open it up to the elderly, daddy and mommy and me classes, special needs people, even rent it out for community events,” she said. “We’re going to have a floating play center in the pool and movie nights.”
The aquatic center’s design is distinguished by the involvement of former GHS Swim Team alumni and coaches. Its walls will be “dripping” in Griffith Panthers gold paint and feature a diving area.
The $15 million facility, funded through a tax-neutral school bond issue, will be an 18-month project commencing in September. It will be built in proximity to the high school’s athletic locker rooms.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
