MIDLAND, Texas — The City of Midland is set to host two special swim meets next year, with high school regionals and the USA Swimming Southern Zones meet.
Those meets will take place at COM Aquatics, and the complex is currently looking to better one of it’s facilities.
COM Aquatics is looking to replace the lining of the competition pool inside its FMH Foundation Natatorium.
The cost of the project is estimated at $700,000, and with the contract already approved by the Midland Development Corporation, it now needs city council approval Tuesday morning.
“We spend a lot of money — several hundred thousand dollars a year on maintenance — but one item of this size, it’s a big deal to us, and we hope and suspect that the end price tag will be lower than the $700 [thousand] that we’re asking for," said Brad Swendig, Executive Director and President of COM Aquatics. "In fact, we’re hoping that it’s on the low end of $600,000.”
COM Aquatics has been around for seven years, and as it welcomes in seven meets annually, it has seen some wear and tear.
The lining of the competition pool is starting to peel off, and although repair efforts have been made, fixing it now is difficult due to it’s brittleness.
“It should not be a big deal to repair it, but it’s gotten to the point that it’s very difficult to repair, and once we can’t repair it, the damage that will be done to the substructure will be very difficult to deal with in the future," said Swendig.
Ahead of a vote Tuesday morning, the hope is to see support go both ways.
“We’re hoping to get a good bit of our membership there, number one, to show support for COM, also to show support for the city council," said Swendig. "I mean, we of course want them to pass it, but we also are grateful to them and the MDC for their support of COM, so we sort of want to show the support for the city council.”
If the contract is approved, the goal is to have the project completed by the end of this summer, although that would mean shutting down the pool for four to six weeks and relocating any competitions.
This is part of a facilities project that is also replacing the lighting.