Agenda Item
12. 23-483 Motion to approve the Design Development Documents for the Orange Memorial Park Aquatic Center (Project No. pk2310). (Philip Vitale, Deputy Director of Capital Projects)
1 Public Comment
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Andrew Gotianse at June 14, 2023 at 9:09am PDT
Support
Thank you for supporting the swim community of SSF. As a longtime resident of SSF, I appreciate your time and collective support in improving our public swim facilities.
As a parent of a competitive swimmer for our successful SSF swim team I would like to make a public comment regarding one item on the pools design. It has been recommended by USA Swimming, NCAA, NFSHS and FINA that the start (shallow end) of a competitive pool be at least 4ft deep. This is to protect swimmers from head, arm, and leg injury on entry (diving in) and lap turns during practice and competitive events A 3.5 ft depth start end is too shallow and we must take preventative measures in our design and its construction to avoid these potential injury issues. 4ft minimum depth for the shallow has been implemented since 2001 by these governing swim bodies.
There is also the issue of swim dynamic changes that a swimmer must make specific to 3-
3.5ft depth that in today’s world is unnecessary during competition and practice.
I believe if we design a pool with the appropriate new depth standards it will keep our swimmers safe and attract more community participation and Bay Area swim related events.
This could lead to improved revenue from usage, membership, and rental receipts.
Overall, 1/2 a foot doesn't seem like much, but it is important to our swimmers for safety and competitive reasons. Again, I appreciate your time and we are grateful for this new opportunity to place our Aquatics program and facility on top of the Bay Area map.
Thank you
Andrew