Pool readied for summer of swimming

Free, yes, free swimming lessons for every child and adult in Maricopa will begin on April 30. The Maricopa Rotary Club is committed to having the pool, which is adjacent to the library off the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway, cleaned, scraped, painted and retiled by that date.

Members of Maricopa’s Rotary Club work on the community pool.

Saturday, Rotarians held a clean the pool day. Another work session will be scheduled in the near future. If you would like to help the group, email Rotary president Richard Fleming.

Judge Scott Sulley (left) and Lance Lane before they got to the bottom of things.

“It will take a lot of hard work and a lot of elbow grease to get the pool ready by April 30,” indicated Parks, Recreation and Libraries Director Martin McDonald. His department is coordinating the free lesson program. For information, contact McDonald at (520) 568-9098 ext. 204.

PRL Director Martin McDonald (left) and Judge Scott Sulley tackle the weeds.

The pool, which is 47 years old, was originally constructed in 1958 on land donated by ranchers John Smith and Fred Enke. According to Fleming, “Though the Rotary Club has been able to open the pool each summer, it is a task that becomes more and more difficult with each passing year.”

Thanks to a very generous grant of $9,000 from Kinder Morgan (see related story), the task recently got easier. The Maricopa Rotary Summer Swim Program will now have additional funding for pool chemicals, staffing and operational expenses.

The free swimming lessons will be offered the weekends of April 30-May 1, May 14-15, May 21-22 and May 28-29 with the times tentatively set at 8 a.m. to noon. If demand proves great enough, classes will continue into June and July.

Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and 2004 U.S. Swim School National Teacher of the Year Mike Troy and his Gold Medal Swim School staff will provide the free lessons. One of the lead instructors, Edward Goldstein, will be moving to Maricopa this summer and hopes to hire Maricopa residents as seasonal instructors. All new instructors will complete a 30-hour classroom and in-water program for certification.

A maximum of three students will be enrolled in each class. Tot classes will be offered for children age six months to 2½ years, who must be in the water with a parent. Contact the Gold Medal Swim School at (480) 961-5035 to learn more about the lessons.