News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville’s Aquatic Center Steering Committee met for the first time this week.
Leisure Services Director Rick Woods said that members met with architectural firm Lose Designs and Water Technology Incorporated, a water park design company. He said that they discussed preliminary information about what exactly the community will want in an aquatics facility.
“Community has expressed through our planning processes in the past the desire to have something like, our own Cookeville version, of what McMinnville has in their Gilly Pool,” Woods said. “Which is an outdoor pool, zero-depth entry, lap swim opportunities.”
Woods said that the groups also discussed the possibility of an indoor facility that could be used year-round. Woods said that the group is made of some 12 community members and Leisure Services employees as suggested by the Cookeville City Council. He said that the committee plans to meet five times, with one meeting to get public input on preliminary drawings before they’re finalized. He said that meeting is planned for the end of January.
Woods said that Lose Design will take the feedback from the members present at the committee meeting to help narrow down the prospects for the aquatics facility.
“And put some things on paper just to say ‘this is what we heard, this is what we understand that you think is important in this community, and here’s how we may be able to accomplish that,’ and begin to give us some ideas for potential design.”
Woods said that this is an exciting time for the city, as the lack of an aquatic facility is a weakness for the parks system. He said that this is a need for both the department and the community. He said that he is excited that they are finally heading down that road to provide this as a service and an amenity for Cookeville.
