Options for YMCA pool presented to county
Published 12:29 am Tuesday, March 22, 2016
NATCHEZ — An architect presented Monday a possible plan to the Adams County Board of Supervisors for the community pool the supervisors and the City of Natchez have agreed to build.
Stephen Perkins, a Natchez native who is an architect with the Washington, D.C., based 3north planning firm, presented two possible plans to the board. He attended the meeting with the members of the Natchez-Adams County Recreation Commission.
A representative of the YMCA, which will operate the pool under the current plan, was also in attendance.
Both plans included two soccer fields, a pool, a bathroom and shower facility with the pool, a playground and a walking trail. The facilities would be located near Natchez High School, the FEMA 361 Safe Room and Liberty Park.
Perkins said no splash pad was included in the plans, but Recreation Commission Chair Tate Hobdy said because the pool will have a zero entry surface on one side, splash pad elements could be added.
The pool will be L-shaped, and will include eight lanes that can be used for swimming practice and competitions, Hobdy said.
“They call it a ‘short course competition pool,’” Hobdy said.
The zero-entry surface — located on the short end of the ‘L’ — will graduate down to four feet in depth, Perkins said.
“Because of that, you can roll a wheelchair in, so you don’t have to use a sling to lower people in and out,” he said.
The plans Perkins presented include a 2,800-square foot building that will be ventilated rather than a climate-controlled facility, and will have two bathroom facilities with five toilet fittings each, three lavatories and two showers each. It will have 24 lockers and a family changing room.
It will be designed with gates that can block access to the pool but still allow access to the building, Perkins said.
“We want to provide a way for those people at the fields to be able to use the bathrooms, but we can lock off those bathrooms at the showers so the are not admissible if we don’t want them to be,” he said.
The plans for the pool are for the area to be built in a way that, while it will be open-air for the initial construction phase, it could be covered at a later date, Hobdy said.
“We are researching ways to keep it to 72 degrees so that we may be able to get nine months use out of it,” he said.
The plans for the building also include a press box with a clear view of the soccer fields and the pool, as well as a significant shelter for rain and to provide shade, Perkins said.
The fields will meet the regulations for full-size soccer fields, which can be divided in half for junior play, he said.
The two layout schemes had to do with the accommodation of how the sun falls on the fields during the day, Perkins said.
“The last thing you want is a goalie who gets hit in the head with a ball because he’s blinded by the sun,” he said.
Members of the board of supervisors said they thought the presentation was a good one, but — aside from a few questions — did not comment significantly on it or take any action.
Perkins will make the same presentation to the Natchez Board of Aldermen today.