The third annual 50 Top Swim Cities presented by Speedo USA is based on a research study commissioned by USA Swimming and Speedo USA in partnership with SRi and Sports Marketing Surveys, the official research provider to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. Click here to read the full story.

An aging swim center in the East Bay that has been the home pool for many world-class swimmers, including some Olympians, is in danger of closing if it can’t raise enough money for an overhaul. Elyce Kirchner reports. View the video here: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Aging-Walnut-Creek-Swim-Center-May-Lose-Its-50-Meter-Pool_Bay-Area-388895861.html

WALNUT CREEK — Lawmakers will contribute another $5 million toward a new family aquatics center that will replace the aging Clarke Swim Center in Heather Farm Park. A City Council majority agreed July 5 to boost the amount the city will pitch in for the new swim facility at the community park. Councilman Justin Wedel was the only lawmaker to …

Last night, after hearing presentations from your Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation, Harley Ellis Devereaux, (HED), and deliberating, a process that took 2 1⁄2 hours, the Walnut Creek City Council selected HED as their partner to move forward in the planning, construction, and operation of a new aquatics facility at Heather Farm Park. This is disappointing news for those who have …

WALNUT CREEK — The deteriorating and inadequate Clarke Swim Center will be rebuilt, operated and its scope expanded by a national firm in partnership with the city. Michigan-based engineering company Harley Ellis Devereaux won the City Council’s nod Tuesday to go ahead with a project the city in 2011 estimated might cost more than $22 million. It rejected the locally …

WALNUT CREEK — Walnut Creek residents might have a tough time keeping up with all the various plans that either now shape or will help shape their city. There’s the General Plan, the West Downtown Specific Plan, the Bicycle Plan, the Climate Action Plan, the Maintenance Master Plan and the Creek Restoration Plan. But if residents stayed to the end …

WALNUT CREEK — With the pools on the brink of physical failure, city leaders seek a partner to help rebuild and potentially run the Clarke Swim Center in Heather Farm Park. With the YMCA and a group supported by city swim teams unable over the last year to reach agreement on building and operating new pools, City Council members said …

WALNUT CREEK — A budget hashout to close a multi-million-dollar shortfall, a process council members called “completely insane” and “bizarre,” may finally be solved. The two-year budget deficit that ballooned to more than $5 million — once the council took on the responsibility of paying for some library hours that once was paid for through an expired parcel tax — …

WALNUT CREEK — For the third time in six years, the city’s aquatics programs are again targeted for cuts and swimmers fear they will be left high and dry. The Walnut Creek aquatic community is outraged over the possibility that Clarke Swim Center may become a seasonal pool beginning this fall, like the city’s much smaller Larkey Pool. Clarke’s potential …