April 23, 2019
While some of you may have taken a break from swimming over the winter, things have been busy at the Clarke and Larkey Swim Centers. In March, the Walnut Creek Aquabears hosted the Spring Junior Olympics at the Clarke Swim Center. This exciting meet brought 1000 swimmers to Heather Farm Park from all over California and Nevada and valuable business to local hotels and restaurants. Also this month, the Walnut Creek Aquanuts won five gold medals at the U.S. Synchronized Swimming National Meet. Not to be outdone, in May the Walnut Creek Masters swim team will provide free swim lessons to 15 more local adults as part of its Swimming Saves Lives program. This program was recently awarded the California Parks and Recreation Society’s award for “Outstanding Program in Volunteers” recognizing the work that it has done over the last several years. Now that it’s spring the City of Walnut Creek will be offering swim lessons and will increase recreational swim hours. We are lucky to live in a city with two extremely active swim centers that offer wonderful opportunities for swimmers of all ages and abilities.
We want to thank the City of Walnut Creek and its dedicated aquatics staff for its recent maintenance efforts at the Clarke Swim Center (Heather Farm pool). You may have noticed the pool was temporarily closed several times over the winter while needed repairs were made. While it was impossible for aquatic programming to scale down to one pool, we were encouraged by the City’s efforts and hope the work performed will keep the Clarke Swim Center open until it can be renovated in the future.
Over the winter, the City continued with its Your Parks, Your Future initiative studying the master plans and facilities in Heather Farm, Civic Park, and Shadelands. Consultants hired by the City have been evaluating park and facility usage, surveying the community about priorities, and providing information about possible designs and cost estimates for various facilities. Not surprisingly, community feedback showed strong support for aquatics and specifically for renovating the Clarke Swim Center. The Advisory Committee will be making a recommendation to the City Council about pool designs and whether it should maintain an Olympic-sized pool at Heather Farm as we have enjoyed for over 50 years.
The WCAF continues to monitor the Your Parks, Your Future project and will try to keep the community informed of important developments. To receive updates from WCAF, please join our Facebook page. To learn more about WCAF visit our website. You can also keep up-to-date on the City’s Your Parks, Your Future campaign, by requesting email updates from the Advisory Committee at http://www.walnut-creek.org/departments/arts-and-recreation/recreation-parks/your-parks-your-future.
Thank you for your support of aquatics!
Mike Heaney, Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation President