Mystic Education Center Closure Will Affect Programs For Elderly Residents, Special Needs Children

The closure of the Mystic Education Center will end Groton’s aquatics class for elderly residents and force other agencies that use the warm water pool for physical therapy or special needs classes to look elsewhere, the aquatics director for Groton said.

The state notified the town Aug. 1 that the campus would be shuttered in 60 days to save money.  The decision would save state taxpayers $200,000 this year and $400,000 in later years, according to a letter by State Management Services Director Douglas Moore.

Groton has used the facility for years to house recreational programs, including all of its aquatics classes.

Aquatics Director Amanda Kulo said the department uses the pool 25 hours and five days a week for swim classes and other aquatics programs. About 200 people attend on a typical Saturday, she said.

Some of those classes rely on warm water; Groton runs a swim program for special needs children and an adult water movement primarily for senior citizens, many of whom have joint problems.

The adult water movement class, which primarily serves seniors, will be eliminated, Kulo said. The adult swim program, often used by adults for physical therapy, also needs warm water, she said.

The department will keep its adaptive swim program for children with special needs and move it to University of Connecticut at Avery Point, although the pool there is kept at 79 to 80 degrees and used for competitive lap swimming.

Kulo said they want to try to hold onto the program despite the cold water, because it serves children from many communities, including Groton, East Lyme, Norwich and Montville.

“We have a lot of children with severe autism, and I don’t honestly think that sort of program would work in a competitive pool because of the shock of the water,” she said.

The Avery Point pool will be available 10 hours a week on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Groton will offers its other swim classes and family swim during those two days, she said.

The water temperature in a therapy pool is kept at about 90 degrees to allow people with illnesses like arthritis or recovering from an injury to remain comfortable, but still take part in exercise. The Mystic Education Center pool is also used by Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, the Special Olympics and the Lighthouse Voc-Ed Center, a special education program for students ages 7 to 21.

Janice Lamb, of Stonington, said her 12-year-old son with the spinal cord condition spina bifida, uses the pool at Mystic Education Center. He attends the Lighthouse program after school, and has been using the pool for five years. She said he's lightweight and thin, and needs the warm water.

“It’s a real blow to not have it, because there are very few things he can do because he’s not independent at all,” Lamb said.

She said she understands the facility is old and is being closed for financial reasons. But she said there are no alternatives nearby and many children who already travel for the therapy pool.

The Groton Town Council said Tuesday it would request a meeting the state commissioner of administrative services to discuss the upcoming closure of the center. A date for that meeting has not yet been set. The council also plans to tour the property.

The Mystic Education Center property covers 47.7 acres, and straddles Oral School Road, with most of the land on the east side.  There are nine buildings, including one with multiple wings, and the structures were built between 1923 and 1975. The Pratt Building, which includes the pool, is the newest.

Jeffrey Beckham, spokesman for the state Department of Administrative Services, said the last state agency to occupy the property left in 2009, after which it was considered surplus. He said groups like Groton recreation were allowed to use facilities like the pool until that process moved forward. The rest of the center is abandoned except for Alion Corporation, a technology service company that occupies part of one building.

The town has the right of first refusal to buy the Mystic Education Center if it wants it, Beckham said. The state expects to locate an appraiser in the next couple of weeks, he said. If the town then receives the appraisal, tours the property and declines it, the state would market it to private developers.

Any development would have to comply with local zoning laws, he said.  The area is zoned for single-family residential homes.