A Public Swimming Pool in Future Walton County Parks & Rec Plans

Would you like to see a swimming pool in Walton County? Yarko Foltyn would. He and his wife, Diane, coach the Youth Swimmers, most of whom are from Walton County. But they have to go to Oxford to swim. The swimmers train at the swimming pool on the Emory Campus in Oxford, Ga. Previously, the training had taken place in Blue Springs in Loganville, but with that pool no longer available, Youth swimmers from Walton Waves now train in Oxford.

“We are blessed to be swimming at Emory, but the majority of our swimmers are from Walton County and we’d love to be able for them to swim here,” Foltyn told the Walton County Board of Commissioners at the August meeting.

The swimmers were at the BOC meeting to be recognized for their accomplishments this season. Youth Swimming, which swims in the Gwinnett Swim League, had racked up some impressive results in the league of more than 6,000 swimmers.

“Youth Swimming summer program has over 150 kids on swim teams and over the years have had 1,000 swimmers and more than 500 families go through the program,” Foltyn said, adding that this season 33 had competed at the state competition. “We had four state champions and finished 6^th overall.”

Foltyn said, in addition, Youth Swimming had been chosen by the other coaches to receive the Sportmanship Award for the season. He shared a recent story in The Walton Tribune that listed accomplishments of Youth swimmers this season. He then went on to ask commissioners to consider the benefits of a public swimming pool to families in Walton County.  Neighboring Gwinnett County has nine pools, five of them competition-size aquatic centers.

Commission Chairman Kevin Little said a swimming facility was in Walton County’s long-term plans, but the current economic situation had forced the plans to be put on hold for the moment.

“We did a master plan and in the 3^rd phase there are plans for a water auditorium,” Little said, adding it was designed to be built in the Between area. "It was in our recreation plan and we will get there. We’ve come a long way and hope to get to a point where we can prioritize it. But unfortunately we’re going to have to build a $28 million jail right now. But we do have some future plans for parks and recreation and there is a pool included in Phase 3.”

Would you like to see a public swimming pool in Walton County?