Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The New River Valley’s H2okie swim program is moving forward with a new training facility located on a lot to the rear of the Christiansburg Aquatics Center.
Scott Baldwin is the head coach and director for H2okie aquatics, and this past week expressed some excitement about the announced 1,500 sq. ft. project.
This facility is only for ‘out of water’ conditioning and a supplement to assist in the group’s in-water training. No competitions will be held here, just practice type activities.
Baldwin said H2okies need to expand its services.
“Currently we are only able to service the older (high school and middle school) swimmers through an agreement with another local fitness facility,” he said. “The convenience of having the ability to run our dryland (out of water strength and conditioning) on site of the CAC complex is such a game changer for parents to be able to have a one stop situation.”
The facility will cost approximately $800,000, with the organization using reserves for 1/3 of the cost, 1/3 through local financing, and 1/3 through a capital campaign drive they are currently running.
The facility will be located at Mill and Depot streets and includes a long-term agreement with the town of Christiansburg that stretches over 30 years.
H2okies currently serves 250 swimmers, and this new facility will allow for an additional 50-75 swimmers by utilizing both the gym space and the water space at the same time.
The construction should take approximately six months using local builder Kessler Construction.
“Once we have enough committed fundraised dollars, the NRVA INC Board of Directors will green light the project to begin,” Baldwin said. “As far as a start of construction date, we are needing to walk step and step with the other major projects currently going on at the CAC. The solar project is wrapping up at the end of the month, and the much-needed HVAC replacement and upgrade is starting August 1, and we’ll need to dance around their needs a bit. But If I had to guess, I’d say we could break ground as early as the end of the year.”
In 15 years of working with the town, according to Baldwin, the group has developed a great partnership in many areas, and this project is just another one.
“This dryland facility will strengthen our membership and in turn helps us run bigger and more frequent events out of the CAC thus benefiting all of our local businesses in the tourism industry. We love our working partnership with the CAC and believe it has been a model of how a public-private partnership can work to benefit a community,” he said.
