Don Wiley (Gold Wingnut - YouTube) who is a very reliable source has mentioned this several times. I even asked him straight out and even though he isn't 100 percent sure that was his answer. I highly recommend you watch his channel as he covers the growth in the south very honestly..

I so agree! And the morning hours are very short.

Thar is exactly what I was wondering. Do they really need to practice everyday? Give a little equal time. Especially in the winter where swimming at noon to 2 pm is warmer than 630 am.

I bet money is the issue as they build less and less pools. They are expensive. Even more reason to change the scheduling of current pools to be a little more balanced...

That link stops at Ezell... I think they were interested in future plans no?

I used to lap at Seabreeze, then Colony (swimmers were very happy to see new comers) then Eisenhower. I agree it would be nice to have 3 hour blocks with full lanes for laps, then 3 hour block net games ( that is so over crowded many don’t get in).

But I don’t ever see that happening. Lanes have always been a prime since 2007. Would love to see a 6am lap start, yes, it’s cold getting out in January but one can suck it up.

2 years ago we just gave up built a house with room for pool. We didn’t add a lap lane, but a pool to enjoy, adding a tether for laps. I actually find i am stronger by tether, than swim short lap. Not an option for all, but well worth it for us.

We have a swimpro tether in our pool. It’s definitely better than nothing and I use it for short swims almost daily, but I very much prefer to swim laps in a regulation length sports pool, with lanes and swim flags, for my cardio exercise. I do enjoy a quick 20 minute tether swim before golfing, to loosen up all the muscles, I find it as good or better than stretching.

And what’s up with those stupid combo swims, put in all the lanes. There are over 90 neighborhood and family swimming pools where people can water walk and hang around floating on noodles and socializing. Lap swimmers need a regulation length 25 yard pool with lanes and swim flags, which is only possible at the sports pools.

It's bang out of order when people actually expect to be allowed to swim in a swimming pool.
When will all this trouble making end? :shrug:


:icon_wink:

So agree! It seems like it's all combo swims now. While the lap swimmers are trying to share a lane the water walkers are standing in a circle running in place just talking. Maybe divide the pool at least 3/4 swim laps...

Thank you. I actually do watch his videos but did not pick on this.

What's a "tether" in your pool? How does that enable lap swimming? thanks.

Yes, there’s a sports pool coming to Eastport/Olympia Regional Rec Center according to the plans that have been submitted and permitted. Will there be more Regional Rec Centers? Considering the amount of property owned by The Villages of Lake-Sumter and the various over holding companies operated by “the developer” there is little doubt that there are many more to come. None however have been announced and probably won’t be announced for at least a year or two, if not longer. The RRC are a rare breed, currently only 13 exist (I still question calling Fenney a RRC) and because of their size and features, they are very expensive to build, Olympia (#14) will be the largest and most expensive built because of the new and added feature that they are adding.

An indoor pool is very unlikely to occur. It is a very expensive facility because of the water and high humidity the building and all the support equipment must be able to withstand. The operating and maintenance cost are also extremely high due to the corrosion caused by the chemicals and the humidity. And don’t even go down the road of “the developer can afford it”, the developer doesn’t now, never has, and never will pay for it, the residents have to pay for it through their amenity fees, it’s called “a business” not a charity, and they own none of us anything other than what was included in our contract to purchase our homes here. You bought a house not a rich uncle to take care of your every want and need.

I agree that more time maybe could be allocated to lap swimmers, but how much? How many lap swimmers are there using the pool to swim laps each day, based on my own personal observations, it is a very small number. Is it fair to the rest of the residents to have to stand around and wait to use the Sports pool (not called a Lap pool) to play water polo, water volleyball, or water aerobics while it sits empty or 1 person is using it to swim laps or may want to swim laps. I think not. I know John Rohan and many of the staff at the parks and recreation department and they make their decision based on facts and data. If the demand was higher they would, without doubt, allocate more time for lap swimming, the fact that they haven’t is evidence enough to support there not being sufficient demand.

The rec department could simply combine all the house allocated to lap swimming and apply it to one facility and reserve it for 8 hours a day 7 days a week for lap swimming. But then that would disenfranchise many more residents that live around that RRC, and of course the complaints would start here on ToTV and on NextDoor about how unfair it is that they have to drive “all that way” to get to the only pool that allows lap swimming.

It’s a balance and no matter what, someone is always going to be unhappy and complain.

Well said, as always, although the “water polo” made me laugh…won’t the horses drown???

As a lap swimmer I can share in the frustrations, but it really comes down to efficient use of the available space. An hour of lap swimming at one of the sports pools will accommodate at most 8 to 10 people. The same hour for water volleyball will get at least 72 people and water aerobics 50-70, depending on the instructor’s class limits. And from my observations trying to swim after either of these, they are almost always full and many times turning away people.

Yes we get the short end of it in the winter months when there are fewer hours in the day and we lose those open swim slots in the late afternoon/evening.

But like everything here (such as the crowded golf courses in the winter), we aren’t willing to pay to have available capacity all the time for every person and activity.

I think the rec department does a decent job of balancing the needs of everyone with the available facilities. Sometimes we have to wait our turn - not something we Villagers do very well sometimes.