By ASHLEY MAMULALos Alamos
Dear County Councilors,
I just spent spring break in Breckenridge, Colo., and spent four days using their county rec center.
I am always happy to buy the punch pass to use this facility. One of the highlights is their pool area. Along with the lanes dedicated to swimming, they have hot tubs, a sauna, and steam room. What a novel idea for an aquatic area! It is hard for me to believe that here in Los Alamos, we have an entire facility dedicated to aquatics and it lacks hot tubs, sauna, or steam!
The best part of the swimming area in Breckenridge is the leisure pool. My youngest son is four and he is just learning to swim. In the last few days in Breckenridge, his ability has really improved. It isn’t the slide, fun buckets, etc. that the leisure pool provides, but the fact that he is able to walk around in three foot water where he can practice his swimming safely and confidently, without having to wear floaties or be held constantly.
At our aquatic center here in Los Alamos there is no place for him to do that. There is the ramp area going down into the therapy pool that kids are not allowed to stay in, and of course the platform in the therapy pool with the fun rails that kids are not allowed to play on, but those are the only two areas for our youngest swimmers. My two oldest kids both learned to swim before they were three because we lived in an area where they had pools like the one in Breckenridge.
I’m not asking for slides, splashing buckets and all the extras that leisure pools often offer, although I think they would be a great incentive to young families who are supposedly the demographic we are hoping will come and reside here. I would just love for the county to offer a facility that meets the needs of a majority of our population at every age.
This town is so unique because, along with intellect and diversity, we have a large and amazing population of incredibly active and athletic people, young and old! Surely our county will make the commitment and effort to reflect that!
This council has an opportunity to address the needs of our population and have a positive impact on the quality of life for all of our residents. It is my belief that this is one of your primary responsibilities.
Thank you.
