City pool opens

I’m really impressed with this project. It’s just beautiful.”

Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima

“It’s hard to believe we’re actually here and it’s actually built,” Mayor Ken Miyagishima said June 15, shortly before cutting the ribbon to open the Las Cruces Natatorium.

The 50-meter competitive pool holds 670,426 gallons of water, Miyagishima said, housed in a facility at 405 W. Hadley Ave. that is more than 37,000 square feet in total.

The pool has 10 lanes and ranges from four to 12 feet deep. The total price tag was $18.5 million.

“I’m really impressed with this project,” the mayor said. “It’s just beautiful.”

“This is a much-needed facility,” said Las Cruces City Councilor Becki Graham.

The pool is more than an upgrade and replacement for the city’s aging Frenger Pool, Graham said. It means Las Cruces can host competitive swim meets and “everyone can get into the water, learn to swim and enjoy swimming sports,” she said. The natatorium will also host movie nights and other public events.

“We’re making this a community space,” Graham said.

“The city was a great partner,” said Chief Operating Officer Travis Coker of HB Construction, which built the pool. “It was definitely a team effort,” he said.

“This is built to world-class standards,” Coker said.

That means if a world record is set during a swimming competition at the pool, it will stand, he said.

“We’re very proud of it,” Coker said.

One of the pool’s features is a massive underground surge tank, he said, which will absorb the ripple waves created by swimmers, so they don’t interfere with other swimmers.

Coker has two children, ages 7 and 11, who will use the pool, he said.

“I am excited about getting them into swim lessons,” Coker said.

“We have arrived,” Mayor Pro Tempore Kasandra Gandara said. “I am so thrilled.”

Opening the pool has improved the quality of life in Las Cruces, Gandara said, and “It’s equitable,” she said – everyone can use it and now all the city’s high schools can have swim teams.

Among those attending the ribbon cutting was Tomas Mendez of ASA Architects. Mendez was a principal designer of the pool for the city before he retired and returned to ASA.

Greg Smith and Jack Welsh

Former City Councilor Greg Smith, who attended the ribbon cutting, got involved in the city pool issue 15 years ago.

“I was swimming regularly at that point, and the city was getting ready to build the Regional Aquatic Center with a big chunk of capital outlay money that the local legislative delegation had cobbled together,” Smith said. “A group of us were advocating for a ‘real’ pool because Apodaca Pool was about to go offline and Frenger Pool was limping along. Both were 25-meter pools that had been built in 1961.  What the city was talking about, and what was built despite our objections, was an enclosed water park that would still be leaving Las Cruces without a 50-meter pool.

“The city’s decision to build what they did at that time was one of the reasons I ran for city council in 2011. During my eight years on the council, I was consistently an advocate for the 50-meter pool and worked with city managers to ensure that the question of budgeting for this pool was eventually put before the city council for a vote. That wasn’t the end of it, of course, but just as my time on the council was coming to a close, the community pool was finally something of a given, something we were definitely going to do.”

Smith said the issue of a city pool arose more than 50 years ago.

New Mexico State University opened a pool in May 1967, said former NMSU Aquatic Director Jack Welsh.

That pool was opened to local swimming teams “because there wasn’t enough pool space in Las Cruces,” Smith said. The city told NMSU it only needed to “borrow” pool space on campus for a few years, until it built its own pool, he said.

Now, 56 years later, “it is finally true,” Smith said.

“In the intervening years, there were several efforts like Swim Las Cruces! and AGUA (Aquatics Get Us Active) attempting to get the pool in place,” Smith said.

Welsh said he, Philipp Djang and Dr. John Phillips were among consistent advocates for the city pool.

Welsh, who was NMSU aquatic director 1964-67 and 70-81, said NMSU students approved a referendum in 1962 to assess themselves $5 per semester to construct and operate a 25-yard indoor pool.

“They did the same in 1969 to construct the outdoor pool,” he said. “No state monies have been used to construct or operate these pools.”