Pierce County families campaign for public pool. It would cost $46M, study said
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- PenMet Parks previously identified their new Recreation Center as a possible pool site.
- A 2024 feasibility study found an aquatics center could cost $46 million.
- Park district exploring partnerships and logistics of funding future aquatic facility.
A large empty lot sits behind PenMet Parks’ new Recreation Center, just outside Gig Harbor.
To Heather Maher, 38, it’s an area ripe for opportunity.
“ ... I see the next dream just waiting to happen,” she said in a video posted on Facebook Nov. 24.
Maher, a parent of two, co-founded a campaign called “Swim Safe Gig Harbor” in 2021 to advocate for a public swimming pool in her community, The News Tribune reported. The Gig Harbor area currently lacks a public aquatic facility, and swimmers are limited to private options or the local high school pools with restricted public access.
On Nov. 3, Maher renewed her advocacy efforts with a Change.org petition to show the park district that “their constituents are still calling for a safe, public place where our children can learn how to swim; where our seniors can access water aerobics; where our local aquatic sports teams can practice,” per the petition. The petition had over 240 signatures as of Dec. 31.
Is PenMet Parks following up on their aquatic center feasibility study?
PenMet Parks began studying the possibility of a public aquatic center in the fall of 2022, according to their website. Consultants worked with a steering committee that included public officials, school staff and parents and hosted public engagement sessions to complete a feasibility study. They presented that study to the park district Board of Commissioners in March 2024.
After evaluating multiple sites, the consultants landed on the Recreation Center and former Peninsula Gardens nursery properties as the top candidates for a pool. The park district adopted a plan this year to turn Peninsula Gardens into a park with pickleball courts, picnic shelters and trails, putting it out of the running for a pool site.
Assuming construction began in the first quarter of 2025, the study estimated that the aquatic facility as designed in the study would cost about $46 million.
PenMet Parks spokesperson Brynn Grimley confirmed in an email Dec. 19 that the study identified the Recreation Center campus as a preferred site for a potential swimming pool, but wrote that plans haven’t progressed beyond including a new aquatics facility in the park district’s long-range capital plan, which extends 20 years.
“We genuinely appreciate the passion and advocacy from community members who want to see an aquatics facility on the peninsula,” Grimley wrote. “We know this is a high priority for many residents and seek to be a productive stakeholder in community-wide conversations to find solutions.”
The park district doesn’t have any money currently set aside in the 2026 budget to design, build or run an aquatics facility, but they are pursuing “partnerships that can expand public access to swimming in the short term, while a longer-term strategy is developed,” per the study’s recommendation, she wrote.
The cost estimate in the study would need to be updated before the park district moves forward, as the dollar amount is linked to a specific concept and assumptions, she wrote.
“The feasibility study outlines the site requirements, infrastructure needs and financial considerations necessary to construct an aquatics facility adjacent to the center,” she wrote. “Advancing that option would require an approved project scope, a sustainable funding plan, and direction from the Board of Park Commissioners, along with community input.”
Demand for swimming lessons still high
Maher recalled trying to sign up her kids for swim lessons at the Tom Taylor Family YMCA years ago.
“It was like Black Friday,” she said. “If you don’t sign in at midnight, you’re not going to get swim lessons. It’s just bonkers.”
She says it doesn’t seem right to her that Gig Harbor describes itself as the “Maritime City” and is surrounded by water, but can’t meet the demand for swim lessons from the community. When the Swim Safe campaign started, Beard Swim Co. (now Emler Swim School - Gig Harbor) had 1,000 kids on the waitlist, she said.
Gina Hammer served on the PenMet Parks aquatic facility steering committee, along with Maher and other residents. A mom of two, she told The News Tribune that she moved with her family from Hawaii to Gig Harbor nine years ago.
Her son, who attended Gig Harbor High School, began swimming from a young age and now competes at the university-level, said Hammer. He went to the Olympic trials and competed in Australia and Romania. Getting there wasn’t easy, she said.
From their home on Fox Island, it took them an hour every day to commute to her son’s swim practice with KING Aquatic Club, which he joined at age 11. His practice sessions were two to three hours long, meaning they were gone for five hours every night, said Hammer.
The thought of having a pool closer to home brought her close to tears.
“We really divided and conquered our family for him to be able to achieve what he did,” she said. “My husband would stay home with my daughter, and I would take him to practice.”
“ ... All the dinners, the nights spent apart or eating in the car, we made it work,” she said. “We are a tight-knit family, but it was not easy.”
Maher said that she and several other supporters plan to attend the Jan. 6 PenMet board meeting to renew their interest in a public pool in the Gig Harbor area.
