Houston County breaks ground on new indoor aquatic center with 50-meter pool, 20 lanes

Officials from across Houston County broke ground on a new aquatic center earlier this month.

The Tommy Stalnaker Aquatic Center will be home to recreational activities and training programs as well as competitive swimming events for local high school teams.

The new project is a collaboration between the Houston County Board of Commissioners, Houston County Board of Education and the city governments of Warner Robins, Perry and Centerville.

“That part has been truly amazing, just to see the collaborative mindset that every entity came to the table with,” said Chris Brown, assistant superintendent of human resources and district operations for the Houston County School District. “And knowing that this is a project that our community needs, knowing that it’s a project that our athletes need.”

The aquatic center will be located on Cohen Walker Drive across from Freedom Field.

The land was donated by the Houston County Board of Education which is managing the facility’s construction. Brown serves as co-chair of the project’s design committee.

“I think Mr. Stalnaker captured that the best when he said that this project is about the quality of life for Houston County residents,” Brown said. “I think having a pool of this size and the opportunities it brings, it’s just going to bring so much value to the individual lives, but also a lot of economic value to our community. We’ll have the opportunity to host various competitions which means revenue – people staying in hotels, eating at our restaurants, things of that nature.”

The Tommy Stalnaker Aquatic Center will feature a 50-meter pool with 20 lanes, a warm-up pool and ample stadium seating.

“Our high school athletes as well as our Warner Robins Aquanauts teams currently swim in an outdoor pool that in the wintertime gets basically a big bubble put over the top of it,” Brown said. “Our swim coaches have the desire, really the need for a 50-meter pool … For the high school athletics competitions, a lot of races are run on the 25 yards, so we will have 20 25-yard lanes in this pool. That’s just going to provide so much opportunity to host events efficiently.

“Right now, our high school athletes are having to drive to other surrounding counties to host the county championship. But now, come fall of ‘23 when this project is completed, we’re going to get to host our first county championships within our own community, which will be great for our student athletes.”

The community-oriented facility was named after the longtime chairman of the Houston County Board of Commissioners who is retiring at the end of this year, after 50 years serving the county.

“Mr. Stalnaker is an amazing individual who, in my opinion, he has a heart larger than the square foot of these pools. And we’ve got about 15,000 square feet of pools,” Brown said. “We were actually having a conversation, Dr. [Mark] Scott and I, one day about this and just decided that this would be a great way to thank him for his service to Houston County and continue to remember the impact that Tommy Stalnaker has had on so many residents of Houston County, whether directly or indirectly. This was an opportunity as a showpiece for our county to just thank him for all the work he’s done for the residents of Houston County.”

The major development’s funding came from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). Officials plan to bring enrichment to the community through a variety of aquatic training programs including training for first responders and possibly scuba diving lessons.

Brown said the aquatic center will also help the school district get closer to its goal of giving every elementary school student in the district the opportunity to learn how to swim.

“We’re working with the City of Warner Robins right now to establish what the day-to-day operations will be,” he said. “Once we get those details completely ironed out and finalized, we’ll definitely have that information available for the public … I think the opportunities and the options we’re going to have when we get this facility up and running are going to be limitless.”

The Tommy Stalnaker Aquatic Center was designed by Cooper Carry and the construction manager is Parrish Construction Group.

“We’re very excited and ready to begin construction,” Brown said. “We’re just hoping for good weather and the supply chain cooperation with us so we can have this project completed in fall of ‘23.”