Swim coaches, students and parents urge Davis board to plan new indoor pool in Farmington

Coaches, students and parents used the public comment period at the Davis School District board meeting March 19 to press the board to help plan and fund a new indoor pool in Farmington that would serve high school teams and community programs.

Stacy Edholm, Farmington High swim coach, told the board that capacity limits at South Davis Rex Center (SDRC) forced teams to share lanes, sometimes turn away athletes, and frequently transport swimmers to distant pools. "There's one solution for these two problems: build a new indoor pool for Davis County that complements our other existing state-of-the-art student athlete facilities," Edholm said.

Several student speakers described similar problems. Ellie Gardner, a Lehi High sophomore, said the Layton pool lacks starting blocks and requires teams to travel 15–20 minutes for practice starts; ninth-grader Maddie Hatch and elementary student Rachel Sedgwick described swimming's personal and community benefits. Coaches and parents cited specific incidents: one coach said meets were ended because of a gas leak and another described extended practice interruptions during maintenance.

Kit Barker, Davis High swim coach, urged the district to work with Layton, Kaysville and Farmington to build a competitive aquatic center that could host meets and generate revenue as a public facility. Parent Eva Harris described what she called unsafe and degrading conditions at Layton Surf and Swim and said the district and nearby cities should plan a 50-meter facility that could also host community programs.

Board members thanked the speakers and said a district pool research group will continue looking at options; the board invited advocates to stay for the business meeting and said staff would follow up with the superintendent's office and the pool research group.