CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Councilman Gil Hernandez of District 5 said there will be a new lap pool, recreational pool along with slides, and other fun water activities that could be coming to the city.
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“Well, it’s a great thing because we haven’t built a swimming pool in over 30 years,” Councilman Hernandez said.
“It’s important to have these kinds of facilities to teach our kids how to swim,” Councilman Hernandez said.
Just over $10 million will be spent at the new Bill Witt Aquatic Center at 6809 Yorktown Blvd. Hernandez said it will be the first public pool on the south side with aquatic recreation.
Kacee Obregon lives off Yorktown Blvd. and walks her dog, Moose, in the park. She said she had no idea about the aquatic center plans.
“I think that would be great. We do not really have anything over here on this side of Corpus,” said Obregon.
Right now, there are five city swimming pools, but with the growing area on the south side of town, Councilman Hernandez said this will give families something to enjoy and teach kids how to swim.
“That’s something I would want to do when I have kids is to teach them how to swim, and it is right down the road, so that’s perfect,” said Obregon.
“You can ask a lot of people, and half of them had a near-drowning experience. It’s important to be able to survive in those situations, and you cannot do that if you do not have the facilities to teach kids how to swim,” Councilman Hernandez said.
Hernandez said with the new aquatic center, there will be about 10 to 12 lifeguards per shift to provide safety and bring jobs to the area.
“So that'd be perfect for the kids in our neighborhood to have a summer job, or you know, anything like that,” Obregon said.
“To be able to have those facilities and really have a robust learn-to-swim program out there for the city. But it's important to be able to learn how to swim, especially because we are a city surrounded by water,” Hernandez said.
Councilman Hernandez said the goal is to open summer of 2024. The city council will discuss plans as part of its meeting at City Council.
