Everybody into the Pool! YMCA’s New Aquatic Center Opening

After a year of waiting, the Fercho YMCA is showing off its brand new aquatic center to the public.

The Cass County YMCA serves close to 60,000 people each year in our area and for the past year, many of those people were without a pool.

But after this morning’s ribbon cutting ceremony, it’s clear the wait was well worth it.

It was just a year ago when YMCA members said goodbye to their old pool and patiently waited for something new.

“We really appreciate the patience of our members and people in the community because quite honestly we’ve been down for a whole year,” says YMCA President, Paul Finstad.
 
“It’s not often you get to build a pool like this so we started back in May of last year and we had to demo the existing pool,” says Roers Construction Project Manager, Tom Jarvis.
 
“We now have four panels for the climbing wall so we can have multiple people for the climbing wall at one time,” says Aquatics Director, Britt Selbo.
 
Britt Selbo has been counting down the days for this facility to open.
 
“It’s so pretty it’s better than what we could have imagined the staff is so ready to get into this facility and start using it,” says Selbo.
 
“I kind of begin to measure responses after a while and the one response that was kind of similar to everybody was wow,” says Finstad.
 
The new facility has a swimming pool with six lap lanes instead of four, a new zero depth entry pool for kids and Britt’s favorite part, beautiful windows flooding the space with natural light.
 
“This is probably the thing when people walk in that they notice the most is having these beautiful windows facing south facing island park,” says Selbo.
 
“Now the new facility will be busy with plenty of classes like aerobics and swimming lessons but if you do want to come just for a fun swim this pool will be open throughout the day.”
 
“So you really don’t have to worry about looking at the schedule trying to figure it out this one is always open for people to use at all times,” says Selbo.
 
And while current members can’t wait to hop back in the pool, the new facility might attract some new faces too.
 
“I’ll have to become a Y member now I guess.” says Jarvis.

To many members’ delight, the aquatic center’s opening is two weeks earlier than scheduled, all while staying right on budget.

The pool will be open for the public to use starting this Saturday at noon.