The pool at Juniper Swim & Fitness Center may be a popular place to cool off on July afternoons, but that is far from the only time Bend’s only public aquatic center is packed to the gills.

In every month of the year, lanes are crowded with swim teams and adults swimming laps on their own. Time is blocked off for water aerobics class and water polo practice. Swim lessons continue even as the kids head back to school, and during the school day, Juniper is visited by Bend-La Pine Schools students who take part in adaptive physical education programs.

In all, the Bend Park & Recreation District, which runs Juniper, estimates that the facility’s pools had 300,436 visits between September of 2016 and August of 2017, an average of 823 swimmers each day of the year.

And as Bend grows, so, presumably, does the number of people who want to use the aquatic facility or take part in a water-based activity. But Juniper’s indoor and outdoor pools have not grown since 2006, when the 50-meter outdoor pool replaced a smaller pool and the facility added the outdoor activity pool that is open for play during the summer.

Chris Moon, a Bend Swim Club assistant coach who grew up swimming with the club, said that even immediately after the 2006 expansion, swimmers were still pushed to the pool early in the morning or late at night, instead of the most desirable practice times during the late afternoon or early evening.

“I think pool space has always been an issue, even when I was in high school,” said Moon, who graduated from Summit High in 2010 and coached the Mountain View swim team during the 2017-18 school year. “We have sixth-graders waking up at 5:15 to swim — it’s then or never.”

The art of the compromise

“Pool scheduling, much like athletic field scheduling, is always a challenge, regardless of how much space you have,” said Matt Mercer, Director of Recreation for the Bend Park & Recreation District. “Not everybody, but a lot of user groups want to use the same space at the same time on the same days, and that creates a challenge because you can never build enough swimming pools or athletic fields to meet that peak time.”

Mercer said the park district considers requests for pool space in three groups when putting together the swim schedule at Juniper. Their first priority is access for the community as a whole, meaning recreational swimming, open lanes for lap swimmers and rec programs such as swim lessons and water exercise classes. The second priority is Bend-La Pine Schools-associated programs because the park district has a joint-use agreement that allows park and rec programs to use school fields and gyms in exchange for access to the Juniper pool. The third priority is private, competitive groups.

“We don’t do it strictly,” Mercer explained. “We don’t say we’re going to meet (community access) first and then (school programs), because then we’d never get beyond priority one. So scheduling is truly an art of compromise. And as you know, a good compromise is usually where no one is 100 percent happy.”

The largest group of visitors — about 30 percent of patrons from September 2016 to August 2017 — consists of recreational swimmers, mostly families that bring children to splash and play in the water. Swim lessons account for a significant chunk of patrons visiting Juniper, with 2,944 individuals taking a total of 5,439 swim courses between summer 2017 and spring 2018. Patrons were also put on a wait list for lessons 437 times during that period, although Mercer noted that some families might add their name to wait lists for multiple classes at the same time.

The competitive groups based at Juniper make up a smaller portion of visitors — and they do not have room to grow. According to head coach Mark Bernett, the Bend Swim Club currently has 170 swimmers, and nearly all age groups have a wait list for new members.

“Pretty much the only time we let someone in is if someone else quits,” Moon, the Bend Swim Club assistant coach, said. “Everyone should have the opportunity to swim, but it’s difficult when you’re a competitive team, and you already have nine swimmers to a lane.”

And while the Bend Swim Club, which was founded in 1963, is limited by the number of lanes available at Juniper, newer organized groups have faced the challenge of getting a toe in the water. A smaller competitive swim team, Current Swimming, was founded in 2011, and in recent years, water polo participation has exploded for the Bend Waves Water Polo Club, which practices during most of the year, and high school club teams that compete in the fall.

“That’s probably the biggest change that’s occurred in the last 10 years, the growth of water polo.” Mercer said. “Water polo started off as not even a school-affiliated club sport. It was a coach who assembled maybe 15 or 20 people and started a joint, unified program. And it’s grown so that now, all three high schools have teams, men’s and women’s teams. Water polo takes more space than high school swimming, too.”

As an avid lap swimmer, Chris Perret said he understands why many adults are frustrated when they get to the pool and find a small number of packed lanes while half of the 50-meter pool is blocked off for water polo. But as the father of four kids who have participated in swim lessons, swim teams and water polo, he wants each of those groups to get more time in the water. And he has no idea where that extra pool time would come from.

“From a competitive swimming perspective, we don’t have enough lane time,” said Perret, who is on the Bend Waves board and represents a group of parents advocating for high school water polo club teams. “Management at the pool, they’ve bent over backwards. I’ve looked at the schedule, and it’s a nightmare. They really are trying to find a way to do it.”

No room to grow

While Bend has grown consistently in recent years, the number of estimated visits to Juniper has not changed significantly since 2012.

“We have not increased capacity at all, so one observation is that we’re operating at close to capacity,” Mercer suggested. “Or at least people perceive to be capacity. So they say, ‘It’s crowded, I’m not going to go to rec swim today.’ Or, ‘I’m not going to lap swim today.’”

Mercer noted that more people have started floating on the Deschutes River in recent years, perhaps drawing from the group that might have gone to cool down at Juniper in the past.

Rob Higley, the aquatics supervisor at the Athletic Club of Bend, said his facility has seen an increase in use in recent years.

“Our membership has grown,” said Higley, who has been at the athletic club for 15 years. “During the recession, things were a little bit different with membership, with people leaving town to find jobs and stuff, but we’ve come back, and now, we’re quite busy. A lot of people want to use the pool.”

In the past, the Athletic Club of Bend offered swim lessons to the general public, but Higley said demand for the pool grew so much that last summer, he decided to restrict swim lessons and participation in the athletic club’s swim team to club members and their children.

“We were having a heck of a time accommodating all the requests and giving our members, who are paying a lot in dues, the ability to use the pool when we want it, so I had to make a call,” Higley explained. “Juniper is public, and it’s quite busy with swim lessons, so we’ve had people join to be able to do our aquatics programs.”

Building more pools in Bend

The obvious solution to a shortage of pool space is to build more pools.

Mick Nelson, who runs USA Swimming’s Facilities Development Department with his wife, Sue Nelson, estimated that a 25-yard by 25-meter competition pool and surrounding building could be completed for about $6.75 million.

But so far, no organization in Bend has committed to building a competitive pool.

A new public high school in Southeast Bend is scheduled to be open in fall 2021, bringing with it another swim team and set of water polo teams, but Bend-La Pine Schools deputy superintendent Jay Mathisen confirmed that the new campus will not include a pool.

“Being responsible to our taxpayers, who voted our facility’s bonds, means we have to make some hard decisions about what we include and what we don’t include. And the cost of doing a pool and locker rooms and all that’s connected is pretty significant,” Mathisen said, referring to the $268.3 million bond measure that passed in May 2017. “There are some high schools (in Oregon) that do have pools, and it’s been an ongoing struggle for them, from what we hear, because of the ongoing maintenance costs of running that. It sounds like it’s a time- and resource-consuming deal, beyond the initial building.”

Jonathan Henderson, the pastor of Solid Rock Community Church, and his wife, Crystal, are raising money for a full-service YMCA in Bend. The Bend YMCA is already running a preschool and before- and after-school programs in partnership with Mid-Willamette YMCA, which is based in Albany, but Crystal Henderson said the fundraising push, which began last month, would need to net $22 million for the final product to include a pool in addition to a gymnasium, classrooms and kitchen.

At park district meetings, citizens have voiced support for a “West Side Juniper” built in conjunction with Oregon State University-Cascades, but Director of Communications & Outreach Christine Coffin said the school has not yet decided what the eventual health and wellness center will include.

Mercer said the park district’s only plans for a new pool are at Larkspur Community Center, at what is now the Bend Senior Center. The expanded and refurbished facility, designed to be a multi-generational community center, will be constructed in 2019-20 and will include 5,000 square feet of pool space, with a current channel and room for warm-water lap swim. While ideal for therapeutic use, the space will not be suitable for competition or vigorous exercise due to the temperature of the water.

“Just because it’s not a 25- or 50-meter lap pool doesn’t mean it doesn’t result in a significant expansion for all user groups,” Mercer said. “You look at our current pool uses, and you see how high the numbers in rec swim, water exercise and swim instruction, those are three of our four highest visitation areas, and all three can be serviced at Larkspur.”

Ann Story, who coordinates swim lessons at Juniper, said that she plans to introduce more youth swim lessons once Larkspur opens

“We want to maintain what the senior center has been offering to that clientele over there, so in the mornings it will be for the seniors and in the evenings it will be open to kids and families for swim lessons and activities,” Story explained. “In the morning, we’ll have some therapy programs in that pool. We’re definitely excited.”

Although the park district has no plans for another full competition pool, Mercer acknowledged that Bend will need another one soon, likely within the next 10 years. The trouble is, pools are just one of many recreational “needs” that the district will have to meet during that time.

“The highest desired amenity in the district is trails, and it has been for as long as we’ve been doing community outreach and surveys,” Mercer said. “Parks and open spaces are also very high on the list, because those are used by everybody. In terms of indoor recreation facilities, swimming typically rates pretty high, but it’s significantly lower than the trails and open spaces.”