Marty Gordon
Terry Caldwell became Christiansburg’s first aquatics center when there was no pool.
She had worked at the Montgomery County Parks and Recreation Department’s Frog Pond, and when the town announced plans for a brand-new aquatics center, she took the job during the planning stages.
“I can remember the early years. I had to put together policies and everything else associated with opening an aquatics center,” she said Thursday.
Caldwell is stepping down after 18 years as the facility’s director. As of this week, the pool itself has been open for 16 years.
Yes, there was no physical building when she started. Caldwell witnessed the pouring of concrete on an empty lot along Mill Lane. From there, the aquatics center rose to the sky.
“I was able to develop the policies and programs that we have today,” she remembered this past week.
The facility was a public-private partnership between the Town of Christiansburg and Virginia Tech, who has an agreement to provide $250,000 in funding annually for 25 years.
The facility hosted the 2012 ACC swim and dive championships and continues to serve the community with local and statewide swimming competitions.
Mayor Michael Barber said under Caldwell’s guidance and leadership, the facility has grown from a basic hole in the ground to one of, if not the, finest aquatic center on the East Coast.
“It has endured the pandemic, construction and renovation and still survives and continues to grow,” he said.
The initial idea dates to a 1995 master plan when a comprehensive community survey revealed swimming topped the wish list for preferred local activities. While a new recreation center was prioritized first, the pool was slated for later development.
The town originally intended to build a modest community pool, however, Virginia Tech stepped in with a shared financial interest to scale into a massive, Olympic-grade competitive facility.
Prior to July 2010, the Virginia Tech Swimming and Diving teams spent decades training at the aging pool inside War Memorial Gym on campus. The CAC gave them a premier facility with double the lane length, deeper diving wells and proper training equipment.
“This partnership has brought further recognition to a storied program, and the number of All-American swimmers and divers has grown significantly. Now, several Olympic swimmers train in this facility,” Barber said.
Because of the partnership, the pool is equipped with adjust bulk heads, advanced diving towers (up to 10 meters) and electronic timing. This allows the town to host several conference matches on an annual basis.
To balance the athletics with family use, the facility also includes a warm-water therapy pool and a leisure pool with a two-story water slide.
Caldwell is proud of other programs the facility has been able to bring to the community, including swim lessons for every second grade student in the county for many years.
“I hope the facility will continue to have impact on our community to teach people to swim, preventing them from drowning, while providing swim competitions for area schools,” she said.
Memberships have continued to increase for the past eight years, and the latest numbers show the facility has had an economic impact of millions of dollars over the facility’s history for retailers, hotels and restaurants.
