MORGANTOWN — The Aquatic Heart at Mylan Park has shortly established a reputation for itself in nationwide swimming and diving circles.
It’s turn out to be a daily cease for USA Diving, which held nationwide occasions within the venue in 2022, 2023 and intends to return in 2024. The Huge 12 swimming and diving championships may also be again in Mylan Park subsequent yr.
However on the subject of neighborhood use, the power has fallen off the tempo.
Chalk a few of that as much as horrible timing.
The ribbon chopping ceremony for the $33 million, 90,000 square-foot facility happened in November 2019. Inside months, it was fully off limits to the neighborhood attributable to COVID-19.
“It’s beneath what was anticipated, but it surely’s been rising ever so barely each month. It’s doing rather a lot higher. You work it was open a month or two months earlier than the pandemic, then it needed to shut down … That set us behind. So, it’s a problem, however I feel we’re getting there. We simply must have extra neighborhood involvement on this facility,” Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora mentioned.
Enter the MyPARK Cross.
On Wednesday, Jennifer Lainhart got here earlier than the fee to announce this system, via which people and companies can buy discounted passes offering entry to the neighborhood parts of the aquatic middle in addition to different Mylan Park facilities.
Lainhart is the director of the aquatic middle in addition to the neighboring monitor complicated.
She defined a person can buy the cross for $25 month-to-month and obtain three swim passes to the neighborhood pool. One journey to the pool for a non-member is generally $7.
The cross additionally contains free entry and small gear leases on the recreation courts (basketball, pickleball and many others.) on the Hazel & J.W. Ruby Group Heart throughout public hours, and 20% reductions on: Reservation of courts or batting cages on the neighborhood middle; reservation of the assorted athletic fields; and participation of packages on the aquatic middle and neighborhood middle.
The monitor complicated is at all times open to the general public exterior of reserved instances.
Whereas the cross is offered for particular person buy, the actual hope is that it could turn out to be a perk provided by space employers.
The Monongalia County Fee was the primary on board. Each county worker will obtain a cross at a value to the county of $9 per 30 days, per worker.
Lainhart mentioned companies can attain out to her at [email protected] or 304-933-2783 to barter a price.
She mentioned the purpose of this system is to easily get extra folks within the doorways to see the power and the wealth of packages and occasions on provide.
“We’ll work with corporations of various sizes. We need to be sure folks have entry to it,” Lainhart mentioned. “This can be a perk they’ll share with their staff and say, ‘Hey, we’ve carried out this for you.’”
Fee President Tom Bloom mentioned the aquatic middle stays a hidden gem inside the neighborhood greater than three years after its opening.
“It nonetheless surprises me that folks go on the market and say, ‘Oh my God. I didn’t understand how good.’ We have to deliver people out to the power. It’s there for them to make use of. I feel there’s an concept that it’s just like the outdated natatorium. That’s it’s just for WVU and so they can’t use it. That is one thing completely different,” he mentioned. “That is for the neighborhood too.”
Take a look at mylanpark.org/mypark-pass for extra data.
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