Dignitaries – including an Olympic gold medal winner – helped break ground for a new indoor swimming complex in Evansville.
Mayor Lloyd Winnecke led the groundbreaking for the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Garvin Park...
"Okay, on three. 1, 2, 3..."
Olympic swimmer Lilly King recalled growing up in Evansville…
"I started swimming at Lloyd Pool when I was 8 years old and I'm going to be honest, it looks about the same as it did when I was 8 years old, which is not a good thing. But I remember my mom going to a meeting about getting a new pool and I was probably 10. And I'm standing here at the groundbreaking finally and I'm 22 almost 23 years old and were finally here!"
The $28.4 million facility will replace Lloyd Pool, which opened in the 1970’s.
It will include two indoor swimming pools and an outdoor splash park.
The aquatic center will be built across from Bosse Field, which Mayor Winnecke called a great location…
"We like what it does for the entire Jacobsville neighborhood and the fact that it sits in the Jacobsville TIF, which helps with the funding of it."
Earlier this year, bids for the project came in high…
"So we had to do a little value engineering. We'd had to go back out and do a little more fund raising."
Winnecke said a bit more fund raising is still needed.
Officials hope to open the aquatic center in the summer of 2021.