Estancia High swimmers resume practice in home pool after setbacks delay new aquatic center

Estancia High School athletes started practicing for swim meets in their refilled home pool this week. The students had to train at other schools after Estancia’s pool was drained in anticipation of building a new aquatic center that ended up being delayed.

On Thursday, Estancia High’s PTSA Facebook page shared a photo of swimmers practicing in the pool on the Costa Mesa campus and a message saying: “The old pool has been repaired and is fully functional for our teams. It will be used until the new Estancia Aquatics Center construction gets under way next year.�

The L-shaped pool will remain available until the Newport-Mesa Unified School District approves a contractor to break ground on the aquatic center, district spokeswoman Annette Franco said Friday.

Plans are to have the center open by the 2019-20 school year, Franco said.

Water polo and swimming coach Mitch White said students have shown interest in joining aquatic sports since the pool was refilled and said he’s happy to have his team training at home.

The $9-million aquatic center project includes an Olympic-size 50-meter pool, a coaches’ office, restrooms, a snack bar, a lunch area, a team room, shade structures and site work and furnishings. The team room and shade structures weren’t initially included in the project in 2016, when the estimated cost was $7 million.

Some community members criticized the district for draining the existing pool — which is 25 yards long on one side and about 27 yards on the other — in September before construction bids were completed for the new center. Higher-than-expected bids delayed groundbreaking on the project, which was originally scheduled to open for the fall 2018 sports season.

In December, an online petition called on the district to refill Estancia’s existing pool before the 2018 swim season.

Some were concerned that because the pool’s pumps had been removed, refilling it could prove complicated.

During a special meeting Jan. 11, trustees approved preparing the pool for use within two months at a cost of about $104,000 while district staff brainstormed a timeline and financing options for the aquatic center project.

Later in January, the board approved an increase in the project’s budget to $9 million from $7 million, with recent one-time funding from the state helping to pay the cost.

District officials said they would put the center out to bid as a design-build project, in which one agency creates the design and does the construction, to help quicken the process and complete the project in time for the 2019 swim season.

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UPDATES:

5:15 p.m.: This article was updated with Mitch White’s comment.

This article was originally published at 4:10 p.m.