By MATT PIKE

Work has begun on a new state of the art pool facility in St. Joseph at the YMCA after breaking ground last week.

The Mid-America National Aquatic Center is expected to be completed by the fall of next year. CEO of the YMCA in St. Joseph Tammy Killan says the facility is possible thanks to partnerships with the city, county and Mosaic Life Care.

Killan says the plan for the facility evolved thanks to these partnerships from an around 25-foot indoor pool to this state-of-the-art facility that can fill the community’s needs

“So we put together a state of the art facility, it has a 50 meter pool, which is a Myrtha pool, and I don’t know if you know anything about pools but it’s like the best of the best for competitive swimmers, if you want your best time it’s going to be in a Myrtha pool hands down, so I’m really excited we have that option,” Killan says on the KFEQmunnity show. “And what we’re going to do with it, and we haven’t discussed it a lot, is we’ll put what they call a floating bulkhead in the middle, and what that does is kind of divides the pool so you essentially have two pools in one.

“So that will be fantastic for lap swimmers and for us to do swim lessons and water aerobics and the competitive swimming, it also will have two one-meter diving boards.”

A 1,000-person seating area is also being put in for swim competitions to be held in the facility. On top of that, Killan says the pool will offer aqua rehabilitation services for seniors as well as those with injuries that need it

“It’s just the easiest on the joints as well,” Killan explains. “And then with that portion of it, with the rehabilitation, we’re partnering with Mosaic and they will be providing physical therapy about three times a week in that pool.”

After breaking ground last Tuesday, the construction is expected to take around 14 to 18 months.

You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.