Bordering on the political | Tri-City Herald

One of our favorite year round activities is swimming.

Throughout the year, my kids both take swimming lessons. During the summer, the lessons continue, but the are supplemented with trips to Prout Pool, lake and shore swimming at the family cabins and various water play in all forms.

In this climate? Water is a must-have. My husband swam competitively through high school and also life guarded. I swam until no more lessons were available, and then I switched sports. Swimming is a very important skill, and I hope all parents enroll their children in swimming at some point.

My son enjoys the playing part of swimming and lessons a touch less. He has been thoroughly disappointed the past few weeks when we have shown up at swimming lessons at the indoor pool instead of at the Prout pool.

My daughter, on the other hand, is the fish following in her dad’s footsteps.

Given our kinship with swimming, it isn’t surprising we have picked up on the serious lack of public swimming facilities in the area. If you want swimming lessons year-round, you are left with the option of private health clubs. Compared to other similar-sized communities, we are sorely lacking in this arena. This has always surprised me, given the rivers, the boating and the heat.

One of the most common activities I hear about among parents with kids is a trip or two to the Hermiston or Moses Lake swimming facilities in the summer.

I was both disappointed to hear of the failure of the Pasco bond for a swimming facility, yet I understood why it failed. A small Moses Lake sized facility for summer-swimming only is not what this region is in need of. We need a year-round aquatic center.

Now I just need to figure out how to convince everyone else in this region of the needs of my family!

Ideas anyone?