Having to close ones municipal pool can be traumatic for the populace, especially if the old pool is 60 years old.  Sometimes its possible to salvage an old pool and renovate it into something more appealing to today's swimmers. Such was not the case in Taylor.  In Taylor, the condition of the bathhouse, pumps, filters, and pool shell dictated this pool was not going to be re-opened.

On a site in Murphy Park just a hundred yards north of the old pool, the city elected to build new facilities.  Certain factions of the city wanted a competition pool replete with starting blocks and lane markers.  Other factions wanted the leisure-play pool concept.  The city opted to do both when the Taylor Independent School District not only kicked in $250,000 for construction but agreed to operate the pool from September to May for its swim team.  With city and school money in hand and a $500,000 grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife, Taylor ordered up two pools - a competition pool and a leisure pool - on the same site.

The prime consultant for the project was Terry Brannon, P.E., of The Brannon Corporation, Tyler, Texas.  Architectural consultant for the project was Mark Knowles of Knowles & Associates, also of Tyler. 

The total project was bid in and completed for $1.090 million by T-Corp Construction, Inc. of Roundrock, Texas.

The 4,500-square foot competition pool features eight 25-yard racing lanes and a depth from 8'-0" to 4'-0".  The 8'-0" depth was selected for the deep end to allow lifeguard training and certification in the pool while most of the pool was kept at 4'-0" to 5'-0" for water aerobics.  This pool is also used for adult fitness-lap swim.  The stainless steel overflow system utilizes but two pipes (gutter drain and filtered return) to connect to the surge tank at the filter building.  This system allows the designers to limit the footage of pipe actually buried under the deck.

When walking into the park through the massive picket steel gates, one walks up to the competition pool which sits about three feet higher than the entry plaza and about six feet higher than the leisure pool some thirty feet away.  A retaining wall and landscape area separates the two  pools and staircases and ramps run between the two levels.  Generous areas of grass and landscape area including some formal planters were left within the fenced compound to dampen the intense Texas summertime heat and provide seating areas away from the concrete decks.

The leisure pool is some 5,000 square feet in surface area with a seventy foot wide zero depth entry extending down to a maximum depth of 3'-6" at the base of the retaining wall between the two pools.   An 8-foot umbrella fountain is the focal point of the beach entry standing in about a foot of water.  A turtle fountain for small children and a pop-jet array in the dry beach-style entry also provide for entertainment.  The leisure pool also has a stainless perimeter overflow system like the competition pool and a granulated rubber surface in the beach entry. 

Both pools are circulated separately and have separate chemical feed systems.  The competition pool is heated but the leisure pool is not.  A separate pump/chemical feed/filtration building stands at the back of the property.

The offices and bathhouses are in separate buildings standing either side of the brick entry plaza.  Constructed of custom colored concrete masonry and standing seam metal roof, the buildings were designed to minimize maintenance.  The bathhouse is also accessible during the off season to the rest of Murphy Park without allowing access into the pool compound.

The project cost of just over a million dollars is just about evenly split between building and site construction on one hand and swimming pools on the other.  The pools were opened Memorial Day weekend, 2000.

City Engineer for the City of Taylor is Casey Sledge, PE.  Taylor is a city of about 16,000 residents about thirty miles north of Austin in central Texas.