County approves major pool repairs

pool at ascarate… but that could leave a local swim team with high hopes … high and dry. abc-7’s andrew j. polk is live with the details. andrew? rick and maria, el paso has a relatively small but fiercely competive swimming community. and with olympic trials on the line later this season, they say time is of the essence. “we need every possible chance, and every possible minute in that water. and we don’t even have the support of our city. and if we don’t have the support of our county, what’s the point? why are we even supporting ourselves?” emma carr says she’s been swimming since she was three… and has been traing with teammates on the el paso aqua posse since many of them were about 8. and with the olympic trials coming up in arizona, their coach says swimming isn’t a sport you can take a break from if you want to stay competitive. “how hard it is, if you’re out for a day, you feel terrible. if you’re out for a week, you’ve been set back a month. if you’re out for two weeks, you might as well as give up and go home for the season. and that’s what we’re talking about.” the say that the repairs at the ascarate pool could prevent them from being able to practice. there are 4 olympic sized 50 meter lane pools in the el paso area. besides ascarate, there’s the ft. bliss aquatics traing center, the pavo real recreation center pool, and the nmsu activity center pool. but with the post pool unavailable for civilian team practice, and city leagues taking over pools like pavo real may 9th, that is making the team look to nmsu or wherever they can to try and keep this season alive. “we all work together and we all support each other. i think we all just wanted to try to make nationals and wanted to have that moment. and one of the girls is a senior. she’s leaving. and we’re not going to have that moment again.” the county says that now they have approved the winning bid of $776 thousand, they can work with the contractor to focus on ascarate and get it done as soon as possible. in the meantime though, the team is basically looking for any place to practic, olympic- sized or not. we’ve linked to their contact info on our website, k-v-i-a dot com. rick and maria? big changes could be in