Aquatic Center To Open At Farmingdale's Howitt Middle School: Photos

FARMINGDALE, NY — The Aquatic Center at Howitt Middle School is set to make a splash in the Farmingdale School District community.

The two-pool center is set to open to the public in September as part of a multi-million dollar project undertaken by the school district. Farmingdale residents in 2016 voted to approve a $36 million bond for the sports complex and aquatic center, which also saw a rebuild of the high school stadium, new baseball, softball and multi-purpose stadiums at Howitt, and upgrades to every field in the school district.

Unlike the existing pool at Farmingdale High School, which has been largely reserved for the district's student-athletes, the community will get to make daily use of the upcoming aquatic center.

"We’re in a really great spot right now, and we’re on the precipice of opening it up, so it’s exciting," Farmingdale Superintendent Paul Defendini told Patch.

The aquatic center boasts two pools: a 340,000-gallon competition pool for the boys and girls varsity swim teams, and the smaller community pool that will be open to the public for programs and free swimming.

The community pool will generally be open to the public Monday through Friday between 6 and 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 8 to 9:30 p.m. Open swim at no charge will be offered.

Open swim will be held in the competition pool when it's not in use, said Ken Ilchuk, the aquatic center's pool supervisor and coach of the Farmingdale swim teams.

The district will host programs like water aerobics, snorkeling, water volleyball, scuba diving, adult learn-to-swim, Mommy-Daddy-and-Me classes, and more. A motorized lift will be available to help those who need it get into the pool. More program information, including dates, times, costs, and registration, will soon be housed on the "Continuing Education" part of the Farmingdale website.

The building houses roughly 150 lockers and a high-octane cleaning and filtration system that sees water hit with ultraviolet light, chlorine, sand, and double-disinfectant, according to Ilchuk. A timeline of the history of the Howitt Middle School grounds will also be prominently displayed in the building.

Ilchuk said the new facility will be great for both the Farmingdale School District's swim program as well as for the community. Ilchuk, 55, who was a Farmingdale student-athlete swimmer in the 1970s and 80s, has been coaching since 1998 and was joined by co-coach Randy Corcoran in 2002.

Ilchuk will also be running the new aquatic center operationally, logistically and its security, as well as handling the programs offered to the public.

“It’s a tremendous, tremendous benefit to our swim program," Ilchuk said. "We have a great tradition here."

Between its boys and girls teams, Farmingdale's aquatic program has won 40 division, conference, or county championships in its first 52 years. The new facility will allow more students to get involved with the aquatics program, Ilchuk said.

He also expects the nature of the competition pool to boost student-athletes' performances as well.

"I would imagine our the record books will be rewritten within the next few years for sure," Ilchuk said. "It gives us an opportunity to compete at the highest level, because we have more kids, more depth, and probably the best facilities in New York state."

Ilchuk stressed that the aquatic center will be a community gathering place, as the perception around the Farmingdale High School pool was that it was only for the swim teams.

“To me, as a lifelong swimmer, we want people to think of Farmingdale and say, ‘Everybody in that community knows how to swim because of that building,’" Ilchuk said. "That’s really our goal here. To make sure there are zero drownings in the Farmingdale community ... We want everyone to have a comfort level in the water. We want everyone to know how to swim, how to protect themselves. To me, that’s the biggest value in this."

While swim classes will have a fee structure, free swim will be true to its name: free for anyone living within the Farmingdale School District's boundaries. People will show a student or staff ID, or proof of residency, and they will be given a lock to use in the locker room.

The grand opening of the pool to the public is slated for early September, though a soft opening will be held this summer for the district's student-athletes, according to Defendini.

When the community voted to approve the $36 million bond, part of it, Dedenfini said, was the public recognizing the importance of the district's aquatics program and wanting it to continue.

The new aquatics center is detached from the middle school buildings, so people will be able to use them even while class is in session.

The new center comes at a time when the high school pool is in its twilight years.

"It wasn’t just replacing what it was that we had, but we really dialed it up and provided a much nicer facility that’s going to be much more accessible to our community for many more programs than we’ve ever had in the past," Defendini said. "I think a combination of the two - keeping the aquatics here at Farmingdale alive and then providing a venue to expand upon use of the pool - were two key elements."

The school district will aim to keep the high school pool alive as long as it can and is working on agreements with other school districts that are willing to pay for use of the pool.

"God bless it, our existing pool over at Farmingdale High School has certainly lived up to its expectation, having survived 50 years of use," Defendini said. "It was at a point where the facility was no longer savable ... The honest answer is, at some point in time, that pool is going to expire. We will have to knock it down."

There is no date in mind yet as to when the old pool will be drained for good.

"As long as we can keep it open and as long as we can provide access to the facility at no cost to the taxpayers here or even gleam some profit from use of the pool by outside organizations, we’re going to do that," Defendini said.

Once the day comes when the high school pool is demolished, it will not be replaced, Defendini said. The middle school's two pools will be the only ones in the district. The building that houses the high school pool will be repurposed, but Defendini does not know how yet.

Defendini on Wednesday presented the new aquatic center to the community at an event on the Village Green.

"It’s exciting to be able to turn this thing over to the community," he said.

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