Petition Launched For New Aquatics Facility At Hatboro-Horsham

HORSHAM, PA -- A petition has been launched to support an improvement to Hatboro-Horsham's aging aquatics facilities.

The petition, which will be sent to the Hatboro-Horsham school board, had 328 signatures out of a goal of 500 as of early Tuesday morning.

Supporters of a new facility say the pool at Simmons Elementary is both outdated and too small for a growing swimming program.

"Currently, the 6-lane pool is used for numerous activities including community swim lessons, the HHAA swim and dive team, the USA swimming program, the high school swim and dive team, community swimming and water aerobics to name a few. The end result is that each group using the pool is limited in the time they have in the water and the pool is crowded during peak utilization," organizers write.

New facilities would include an indoor 10-lane pool and would allow for other water activities which the district cannot currently support, like water polo, scuba diving lessons, and more.

Dozens of commenters expressed their support, saying that this wouldn't even be an issue if swimming was a more "major" sport.

"HH has produced some amazing, state and national level amazing, swimmers and divers over the years," one wrote. "If the same were true for other sports, the facilities would not be considered suitable. "

To view the petition, see here.

Image via Tom Shields Butterfly courtesy Wikicommons