A local nonprofit set out nearly a decade ago on a quest to see an aquatic center built in Henry County. That organization’s goal is being met, although in a roundabout way.
A county facility is in the works, funded by the latest SPLOST cycle to the tune of $22 million. It is by far the single most expensive item on the capital project list. It was added by the Henry County Board of Commissioners last year despite the objections of its own appointed SPLOST committee, and a large number of people around the county will say without hesitation that it probably made the difference in whether the SPLOST referendum passed or failed.
The Kensley Grace Foundation began its work in 2011, shortly after the tragic death of its namesake, and achieved 501(c)3 status in 2012. Its key supporters have worked tirelessly to raise funds and also increase awareness of what its leaders still consider an important need in Henry County, one of the largest in the state without its own aquatic center.
Foundation officials made numerous attempts to work with the county over the years, seeing firsthand how their mission could not be successful without a public-private partnership.
“We went to a lot of charities, and they all said, ‘You need a buy-in from the county first,” according to Neil Daniell, the foundation’s current president. “Large foundations will not support a project like this without that partnership.”
But repeated efforts to partner with the county failed. Then, after never speaking about it publicly for years, several county leaders suddenly saw the need for a county-owned aquatic center and put it on the SPLOST project list.
Earlier this summer, without any discussion at a commission meeting, the county moved forward and selected a design consultant for the facility. As Clayton Carte reported in his Moving Henry Forward blog, the contract is for $49,000 with a firm that has experience in managing a similar center in Cobb County.
The significance of the contract amount is that it allowed the deal to be done at the administrative level. Any contract of $50,000 or more requires a Board of Commissioners vote. So the matter did not even need to be discussed in a board meeting. Amid numerous concerns in the community that the county froze out the Kensley Grace Foundation for years only to take their idea at the last minute and run with it, this lack of candor – albeit totally legal – is telling in and of itself.
The Times reached out to county officials more than a week ago to get an on-the-record statement for this story. The following comment was received from county public services cluster leader Jonathon Penn late Monday afternoon:
“We are currently moving forward with the process for developing the new aquatic center. To date, we have hired an aquatic center consultant who specializes in building aquatic centers for local municipalities and counties. The role of the consultant will be to conduct meetings with county officials and interested stakeholders, survey existing facilities and sites for development, make recommendations as to the sustainability of the location, develop a concept design, assist with the preparation of the design-build RFP, assist with RFP evaluations, and work with the selected design-build company during the engineering and build phase of the project. Lastly, we are in the process of developing a steering committee to include one BOC member selected by the board to represent them as a whole.”
But foundation officials are looking at the upside of all this, because they know their primary goal is being achieved. “If it weren’t for us, no one in the county would have even been talking about an aquatic center,” Daniell noted.
The organization still is open to working with the county going forward, and Daniell stressed that the local government needs some kind of assistance for the project to succeed over the long term.
“The county can build it, but it needs to be set up and run under a nonprofit,” said Daniell, “That doesn’t have to be Kensley Grace, but it needs to be a nonprofit.”
A nonprofit can solicit various sponsorship funding from various sources in ways that a government agency cannot, he said. The county has built facilities in the past for nonprofit agencies to operate, so this would not be uncharted territory.
Additionally, the foundation has expertise in all sorts of areas related to this type of project, and its members have done a great deal of due diligence over the past several years to determine what would make not only a good swimming facility, but a destination for people from outside the county to utilize.
Another goal the foundation will still like to see realized is having the center named for Kensley Grace Kirby, who inspired this journey to begin with. But either way, its work is not done. One initiative about to get underway is the awarding of scholarships for swimmers in Henry County, now that the local high schools have athletes competing in that sport.
“The Kensley Grace Foundation is not going anywhere,” said Daniell. “We will continue to do what we’ve been doing.”
