Of all those Henry Countians who look forward to the development of a new aquatic center in the community, none are more happy than the group that set out more than a decade ago to make it happen.

The Kensley Grace Foundation was formed officially in 2012, the year after five-year-old Kensley Grace Kirby died suddenly at the age of 5. Its stated purpose was to see a facility constructed where families could spend quality time with their children. Kensley Grace’s love of swimming motivated organizers of the foundation to focus on an aquatic center, which does not exist in Henry County.

After a number of years of grassroots work and attempts to partner with local government through numerous administrations, the foundation saw its goal reached in a roundabout way when the county included a $22 million aquatic center on its capital project list for the most recent SPLOST, which was approved by voters in 2020.

Some critics initially saw this as a slap in the face to the foundation which had worked for so long, but officials want the public to know that the county and the foundation are working together to some extent.

“The county reached out to us once it passed SPLOST,” said Neil Daniell, the chairman of the foundation’s board, in an interview last week with the Times. “There are a lot of good things that are coming out of this. The big thing is that we will have a place for kids to swim in Henry County. That is a big deal.”

A couple of recent decisions by the county are particularly satisfying to foundation supporters. First, the county announced several months ago to name a specific outdoor water play area at the future aquatic center in memory of Kensley Grace Kirby. Second, the Henry County Board of Commissioners finally agreed on a definite location for the entire facility, on county-owned property at the site of the existing Cotton Fields Golf Course. At least four possible sites were considered over the past year.

“You’ve got to have this centrally located,” said Daniell, noting that the Cotton Fields site is the best choice. “A swim meet is not small; it can have up to 1,200 or 1,400 competitors. We could fill up every hotel from Stockbridge to Locust Grove.”
Daniell stressed the need for citizens in the county to be aware that that aquatic center will NOT be just a swimming pool, which he said seems to be the thinking of many. Among other amenities, he said it will have a therapy pool which will provide the kind of physical therapy that people now have to go to Atlanta to receive.

Much of the due diligence the foundation conducted over the past decade resulted in key information which was passed on to county officials. In turn, the county has also done a considerable amount of its own research, and these combined efforts are intended to ensure that the proper type of facility is developed.

Existing facilities in neighboring counties are nowhere close to the scope of the planned Henry County aquatic center. There are public pools of varying kinds in Clayton and Fayette counties as well as Griffin, but they are much smaller, Daniell said.

There have been discussions about taking some of the funds raised by the foundation and transferring them to a 501-c-3 that would be set up exclusively for the new aquatic center. Having this kind of vehicle would allow charitable funding to be solicited from various organizations for programs such as teaching underprivileged or handicapped children to swim, among other things.

Daniell believes that the Henry County aquatic center could be operating in the black within a couple of years after opening, based mostly on fees paid by its users. That would include everyone from local school swim teams to the general public.

A request was made to solicit comments from county officials about the current state of the project, but no comments were received by press time.

“There are a lot of good things coming out of this. Kensley Grace is certainly going to be memorialized properly and remembered well,” said Daniell, adding that this project would probably not have been on the county’s radar at this time if not for the foundation’s work over the past decade.

“Now that they have a site selected, we will hopefully pick up some of these conversations and see if we can’t make this something really spectacular for Henry County residents.”