There will be a boys high school swimming season for Evergreen Public Schools.
Steve Getsinger, the athletics director for the school district, said Thursday that the district is in the process of finalizing an agreement with Cascade Athletic Clubs that will allow EPS swimmers to train at the Fishers Landing athletic club.
Cascade Athletic Club recently asked both the school district and the Columbia River Swim Team, a competitive youth club that trains at CAC, to contribute to the cost of building new locker rooms for the teams and to help fund replacement of the worn-out bubble that makes the club’s outdoor pool usable year-round.
Getsinger said EPS is not committing to fund any capital improvements at the athletic club.
He said it is district policy to negotiate single-year contracts for any programs that need to rent non-EPS facilities.
He said the agreement to use CAC for boys swimming this winter involves only a lane rental fee.
The four EPS high schools — Evergreen, Heritage, Mountain View and Union – each have boys swim teams.
Columbia River Swim Team head coach and owner Darlene Hill said earlier this week that there was a tentative plan on the table to keep her team at the Fishers Landing club.
She said that plan would cost her club an additional $8,000 a year over seven years as its share of the cost of building new locker rooms for youth and high school teams and replacing the outdoor pool bubble.
The old bubble will be used this winter, with the hope that it can hold up for one more season, Hill said.
Hill said CRST will need to hold additional fund-raisers to pay for the added expense.
She has scheduled a meeting for next week for all CRST members to discuss the situation.
Mark Eisenzimmer, owner of Cascade Athletic Clubs, said Thursday that progress has been made in negotiations with the school district and with the CRST about the future of swim teams at the club.
“We’ve had some great conversations, but we don’t have a definitive (solution),” Eisenzimmer said.
