The timer is ticking for the long-awaited community aquatics complex in the Santa Ynez Valley. 

On Tuesday night, the Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District board voted 3-0, with two members absent, to approve a memorandum of understanding with the Santa Ynez Valley Community Aquatics Foundation.

The nonprofit group is spearheading the two-pool project with a 35-meter competition pool and a 25-yard active living pool proposed for a site on the campus. 

“This is really the first piece we need as partners in this project to move forward, and then we can work on the operations and the maintenance and the security,” said Lisa Palmer, from the foundation’s executive committee.  

“All those questions we have around the project details, from our perspective, we can’t get to until we have an agreement with the district that we’re going to move forward in partnership together on the fundraising and the construction part of it,” she added.

The pact includes specific milestones the foundation needs to meet during the next three years or sooner.

That agreement requires the foundation to raise $2.5 million in the first year and $5 million after 24 months. It also needs to secure $1 million that will be placed in an endowment for operational costs.  

The foundation also will hire an architect for the project, which must be submitted to the state for approval since it involves a school site. The design must be done in the first year and submitted to the state within 24 months.

By the end of the third year, the group must raise funds for 100% of the costs, estimated as high as $12 million.

In addition to the school district and the aquatics foundation, the project’s partnership includes the City of Buellton and others.

“It presents an opportunity for us to do something we wouldn’t necessarily be able to do on  our own as the high school,” Superintendent Andrew Schwab said. “And I think there’s a long tradition of the high school partnering with the community and working to provide access.”

The community aquatics complex had stalled since the much-heralded arrival in 2017 of  the Myrtha Pool shells used for Olympic trials, capping a 1,700-mile, two-day road-trip that began in Omaha, Neb., where the 2016 Olympic swimming trials took place.

Since then, the shells have been in storage.

Securing the shells likely shaved $1 million from the project costs, officials have said. 

The high school has the lone pool that allows some community access for the Santa Ynez Valley, where summer temperatures typically climb above 90 degrees and triple digits.

Last year in a workshop, board members heard the existing pool has huge flaws, leading to some quick fixes, including replastering of the pool and resurfacing of the deck. The existing pool is inadequate for hosting competitions.

On Tuesday night, Frank Kelsey, from Santa Ynez Valley Youth Recreation, shared some history about the existing pool, built in 1965 through an effort involving that organization.

“It started in 1955 with my father and a bunch of his friends because we had no place to swim in the valley. There was no pubic access to any swimming pools,” he said.

It took 10 years to raise the funds — $65,000.

That amounted to the cost of three nice homes in the valley at the time, he said.

“Now, we’re looking at three nice houses in the valley at a million and a half or what it’s  going to cost us to build a new one,” he said. 

At the time, the pact between Youth Rec and the school district involved a handshake.

“You have the opportunity for the community to give you something that you need and all you have to do is let them use it …,” Kelsey said. “It would be a real shame for you not to accept what they want to do.”

While a lot of questions appear unanswered, board president Chris Johnson said the agreement would serve as a starting point.

“There’s a lot of milestones that need to be reached before it’s going to really cost the district anything,” Johnson said. “It would be, in my opinion, a travesty to let this go.

“I think it’s something that’s great for the school, great for the community. Of course, it’s needed.”