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The city will begin offering nighttime tours of the Mountain Home Community and Aquatic Center this week as staff prepares to move into the $36.2 million facility by May 1, Mayor Hillrey Adams announced at the March 19 City Council meeting.
Adams said Parks and Recreation Director Daniel Baxley and his staff will be on-site in the evenings to walk prospective members through the building and sign up new memberships. The tours are designed to give residents a firsthand look at the facility’s amenities, which many in the community have only seen through construction updates and renderings.
“We’ve got people that don’t really understand what all you can do there and the different things that are available,” Adams said.
The 65,000-square-foot complex, approved by voters in March 2021 by a 47-vote margin, includes a gymnasium with three basketball courts and pickleball and volleyball overlays, an indoor walking track, a competition pool, a heated therapy pool, a wading pool, an outdoor aquatic park with water slides and a lazy river, fitness rooms, meeting spaces and offices for the Parks Department.
New aquatics director brings international pedigree
Adams also announced the city has hired an aquatics director to oversee swim programming at the new facility. The new director, who Adams said was relocating to Mountain Home and expected to start work within a week of the March 19 meeting, is a former Russian national swimming champion.
“This person won the Russian national 400 freestyle” in 2013, Adams told the council. “They know how to swim, and I think they’re gonna be good for us out there running swim programs and everything that we’re going to be doing there.”
Adams added, with a laugh: “We got to learn to talk Russian a little bit better than we can, but we’ll get there.”
The Observer reported in January that the city had been searching for an aquatics administrator to fill the full-time position, which is responsible for the daily operations of all aquatic facilities, including scheduling, staff management, lifeguard supervision, budget oversight and program coordination.
The hire fills one of the final staffing gaps ahead of the facility’s planned second-quarter 2026 opening. Adams said the outdoor pool is expected to open by Memorial Day weekend, weather permitting.
Construction nearing completion
Adams showed the council a construction progress video during his State of the City address, though he said the footage was already outdated.
At the time of the meeting, carpet installation was complete on the upper level and covered in protective plastic. The gym floor was roughly half finished and the walking track was ready for striping. A cardio room had been outfitted with 42 pieces of gym equipment. Tile installation was scheduled to begin the following week.
Exterior concrete on the back side of the building was nearly complete, with Adams estimating two to three weeks until that work wrapped up.
The police department has been sending approximately four inmates per day to help clean and prepare the interior for flooring, tile and carpet installation, Adams said.
Memberships on sale, corporate signups strong
The City Council approved membership rates at its Jan. 22 meeting. Memberships went on sale Feb. 1, with options including monthly, three-month and annual passes for adults, seniors 60 and older, youth ages 15 to 17, college students, couples and families. Day passes and 10-visit passes are also available, along with corporate plans. Silver Sneakers and Silver and Fit members will not have to pay.
A 10% discount applies to active and retired military, first responders and customers who pay their annual fee upfront.
Adams said corporate membership signups have exceeded expectations.
“Our corporate memberships have really taken off on us,” Adams said. “The numbers are going to go up real high here in the next two weeks as they start working through some of the big places around town.”
The facility has also been drawing inquiries about its meeting rooms and event spaces, Adams said.
The Street Department has contributed more than $2.1 million to the project, finishing parking lot and drainage work at the site with paving tentatively set for early April.
Five years in the making
The project has been the signature initiative of Adams’ time in office. Voters approved funding through a temporary 0.5% sales tax to repay construction bonds and a permanent 0.25% sales tax for ongoing Parks Department operations. The measure passed in March 2021 by just 47 votes.
Adams has previously said the facility is about creating opportunities for children in one of the most remote regions of the state.
“I would be really happy, whether I walk out of office in two years or six, to be able to say that I left a huge impact on the parks and the lives of the kids,” Adams said during a construction tour last fall. “You have got to have things for kids to do and you have got to have opportunities. You have to take care of the kids.”
