City of El Centro holds groundbreaking ceremony for new aquatic center

The city of El Centro broke ground for the future home of a state of the art aquatic center.

The aquatic center cost over 15 million dollars but none of it came from taxpayer dollars. When it came time to upgrade a beloved local water park, the city decided on something more top of the line.

“That’s when we started thinking, you know what, go big or go home. Let’s see what we can do to build a state of the art aquatic center that’s gonna be the jewel of the Imperial Valley,” said Cheryl Viegas-Walker, Mayor of El Centro.

None of the money for the aquatic center came from general funds.

Abraham Campos, Interim Public Works Director said, “That is huge. What the city of El Centro will get and the Imperial County will get is a facility for everyone’s enjoyment with very little to non-funding from local community.”

The city designed the center with input from the public. “We tried to meet the needs of all of our interests groups and with that community support and community input, that helped us design where we are today,” Walker said.

Officials hope to attract water events to the city.

Rebecca Corfman with the Aquatics Division said, “We can train for the rest of the county here as well. For the city of Holtville, Brawley, Calexico, we can hold trainings and really set the standard and train to where we have the best of the best here in the valley. ”

Construction for the aquatic center begins next Monday.