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Concord Swim Team Ordered By HOA To Find A New Home Pool

CONCORD (KPIX 5) - With summer camp season underway, one East Bay swim team has learned it is going to have to find a new pool for practice sessions and home meets.

The Walnut Country Stingrays in Concord are being kicked out of their longtime home.

"It feels like a divorce," parent Robin Lewis said tearfully.

She has three children who learned to swim on the team. Her oldest, 13-year-old Daniel Lewis, wants to swim in college.

"This swim team built me and its amazing," said Daniel. "It built like a much bigger family than I first thought of when I first came here."

"This was totally out of the blue. We weren't expecting it," said Tony Washmera, one of the team's directors. He too has three children on the team and grew up swimming at the pool as a child.

"I would even venture to say its the heart of this community," Washmera said.

The team received the notice from an attorney for the Walnut Country HOA last week, saying it has 60 days to find a new community pool. The Crossings HOA represents more than 1,000 homeowners nearby who have access to the club and pool.

The Board of Directors would not comment on the move. A spokesperson over the phone simply said "this is a legal matter."

"It's just so unnecessarily aggressive," said Lewis.

Parents are hoping the board will reconsider and explain its decision, or possibly offer the team the opportunity to lease the pool as it did in the past.

"I want them to talk to us. I want them to consider the children they're impacting. Really, at the end of the day, we want to keep our community together," said Lewis.

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